Picture of the Week

THAT’S the old George & Railway Hotel on the right, and the Grosvenor on the left, the date is May 1984 … but what is that bridge thing in the middle?

You may remember it, you may not. It may well be one of those things you walked or rode the bus past every day for years without really noticing. It was the Victoria Street Bridge of the old Bristol Harbour Railway.

The photo was taken by local rail enthusiast Mike Oakley, who is the author of several books about railways and stations in Bristol and the South West.

He arrived in Bristol in the mid-1960s just as some of the rail system connecting the City Docks with the wider world was being closed.

In its heyday, from the first lines opened in the 1870s, to the late 1950s, the Harbour Railway system was an essential part of the port of Bristol, taking goods and raw materials unloaded in Bristol to elsewhere in Britain, or often just elsewhere in Bristol.

It was big. You may have lived in Bristol long enough to remember the huge sheds and yard and GWR offices at Canon’s Marsh. Or at least you may remember the 1970s and 80s when the disused rail facilities were overgrown and shabby.

Some of it is still in use. Weekends in the spring, summer and autumn see museum volunteers running steam-hauled passenger trains between M Shed and the SS Great Britain or along the New Cut to Vauxhall bridge. (The first rides of the season are this coming weekend – see www. bristolmuseums.org.uk/m-shed/ whats-on/train-rides)

More recently, the renovated Ashton Swing Bridge, originally opened in 1906 as part of a major expansion of the docks rail network, has been brought back into use for bikes, pedestrians and the MetroBus.

Mike has self-published a book with a history of the docks rail system which comes with loads of historic photos as well as ones he’s taken himself, not just looking at the system in its working days, but also at how some of its features have been incorporated into more recent buildings and developments.

Copies are £5 (inc P&P) and to get hold of one, Mike Oakley can be contacted on 0117 969 2351 or email mro6085@virginmedia.com

Please note that while the pic above is in colour, all the photos in the book are black & white.