It was a crisp winter’s afternoon when I ventured out onto the harbour for a chat with Ben from the Harbour Master’s Office. It seems worlds away from the recent heatwave and, as we approached the 50th anniversary of the 1968 Bristol Flood, I found myself thinking a lot about that day. I was fortunate enough to join up with Ben on a day when he was working alongside [...]
Underfall Yard Trust is delighted to announce the launch of a new guide book: Heart of the Harbour: The Story of Underfall Yard. The book tells the fascinating story of the yard, which is bound up with the River Avon and the Floating Harbour. The book covers everything from the original course of the tidal River Avon, which ran through Underfall Yard; the creation of an [...]
Whilst Bristol’s Harbourside is ever-changing, some things at Underfall Yard have remained perfectly the same. For many years now, Fridays at the Yard have bought with them fried breakfasts, door stop sandwiches and a tradition of celebrating the end of the week by sitting down and sharing a greasy, well-deserved meal. James Clarke started working at Underfall Yard in 1998, as a boat builder and [...]
In 2017, Adventurous Activity Company took many groups onto the water in canoes and kayaks as well as delivering their popular raft building challenges. The challenge involves teams of around 4 or 5 designing, building and racing rafts constructed from barrels, wooden poles and ropes. Success was mixed with disaster: it’s safe to say that the boat builders at Underfall Yard needn’t worry about competition! [...]
Every year since 2007, Classic Boat has celebrated the best restorations, newly built boats, people and more, in the wonderful world of traditional vessels and the people who make them float. The boats and people shortlisted this year include nominees from the yard. You can vote once in each category, and we would strongly recommend voting for: Bristol 32 & 16 for Powered Vessel – New [...]
Over the last few days we have had the yard gates lock whilst RB Boatbuilding were launching their latest pilot cutter. Jonathan Livingston was taken out of the Big Shed on Friday 15 September and the crane arrived early Monday morning to get her into the harbour. We have captured much of the build using a time-lapse camera, which was purchased with support from the [...]
Much to our absolute delight, today we met Stanley Brown’s son George and his wife Mavis when they came to visit Underfall Yard. George remembered that his father’s apprenticeship had been at Llewellin and James foundry, which is profiled on Grace’s Guide. He also recalled memories of Uncle Bill who worked in the casting shop at Sampson’s on Malago Road, which is where Underfall Yard [...]
A few weeks ago we met Leonard Brown and his family, who recognised Leonard’s brother Stanley in one of the photos in our Visitor Centre. Stanley Brown worked at Underfall Yard for about 20 years from shortly after the end of the Second World War until the mid-1960s as an engineer, which Leonard says “was the making of him”. Leonard shared with us some lovely [...]
From September 2017, our Visitor Centre will not open on Mondays. The Visitor Centre will be open Tuesday to Sunday, 10am - 5pm until the clocks change. During GMT, the Visitor Centre will close at 4pm. The yard itself will still be open to walk through on Mondays. As a working yard, occasionally it may be necessary to close the yard gates at short notice [...]
We are delighted to announce that Underfall Yard and Alec French Architects have been awarded Bristol Civic Society's 2017 Design Award. Bristol Civic Society runs the prestigious Design Awards, which recognise developments in Bristol which make a positive contribution to the local environment through excellence of design. The Civic Society has made awards for many years, celebrating good quality design – buildings, transport projects and improvements [...]