Seamen's friend returns to Hotwells

The refurbished statue of Samuel Plimsoll that used to stand near the Entrance Lock Will be unveiled on March 12th by The Lord Mayor at a new site on Capricorn Quay near the Jacobs Well roundabout.
Although Samuel Plimsoll lived only his first 3 years in Bristol, his stubborn fight to improve the safety of ships at sea and save many of their crews from death had a direct effect on the people of this great maritime City and no doubt many in Hotwells, at the heart of the Port of Bristol. His book ‘Our Seamen’ published in 1873, claimed that nearly 1,000 sailors a year on British ships were drowned and hundreds more were being imprisoned for refusing to sail on unseaworthy or undermanned vessels.
From the time of his election as MP for Derby in 1868 Plimsoll lobbied doggedly for new legislation to address the problem. He experienced many setbacks as he confronted the powerful interests of shipowners and the political establishment but finally achieved Government support for an amendment to the Merchant Shipping Act in 1876. This introduced a compulsory mark on all British-registered vessels that came to be known as the ‘Plimsoll Line’.
After various attempts to memorialise Plimsoll failed in Bristol, a bust from the City Museum was finally sited on Hotwell Road near the entrance to Cumberland Basin and unveiled by Lord Mayor L.K. Stevenson in 1962. There it might be standing still but for necessary works by Wessex Water to improve water quality in the Floating Harbour which meant the sculpture had to be removed into temporary storage in 2005. Now, with financial help from Wessex Water, Clifton & Hotwells Improvement Society and Bristol City Council, we are delighted to see this great man, spruced up and returned to enhance the new Harbourside Walkway.
We have produced a special Plimsoll commemoration edition of Hotwells News to mark the event.

 

Entrance Lock improvements

 

Works at Entrance Lock to replace the water hydraulic system with an oil based system will be ongoing until next May/June.

As a consequence of this work we shall see 5 small new buildings at Entrance Lock, 4 to house the mechanisms for each of the lock gates and one to hold an emergency generator. Hopefully, the design will be rather less stark that the buildings at Junction Lock. These works will prevent access to a way over the Lock Gates until they are completed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Your ideas for improving Cumberland Basin

Following an article in the last edition of ‘Hotwells News’ we have received over 70 responses so far and a picture is beginning to emerge of what people would like to see done about the ‘wilderness’ area under the flyover.

see Open space page for details...

 

 

 

 

 

 


Hotwells Panto tickets now on sale!

Book your seats now for ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’, the homegrown, 100% organic and completely sustainable production with the lowest carbon footprint (and sense of humour) of any panto on a warming planet. You can find it at Hope Chapel from March 10th-13th.

Tickets from The Southville Centre tel: 9231039
Prices: £8 adult / £7 concession / £5 children.

All profits support local community
projects