The Moon made Bristol
What? How?
Simples: the Bristol Channel has the highest tidal range of any city in the world - some 15 metres in Spring tides - imagine 8 times your height: that's a tsunami rushing into and out of the Avon twice daily.
Harnessing this energy (roughly 10% of Bristol's current consumption) greatly assisted our forebears trade goods up and down the coast and interchange with the land route between the South West and the rest of England.
As has so often happened, the city coalesced around a bridge, usefully protected from marauders by the easily defended Avon Gorge. In time, the nexus of this trade, the 'bridge over the Stowe' or 'Brigstowe' - became Bristol.
These geographical beginnings shaped the city's expertise in seamanship. The phrase "shipshape and Bristol fashion" referred to the skill in securing cargoes on deck and in the hold against keeling over as the tide went out. Pill 'hobblers': imagine brawny oarsmen waiting in gig boats at Avonmouth for the tip of a mast on the horizon - the first gig to reach the schooner claimed the right to pilot the ship up the tidal Avon (recognise too, that riding on the tide means a ship has no leeway and must rely on those oarsmen to avoid grounding on the bank) knew the course so well that, when they moored your ship as low water approached, they knew where depressions in the mud below would fit your ship's shape and allow your keel to rest upright.
Such excellent seamanship enabled trade with Ireland and Brittany gradually fanning out to trade and migration with the World. It could also be said that Bristol made America - as, sailing the Matthew from Bristol, John Cabot found Newfoundland in 1497. Trade encouraged shipbuilding and commerce fostered banking, insurance and engineering. Albion Dock, the crucible of Brunel's steamship, ss Great Britain, transformed trans-Atlantic traffic. Culture, education and civic society flourished under such wealth and influence until Bingo! the Bristol we love today.
Such a gallop through time is still all there to be seen - especially if someone points it out to you from close above - in other words, tells you the story of how the Moon made Bristol.
