1.
Clifton Suspension Bridge
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The Clifton Suspension Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Avon Gorge and the River Avon, linking Clifton in Bristol to Leigh Woods in North Somerset. Since opening in 1864, it has been a toll bridge, the bridge is built to a design by William Henry Barlow and John Hawkshaw, based on an earlier design by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and contributed to by Sarah Guppy. It is a grade I listed building and forms part of the B3129 road, the idea of building a bridge across the Avon Gorge originated in 1753. Original plans were for a bridge and later iterations were for a wrought iron structure. In 1831, an attempt to build Brunels design was halted by the Bristol riots, although similar in size, the bridge towers are not identical in design, the Clifton tower having side cut-outs, the Leigh tower more pointed arches atop a 110-foot red sandstone-clad abutment. Roller-mounted saddles at the top of each tower allow movement of the three independent wrought iron chains on each side when loads pass over the bridge, the bridge deck is suspended by 162 vertical wrought-iron rods in 81 matching pairs. The Clifton Bridge Company initially managed the bridge under licence from a charitable trust, the trust subsequently purchased the company shares, completing this in 1949 and took over the running of the bridge using the income from tolls to pay for maintenance. The bridge is a landmark, used as a symbol of Bristol on postcards, promotional materials. It was also used as a backdrop to several films and television advertising and it has also been the venue for significant cultural events such as the first modern bungee jump in 1979, the last ever Concorde flight in 2003 and a handover of the Olympic Torch relay in 2012. It is unknown when the first bridge was constructed across the Avon in Bristol and it had houses with shopfronts built on it to pay for its maintenance. A 17th-century illustration shows that these houses were five stories high, including the attic rooms. In the 1760s a bill to replace the bridge was carried through parliament by the Bristol MP Sir Jarrit Smyth, by the early 18th century, increase in traffic and the encroachment of shops on the roadway made the bridge fatally dangerous for many pedestrians. A new bridge, designed by James Bridges and finished by Thomas Paty was built in 1763 and 1768, resentment at the tolls exacted to cross the new bridge occasioned the Bristol Bridge Riot of 1793. To achieve this, any bridge constructed between Bristol Bridge and Avon Gorge, from Hotwells to Ashton Gate, would require massive embankments and viaducts, the alternative was to build across the narrowest point of the Avon Gorge, well above the height required for shipping. Although there was little development in the area before the late 18th century, as Bristol became more prosperous, Clifton became fashionable, in 1793 William Bridges published plans for a stone arch with abutments containing factories, which would pay for the upkeep of the bridge. The French Revolutionary Wars broke out soon after the design was published, affecting trade and commerce, Sarah Guppy patented designs for a suspension bridge across the gorge which she later gave to Brunel. By 1829, Vicks bequest had reached £8,000, a competition was held to find a design for the bridge with a prize of 100 guineas. Entries were received from 22 designers, including Samuel Brown, James Meadows Rendel, William Tierney Clark, several were for stone bridges and had estimated costs of between £30,000 and £93,000
2.
Canyon
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A canyon or gorge is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from the erosive activity of a river over geologic timescales. A canyon may also refer to a rift between two peaks, such as those in ranges including the Rocky Mountains, the Alps. Usually a river or stream and erosion carve out such splits between mountains, examples of mountain-type canyons are Provo Canyon in Utah or Yosemite National Park in Californias Sierra Nevada. Canyons within mountains, or gorges that have an opening on one side are called box canyons. Slot canyons are very narrow canyons, often with smooth walls, steep-sided valleys in the seabed of the continental slope underwater are referred to as submarine canyons. Unlike canyons on land, submarine canyons are thought to be formed by turbidity currents, the word canyon is Spanish in origin, with the same meaning. The word canyon is used in North America while the words gorge and ravine are used in Europe and Oceania, though gorge. In the United States, place names generally use canyon in the southwest and gorge in the northeast, in Canada, a gorge is usually narrow while a ravine is more open and often wooded. The military-derived word defile is occasionally used in the United Kingdom, most canyons were formed by a process of long-time erosion from a plateau or table-land level. The cliffs form because harder rock strata that are resistant to erosion, Canyons are much more common in arid than in wet areas because physical weathering has a more localized effect in arid zones. The wind and water from the combine to erode and cut away less resistant materials such as shales. The freezing and expansion of water also serves to help form canyons, water seeps into cracks between the rocks and freezes, pushing the rocks apart and eventually causing large chunks to break off the canyon walls, in a process known as frost wedging. Canyon walls are formed of resistant sandstones or granite. Sometimes large rivers run through canyons as the result of geological uplift. These are called entrenched rivers, because they are unable to alter their course. In the United States, the Colorado River in the Southwest, Canyons often form in areas of limestone rock. As limestone is soluble to an extent, cave systems form in the rock. When these collapse, a canyon is left, as in the Mendip Hills in Somerset and Yorkshire Dales in Yorkshire, England
3.
River Avon, Bristol
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The River Avon /ˈeɪvən/ is an English river in the south west of the country. To distinguish it from a number of rivers of the same name. The name Avon is a cognate of the Welsh word afon, the Avon rises just north of the village of Acton Turville in South Gloucestershire, before flowing through Wiltshire. In its lower reaches from Bath to the Severn Estuary at Avonmouth near Bristol, the Avon is the 19th longest river in the UK at 75 miles although there are just 19 miles as the crow flies between the source and its mouth in the Severn Estuary. The catchment area is 2,220 square kilometres, the name Avon is a cognate of the Welsh word afon river, both being derived from the Common Brittonic abona, river. River Avon, therefore, literally means River River, several other English and Scottish rivers share the name, the County of Avon that existed from 1974 to 1996 was named after the river, and covered Bristol, Bath, and the lower Avon valley. The Avon rises east of the town of Chipping Sodbury in South Gloucestershire, running a somewhat circular path, the river drains east and then south through Wiltshire. Its first main settlement is the village of Luckington, two miles inside the Wiltshire border, and then on to Sherston, at Malmesbury it joins up with its first major tributary, the Tetbury Avon, which rises just north of Tetbury in Gloucestershire. This tributary is known locally as the Ingleburn, which in Old English means English river, here, the two rivers almost meet but their path is blocked by a rocky outcrop of the Cotswolds, almost creating an island for the ancient hilltop town of Malmesbury to sit on. Upstream of this confluence the river is referred to as the River Avon to distinguish it from the Tetbury Branch. This was supplemented in Norman times by the bridge that still stands today. The Norman side is upstream, and has pointed arches, the side has curved arches. The Town Bridge and Chapel is a grade I listed building and it was originally a Packhorse bridge, but widened in the 17th century by rebuilding the western side. On the bridge stands a building which was originally a chapel. The Avon Valley between Bradford on Avon and Bath is a classic example of a valley where four forms of ground transport are found, road, rail, river. The river passes under the Avoncliff and Dundas Aqueducts and at Freshford is joined by the Somerset River Frome, Avoncliff Aqueduct was built by John Rennie and chief engineer John Thomas, between 1797 and 1801. The aqueduct consists of three arches and is 110 yards long with an elliptical arch of 60 ft span with two side arches each semicircular and 34 ft across, all with V-jointed arch stones. The spandrel and wing walls are built in courses of ashlar masonry
4.
Limestone
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Limestone is a sedimentary rock, composed mainly of skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral, forams and molluscs. Its major materials are the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate, about 10% of sedimentary rocks are limestones. The solubility of limestone in water and weak acid solutions leads to karst landscapes, most cave systems are through limestone bedrock. The first geologist to distinguish limestone from dolomite was Belsazar Hacquet in 1778, like most other sedimentary rocks, most limestone is composed of grains. Most grains in limestone are skeletal fragments of organisms such as coral or foraminifera. Other carbonate grains comprising limestones are ooids, peloids, intraclasts and these organisms secrete shells made of aragonite or calcite, and leave these shells behind when they die. Limestone often contains variable amounts of silica in the form of chert or siliceous skeletal fragment, some limestones do not consist of grains at all, and are formed completely by the chemical precipitation of calcite or aragonite, i. e. travertine. Secondary calcite may be deposited by supersaturated meteoric waters and this produces speleothems, such as stalagmites and stalactites. Another form taken by calcite is oolitic limestone, which can be recognized by its granular appearance, the primary source of the calcite in limestone is most commonly marine organisms. Some of these organisms can construct mounds of rock known as reefs, below about 3,000 meters, water pressure and temperature conditions cause the dissolution of calcite to increase nonlinearly, so limestone typically does not form in deeper waters. Limestones may also form in lacustrine and evaporite depositional environments, calcite can be dissolved or precipitated by groundwater, depending on several factors, including the water temperature, pH, and dissolved ion concentrations. Calcite exhibits a characteristic called retrograde solubility, in which it becomes less soluble in water as the temperature increases. Impurities will cause limestones to exhibit different colors, especially with weathered surfaces, Limestone may be crystalline, clastic, granular, or massive, depending on the method of formation. Crystals of calcite, quartz, dolomite or barite may line small cavities in the rock, when conditions are right for precipitation, calcite forms mineral coatings that cement the existing rock grains together, or it can fill fractures. Travertine is a banded, compact variety of limestone formed along streams, particularly there are waterfalls. Calcium carbonate is deposited where evaporation of the leaves a solution supersaturated with the chemical constituents of calcite. Tufa, a porous or cellular variety of travertine, is found near waterfalls, coquina is a poorly consolidated limestone composed of pieces of coral or shells. During regional metamorphism that occurs during the building process, limestone recrystallizes into marble
5.
North Somerset
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North Somerset is a unitary authority area in England. Its area covers part of the county of Somerset but it is administered independently of the non-metropolitan county. Its administrative headquarters is in the hall in Weston-super-Mare. North Somerset borders the local government areas of Bristol, Bath and North East Somerset, Mendip, North Somerset contains the parliamentary constituencies of Weston-super-Mare and North Somerset. Between 1 April 1974 and 31 March 1996, it was the Woodspring district of the county of Avon, the district of Woodspring was formed from the municipal boroughs of Weston-super-Mare, Clevedon and Portishead urban districts, Long Ashton Rural District, and part of Axbridge Rural District. There remained some doubt as to whether the council had validly changed the name to North Somerset. North Somerset unitary council is elected every four years, with currently 61 councillors being elected at each election, since the first election to the unitary authority in 1995, the council has either been under Conservative party control, or no party has held a majority. Lawrence, Winford, Winscombe, Worle, Wraxall, Wrington Yatton North Somersets natural environment, pauls Church, Kewstoke Woodspring Priory North Somersets economy is traditionally based on agriculture, including sheep raised for wool on the Mendip Hills and dairy farming in the valleys. This is celebrated at the annual North Somerset Show, during the Georgian era tourism became a significant economic sector in the coastal towns, most notably Weston-super-Mare which grew from a small village to a large resort town. Though tourism declined in the mid to late-20th century, in common with most British coastal resorts, this sector of the economy has stabilised. In the 19th century the port city of Bristol found that modern ships had outgrown the narrow river approach. The first of these was Portishead Dock, which handled coal from South Wales, the newer Royal Portbury Dock is noted for the large volume of car imports. The population of North Somerset has doubled since the 1950s and is predicted to rise by 6,184 or 3. 0% to 2011 and by 17% to 2026. Whilst the proportion of people in North Somerset who are under 45 is lower than the national average, conversely North Somerset has a 4. 2% higher percentage of older people than the rest of England and Wales. This disparity increases with age with the percentage of the population over 75 years almost 30% higher than the national average, resulting in a relatively aged population. In 2001 there were 134,132 people of working age living in North Somerset and 91,767 were in employment and this is very close to the economic activity rate of the West of England sub-region which was 68. 8% in the 2001 census. The 2001 census stated that 1. 38% of North Somerset residents identified themselves as belonging to an ethnic group. The Unitary Authority of North Somerset, provides support for 78 schools, Weston College is the main provider of further education in the area
6.
The Downs, Bristol
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The Downs are an area of public open limestone downland in Bristol, England. They consist of Durdham Down to the northeast, and the more picturesque. Durdham Down is the part of the Downs northeast of Stoke Road, extending to Westbury Park and it is owned by Bristol City Council for the benefit of the people of Bristol. Clifton Down is the part of the Downs southwest of Stoke Road and it is owned by the Society of Merchant Venturers. They are used for leisure, walking, team sports and sightseeing, there are permanent football pitches, used by the Bristol Downs Football League, the lowest tier any club has ever joined in order to be promoted to the Premier League. There are also temporary attractions on the Downs, such as circuses, a grey concrete water tower of 1954 stands on the Downs near the top of Blackboy Hill, with a long, low, covered reservoir alongside it. In 1982,6,000 people assembled on the Downs, the 6,000 people were used to make the words Good, Morning and Britain, used for the opening titles of the TV-am show, of the same name. It took 2 hours to get the people place. Bristol City Council page on the Downs Photographs of the Downs air vents Downs Management Plan 2006, Avon Gorge and Downs Wildlife Project Map of The Downs circa 1900
7.
Leigh Woods National Nature Reserve
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On the bank of the Avon, within the reserve, are quarries for limestone and celestine which were worked in the 18th and 19th centuries are now derelict. In 1909 part of the woodland was donated to the National Trust by George Alfred Wills, areas not owned by the National Trust have since been taken over by the Forestry Commission. Rare trees include species of Sorbus with at least nine native. Bristol rockcress which is unique to the Avon Gorge can be seen flowering in April, various species of orchids and western spiked speedwell are common in June and July. At the southern end of the woods is Nightingale Valley, a dry valley which is cut into the side of the gorge. Its area slopes from the highest point nearly opposite the gate of Ashton Court to the River Avon beside the western buttress of the Clifton Suspension Bridge. The woods are on the Monarchs Way long-distance footpath, within Leigh Woods is Stokeleigh Camp, a hill fort thought to have been occupied from the third century BC to the first century AD and also in the Middle Ages. It is situated on a promontory, bounding the north flank of the Nightingale Valley, Stokeleigh Camp is thought to have been occupied from the late pre-Roman Iron Age, when it was in the area controlled by the Dobunni. Archaeological investigations suggest during the 1st century Belgae tribes may have been present with some of the showing the influence of the Durotriges. There may have been a break in occupation before reuse in the middle to late 2nd century, in addition to the pottery recovered a possible coin of Gallienus dating from his reign between 253 and 268 has been recovered. An iron-involuted brooch of the La Tène II type has also been found and it is unclear whether the occupation of Stokeleigh Camp in the 3rd century was for a formal garrison or whether it was just used by squatters or as a place of refuge in times of crisis. It is also possible that the site was occupied in the Middle Ages, north of Stokeleigh Camp are a series of limestone and mineral quarries, overlooking the River Avon, which are now disused. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries this had an important celestine quarry, the area has in recent years been restored as an arboretum. At the northern end of the woods is Paradise Bottom and this is included in the Leigh Court Estate and was part of the ground laid out by Humphry Repton for Philip John Miles. Some of the first plantings of the giant redwood and the Weymouth pine, to the south of the woods is an affluent suburb of Bristol also known as Leigh Woods. It is situated at the end of the Clifton Suspension Bridge. Houses in varying styles were built from the mid-1860s until the First World War, in 1857 the mutilated body of a murdered woman was found in Nightingale Valley, the following year, John Beale was hanged at Taunton for the crime in January 1858. Another violent death occurred in 1948 when George Henry Chinnock, who had living in the woods, was found with head injuries
8.
Iron Age
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The Iron Age is an archaeological era, referring to a period of time in the prehistory and protohistory of the Old World when the dominant toolmaking material was iron. It is commonly preceded by the Bronze Age in Europe and Asia with exceptions, meteoric iron has been used by humans since at least 3200 BC. Ancient iron production did not become widespread until the ability to smelt ore, remove impurities. The start of the Iron Age proper is considered by many to fall between around 1200 BC and 600 BC, depending on the region, the earliest known iron artifacts are nine small beads dated to 3200 BC, which were found in burials at Gerzeh, Lower Egypt. They have been identified as meteoric iron shaped by careful hammering, meteoric iron, a characteristic iron–nickel alloy, was used by various ancient peoples thousands of years before the Iron Age. Such iron, being in its metallic state, required no smelting of ores. Smelted iron appears sporadically in the record from the middle Bronze Age. While terrestrial iron is abundant, its high melting point of 1,538 °C placed it out of reach of common use until the end of the second millennium BC. Tins low melting point of 231, similarly, recent archaeological remains of iron working in the Ganges Valley in India have been tentatively dated to 1800 BC. By the Middle Bronze Age, increasing numbers of smelted iron objects appeared in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, African sites are turning up dates as early as 1200 BC. Modern archaeological evidence identifies the start of iron production in around 1200 BC. Between 1200 BC and 1000 BC, diffusion in the understanding of iron metallurgy and use of objects was fast. As evidence, many bronze implements were recycled into weapons during this time, more widespread use of iron led to improved steel-making technology at lower cost. Thus, even when tin became available again, iron was cheaper, stronger, and lighter, and forged iron implements superseded cast bronze tools permanently. Increasingly, the Iron Age in Europe is being seen as a part of the Bronze Age collapse in the ancient Near East, in ancient India, ancient Iran, and ancient Greece. In other regions of Europe, the Iron Age began in the 8th century BC in Central Europe, the Near Eastern Iron Age is divided into two subsections, Iron I and Iron II. Iron I illustrates both continuity and discontinuity with the previous Late Bronze Age, during the Iron Age, the best tools and weapons were made from steel, particularly alloys which were produced with a carbon content between approximately 0. 30% and 1. 2% by weight. Steel weapons and tools were nearly the same weight as those of bronze, however, steel was difficult to produce with the methods available, and alloys that were easier to make, such as wrought iron, were more common in lower-priced goods
9.
Portway, Bristol
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The Portway is a major road in the City of Bristol. It is part of the A4 and connects Bristol City Centre to the Avonmouth Docks, upon opening on 2 July 1926, it was the single most expensive road project in Britain, costing £800,000. The Portway remains an important route to and from Bristol, and is now used as part of the Portway Park, the road is about 5 miles long. It starts at the junction of Bridge Valley Road and Hotwell Road below the Clifton Suspension Bridge and runs alongside the Avon Gorge, parallel to the River Avon. It passes through the suburb of Sea Mills, where it crosses the River Trym, for much of its length the Portway is close to the Severn Beach railway line. Sea Mills and Shirehampton stations are near the Portway, but they have no access to it. Wessex Bus service 901 runs along the Portway, as does the CT Plus-run Portway Park, although FirstGroup run many buses around Bristol, none of their services use the Portway. Construction started in May 1919, engineered by L. S. McKenzie, the southern section connected to the existing road network at Hotwells, and a portion of the new road near Clifton lay partly on the line of the Bristol Port Railway. The new build did not directly connect to Avonmouth Docks, the original plan was to build a tramway along the length of the road, which would have linked Avonmouth to the Bristol Tramway system, but this was abandoned owing to cost. The largest cutting on the construction was at Horseshoe Bend and it was 2,400 feet long and cut 90 feet into the rock at its deepest point. Upstream from this, a viaduct was needed to span the River Trym and it was composed of six 42-foot, 6-inch arches, with abutments embedded in the rock 14 feet below. It was supported by three piers at 17 feet,21 feet and 40 feet below road level, construction of the viaduct was delayed owing to the tidal flow of the River Avon and the irregularity of the rock. A skew girder bridge was constructed to cross the Severn Beach Railway near Sea Mills station, around 3,000 feet of retaining wall was required at the Bristol end, where the road was sandwiched between the River Avon and the side of the gorge. The Portway was opened by the Minister of Transport, Colonel Wilfrid Ashley with the Lord Mayor of Bristol, Alderman Moore, following an opening ceremony, the Minister and Lord Mayor drove along the full extent of the road from Bristol to inspect the docks at Avonmouth. It was the most expensive construction project in Britain, costing £800,000. Of that, £160,000 was spent on the cutting at Horsehoe Bend, £80,000 on the Trym viaduct, eventually the electric lights were turned on at a reduced brilliance. The Portway was numbered A36 when first opened and it was renumbered as a western extension of the A4 by the Ministry of Transport on 1 April 1935. Although this was intended to be a stopgap measure until the Avonmouth Bridge was completed
10.
Sandstone
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Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earths crust, like sand, sandstone may be any color, but the most common colors are tan, brown, yellow, red, grey, pink, white, and black. Since sandstone beds often form highly visible cliffs and other topographic features, quartz-bearing sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure, usually related to tectonic compression within orogenic belts. They are formed from cemented grains that may either be fragments of a rock or be mono-minerallic crystals. The cements binding these grains together are typically calcite, clays, grain sizes in sands are defined within the range of 0.0625 mm to 2 mm. The formation of sandstone involves two principal stages, first, a layer or layers of sand accumulates as the result of sedimentation, either from water or from air. Typically, sedimentation occurs by the settling out from suspension. The most common cementing materials are silica and calcium carbonate, which are derived either from dissolution or from alteration of the sand after it was buried. Colours will usually be tan or yellow, a predominant additional colourant in the southwestern United States is iron oxide, which imparts reddish tints ranging from pink to dark red, with additional manganese imparting a purplish hue. Red sandstones are seen in the Southwest and West of Britain, as well as central Europe. The regularity of the latter favours use as a source for masonry, either as a building material or as a facing stone. These physical properties allow the grains to survive multiple recycling events. Quartz grains evolve from rock, which are felsic in origin. Feldspathic framework grains are commonly the second most abundant mineral in sandstones, Feldspar can be divided into two smaller subdivisions, alkali feldspars and plagioclase feldspars. The different types of feldspar can be distinguished under a petrographic microscope, below is a description of the different types of feldspar. Alkali feldspar is a group of minerals in which the composition of the mineral can range from KAlSi3O8 to NaAlSi3O8. Plagioclase feldspar is a group of solid solution minerals that range in composition from NaAlSi3O8 to CaAl2Si2O8. Lithic framework grains are pieces of ancient source rock that have yet to weather away to individual mineral grains, accessory minerals are all other mineral grains in a sandstone, commonly these minerals make up just a small percentage of the grains in a sandstone
11.
Clevedon
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Clevedon is a town and civil parish in the unitary authority of North Somerset, which covers part of the ceremonial county of Somerset, England. The town has a population of 21,281 according to the United Kingdom Census 2011, Clevedon was mentioned in the Domesday Book but grew in the Victorian era when it became a popular seaside resort. It was served by a branch line from the main railway at Yatton. The Weston, Clevedon and Portishead Light Railway, which opened in 1897, the seafront has ornamental gardens, a Victorian bandstand, and other visitor attractions. Salthouse Field has a railway running round the perimeter and is used for donkey rides during the summer. The shore is a mixture of pebbled beaches and low rocky cliffs, the rocky beach has been designated as the Clevedon Shore geological Site of Special Scientific Interest. Clevedon Pier, opened in 1869, is one of the earliest surviving examples of a Victorian pier the United Kingdom, on October 17,1970, two outward spans collapsed when the seventh set of legs from the shore failed during a routine insurance load test. After protracted considerations a trust was formed and the pier and its buildings were restored and reopened on May 27,1989. Other landmarks include Walton Castle, Clevedon Court the Clock Tower, clevedons light industry is centred mainly in industrial estates including Hither Green Trading Estate near the M5 motorway junction. It is a town for Bristol. The town is home to educational, religious and cultural buildings, the name derives from the Old English, cleve meaning cleave or cleft and don meaning hill. Wains Hill is an univallate Iron Age hill fort situated approximately 1 mile south-west of Clevedon, the hill fort is defined by a steep, natural slope from the south and north with two ramparts to the east. The Domesday Book mentions Clevedon as a holding of a tenant-in-chief by the name of Mathew of Mortaigne, with eight villagers, the parish of Clevedon formed part of the Portbury Hundred. The small rivers the Land Yeo and Middle Yeo supported at least two mills, the Tuck Mills lay in the fields south of Clevedon Court and were used for fulling cloth. The other mills, near Wains Hill, probably date from the early 17th century, during the Victorian era Clevedon became a popular seaside town, before that it had been an agricultural village. The Victorian craze for bathing in the sea was catered for in the late 19th century by saltwater baths adjacent to the pier, Clevedon was home to St Ediths childrens home for almost 100 years until it closed in 1974. The building on Dial Hill is listed, and therefore the outside has changed little, the first large-scale production of penicillin took place in the town. Clevedon was served by a branch line from the main railway at Yatton
