User talk:Uglitangelo

Bathurst Basin

I've moved it over, as requested. I created this ages ago, really in surprise that it wasn't already there. I think I never got far with it because I soon realised I didn't know enough about it (we're not here to replicate the self-evident from Google Maps) and I certainly couldn't WP:RS any of it. Most obviously:

When was it built?
What was the chronology of the basin, the New Cut and the connecting lock?
If it was a millpond, where did the water come from?
Was the basin built, rebuilt, or at least edged for the first time, at the time of building the hospital?
... at the time of the Underfall Yard?
... at the time of the railway swing bridge
Was there ever a lock on the connection to the harbour, or did this fall into disuse at the same time as the basin's connection to the New Cut? i.e. the initial basin pre-dated the control of the harbour water level, as a wet dock. With reliable levels in the harbour, there was no need for such a lock.

It also needs some expansion for details of the warehouses / factories to the NE quay.

Good luck with it! Andy Dingley (talk) 22:50, 5 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Some sources:

http://www.bristolfloatingharbour.org.uk/harbour-trails/heritage-trails/the-inner-harbour/
http://www.bristolfloatingharbour.org.uk/harbour-trails/heritage-trails/the-new-cut-2/
http://www.bristolfloatingharbour.org.uk/harbour-trails/interactive-historic-map/
(and many more on that site)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bristols-Floating-Harbour-First-Years/dp/1906593280

From article on the New Cut (Bristol) (the article has useful references)

Buchanan, R. A. (1969). "The Construction of the Floating Harbour in Bristol, 1804-9". Transactions (Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society) 88: 196. http://www2.glos.ac.uk/bgas/tbgas/v088/bg088184.pdf. Retrieved 2009-08-14.

this one mentions that the entrance lock was filled during the Second WW "Marchioness Shed, Commercial Road". Leisure Services Committee. Bristol City Council. http://www.bristol.gov.uk/committee/1998/ls/ls000/1117_12.pdf. Retrieved 2009-08-12.

Thanks Uglitangelo (talk) 09:44, 6 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The (undated) map is useful (it highlights that the "pond" with two locks pre-dates the quay improvements), but there are still questions of chronology. The BGAS paper is claiming a triangular basin in 1809, which leaves an unconvincingly short time between the New Cut and the triangular quays being built - can we trust that sketch map? I'd tend to favour the older map for accuracy, which suggests the New Cut locks pre-dated the quays by some period.

Was the New Cut lock "filled in" during WW2, or only in 1952? As it thus clearly hadn't been completely filled during the war, just how much had been done?

Also what was the water level of the basin between the construction of the improved triangular basin and 1940? If this was now the harbour level (which was reliably stable after the Underfalls), it no longer needed an entrance lock from the main harbour. Did the basin operate as a half-tide dock (with lock, as the oval pond probably did), or simply as a basin as Welsh Back did? Andy Dingley (talk) 10:08, 6 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Another point - there are web sites around claiming the Louisiana was built around 1809, and was originally fitted with its distinctive cast iron balconies. I doubt the ability to cast iron in that style or quality, that early on. I suspect the Louisiana was a plainer Georgian style initially, then the ironwork added later. Andy Dingley (talk) 10:12, 6 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I've just noticed something else - the oval pond map shows the wrong route for the New Cut east of Bathurst and the actual line followed is marked as "Line of variation". This suggests that it's a prospective map of future plans, not a record of actual construction. So we're still left with the possibility of the first double-ended basin being triangular, not oval. Andy Dingley (talk) 00:43, 9 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]