Post 5) Investing in the Quay

The Tontine Warehouses were built after the clearance of the covered fish market, the moving of the quay pipe and the widening of the quay infront of St Stephens church bringing about mass demolitions for the construction of Clare Street in the 1770s.

The Tontine Warehouses were completed in 1785 and demolished around 1935 for the present Eagle House. They were of 5 bays, 111 feet of quay frontage, 74 feet high to the hipped roof, consisting of 5 storeys plus cellarage below quay level; coursed pennant stone with brick pilaster strips and brick arches to the windows and door openings. Tracing is underway here, to be imposed on the model, then textured.

Post 4) Ups and Downs

Clay render of the Drawbridge across the Frome, from today's Hippodrome to Baldwin Street. This was produced by aligning William Halfpenny's plan of the 1714-1755 drawbridge with the 1885 1:500 os map and from Samuel Jackson's pencil drawing BMAG M2919.

Since 1239, the lowest bridging point across the Frome from the old city to Gaunt's hospital and St Augustine's was the twin arch Christmas Street bridge, lined each side with tall jettied timber buildings.

In 1714, to facilitate construction of the new Georgian Streets in the former Gaunt's orchard, a bascule lifting bridge was built at the south end of the Quay near the great tower, of two 16 feet timber leaves and two stone arches, worked by rope and hinged overhead lifting beams. This gave a 30 foot clearance at river level for Trows, Brigs and other medium to small coastal ships.

This bridge was replaced by a stronger pair of timber leaves in 1755 and four cast iron pillars worked rack and pinions, driving subterranean cogs in the piers to raise the bridge, worked by one man each side turning handles on the towers.

St Giles Bridge of two stone arches came between the drawbridge and Christmas Street Bridge in the same year, at the head of the quay, as an extension of Small Street across to the timber wharf at Under-The-Bank.

In 1796, timber outriggers widened the drawbridge deck to around 30 feet, as pictured above. On August 10th 1827 this drawbridge and arches were heavily modified or rebuilt to give a 40 foot clearance for ships with a cast iron swivel bridge of 120 tons, replaced again in 1868 with a more robust heavier swivel unit of 130 tons aligned with Clare Street, lasting until 1893 when the upper Frome harbour was culverted into a 22 foot channel and the sides filled in.

Post 3) The little church on the Butts

     St Augustine The Less, as pictured below, was new in 1480 and stood on the bluff jutting out from College Green towards the Frome, know as The Butts, which is a medieval term for archery range. Its three stage tower was 60 feet to the leads with a 22 foot stair turret ontop. It was slightly damaged by fire in WW2, closed in 1956 and inexcusably demolished in 1962. The present annex to the Royal Hotel of 1865 on the spot came in 1985/6.

Model made using photo-match technology and from the 1880s 1:500 ordnance survey

A photo is aligned with X and Y axis which automatically creates the horizon line, then tracing the edges of the building turns it into 3D faces. Textures are then projected onto the 3D faces automatically

Parallel projection shows the textures burnt onto the model from the angle of the original photographer's viewpoint which can be over riden with your own textures. The north and east sides were creamy Dundry ashlar; the other two sides being Brandon Hill Grit and Pennant Limestone. 

Quick Render with hard shadows

Work is required to model the trefoil tower parapet and window tracery. The rubble stone church was clad in creamy ashlar and presumably robbed of this outer layer in most places, except the entrance parapet and stair turret. There are three nice watercolours in the Braikenridge collection in its former glory. This will require photo texturing and weathering. The churchyard facing College Green was cut back for the tram lines in the 1870s and again in 1894, when the east part sat on the hill was also heavily chewed away for the current watershed dock complex.

Post 2) Time and Tide wait for no Man

Before 1809, the floating harbour was the tidal rivers Avon and Frome and it was important to know the times of the tides for loading/unloading from ships and embarking and disembarking. The great St Augustine's trench had been cut through the marsh land and shallow ridge of the Butts jutting out from College Green towards the centre of Queen Square between 1239 and 1247 by the Monks and hundreds of labourers. The great trench was 18 feet deep at high tide and presented a soft, muddy level bed for the ships that came up to the centre of the port to discharge their goods. The Frome was reduced to a trickle, off set to the west of the trench at low tide. This compared to the sloping and sometimes hard stony banks of the natural Avon which had a range of about 22 feet at Welsh Back.

The great sundial on Broad Quay opposite College Green was 28 feet high of freestone on a Tuscan Column with octagonal base and great 2 foot diameter gold leaf ball on top. It was perhaps, late Stuart or Queen Anne, Maybe even erected on the ascension of George 1st as it appears on Millerd's map revision of 1715. It was demolished and the 4 Frome slipways filled in 1861 for the Dublin Shed of 1862. The Water Bailiff used the dial to regulate the hours allowed for working cargoes and the Quay Warden used it to tell the tide times. A large West Indiaman required up to a dozen tow boats of 100 oarsmen to back her out into the Avon, swing her 110 degrees to port then nurse her down the channel to Hungroad or Kingroad on the Ebb tide. The signal mast on the Butts, used by the Quay Warden and drawn by Hugh O'Neil, here in 1824 will be next

 

The model just requires some more work on the octagonal base, photo texturing and the dial numerals adding. The base map layer has now been geo-referenced to google earth giving exact sun and shadow detail for Bristol. This render was set at High Noon on June 21st (local time)



The great trench. The heart of the City, Port and Model. Hundreds of different Map Sections are being stiched together in different eras, then overlaid, with building data from the older plans and maps stretched to fit and referenced against surviving buildings, photos and drawings.