Before the construction of the Harbour, ships visiting Bristol were left stranded in the mud and leaning over when the tide receded. The phrase 'shipshape and Bristol fashion' is believed to refer either to the need to stow everything properly to avoid mess at these times, or to the need to build Bristol-bound ships that bit more strongly.
"; r_text[1] = "Bristol began life as a village called 'Brigg stow', meaning the meeting place at the bridge in the old Saxon language. At some point a wooden bridge was built across the river Avon and a village grew up beside it ('Avon' is a Celtic word for 'water').
"; r_text[2] = "By 1670, the city had 6,000 tons of shipping, half of which was used for importing tobacco. By the late 17th century this shipping was also significantly engaged in the slave trade.
"; r_text[3] = "The name 'Welsh Back' refers to the unloading of vessels that brought goods in from Wales (slate, stone, timber and coal).
"; r_text[4] = "As early as 1420, vessels from Bristol were regularly travelling to Iceland and it is speculated that sailors from Bristol had made landfall in the Americas before Christopher Columbus or John Cabot.
"; r_text[5] = "An infamous native of Bristol was the notoriously eccentric Captain and Pirate William Teach, nicknamed Blackbeard on account of his facial hair.
"; r_text[6] = "The world's first chocolate bar was made in Bristol by Joseph Fry in the late 1720's.
"; r_text[7] = "The Theatre Royal Bristol is the oldest continuously working theatre in Britain, and has been staging productions since 1766.
"; r_text[8] = "Bristolian's have a unique dialect - the city's name evolved from Brycgstow to have a final 'L' sound: Bristol. This appended L is often added to other words, eg: area to 'areawl', Asda to 'Asdawl'. Strange but true.
"; r_text[9] = "The Floating Harbour contains 83 acres of impounded, non-tidal water. At the time it was opened, it was the largest artificially-impounded area of water in the world.
"; r_text[10] = "The Harbour was estimated to cost £212,470 in 1802, but actually cost £594,000 - the equivalent of about £34 million today.
"; r_text[11] = "The waterways of the Harbour, New Cut, Feeder Canal and river Avon between Rownham in the west and Netham in the east are nearly 10 miles long.
"; r_text[12] = "The non-tidal parts vary in depth from about a metre at Netham to over four metres at Cumberland Basin.
"; r_text[13] = "At the main entrance to the Harbour at Rownham, the tide in the river Avon rises and falls as much as 11.6 metres (37 feet) on big spring tides. This much water covers the whole of the promontory around the locks.
"; r_text[14] = "Jessop built his entrance locks to take the biggest ships visiting in 1809. The larger one was 45 feet wide and the other 33 feet; both were about 180 feet long. In the late 1840s, I.K. Brunel modified the smaller lock to make it 52 feet wide (Brunel's ss Great Britain had become stuck in the larger lock when it left the city in 1844) and 245 long. In 1872, the present entrance lock was opened. This can accommodate ships 62 feet wide x 350 feet long - nothing larger than this can safely navigate the river Avon.
"; r_text[15] = "There are nearly 40 bridges - road, rail and foot - across the Harbour and its associated waterways.
"; r_text[16] = "When the Harbour opened in 1809, there was less than one and a half miles of stone quayside. By the time of its closure to commercial traffic in 1975, almost every stretch of the Harbour edge had quays - about 12 miles.
"; r_text[17] = "At its height, the Harbour had over 40 cranes for unloading ships. Only seven survive.
"; r_text[18] = "Ships travelling from Bristol to the USA during World War Two carried ballast made up of rubble from bombed Bristol buildings. Much of this was used as the foundations of East River Drive also known as Bristol Basin in New York. In 1974 Cary Grant (who was born in Bristol) unveiled a memorial plaque placed here in memory of Bristol's wartime citizens.
"; r_text[19] = "St Mary Redcliffe is Bristol's largest parish church. In 1446 its spire was struck by lightning and two thirds of it fell, causing considerable damage. The church tower then remained in a truncated state until the 1860s, when a new 87m (285ft) high spire was built.
"; r_text[20] = "Bristol once had a castle that stood in the area now known as Castle Park. It was built in 1088 originally as a Norman motte and bailey castle. In 1135 it was extended and a great Keep was built of Caen stone. For 600 years the castle was the most visible and dominant secular building in Bristol. Oliver Cromwell ordered its demolition in 1650 and an Act of Parliament was passed to enable this.
"; r_text[21] = "One of Bristol's greatest landmarks is the deep and impressive Avon Gorge. Many myths are associated with it and perhaps the most famous is that of Goram and Vincent, who it is claimed, created the gorge. There are several versions of this tale, the most famous sees Goram and Vincent vying for the love of Lady Avona. Naturally, the ending is tragic. In this case Vincent wins the love of Avona but his brother Goram dies of a broken heart.
"; r_text[22] = "In the 1240s the harbour was so busy that it was decided to completely divert the river Frome, and St Augustine's Trench, or the Deep Ditch, was dug from Stone Bridge to join the Avon at the present site of Prince Street bridge. This has been the line of the river ever since.
"; r_text[23] = "Bristol has two recipients of the Victoria Cross (VC). Captain Gronow Davis was awarded a VC for bravery during the Crimean War (8 September 1855). Frederick George Room was awarded a VC for bravery during World War One (16 August 1917). Both returned home and are buried in Bristol.
"; r_text[24] = "Bristol has five Iron Age hillforts. Three line the sides of the Avon Gorge and two sit on Kings Weston Hill. The hillforts on Kings Weston Hill known as Blaise Castle Hillfort and Kings Weston Camp were built before those along the Gorge. Little now remains of any of these hillforts.
"; r_text[25] = "Dave Prowse, bodybuilder and actor from Bristol, played the physical body of Darth Vader in the original 'Star Wars' trilogy. He was also well known in the UK as the Green Cross Code Man from 1975-1990.
"; r_text[26] = "Many cargoes travelled via Bristol during the harbour's years as a commercial port. Amongst the stranger sounding cargoes that may have been unloaded here were Dragons Blood actually a tree resin, Guano - the fossilised dung of seabirds and Cochineal a small insect used for making red dye.
"; r_text[27] = "The Llandoger Trow, near Welsh Back, is an architecturally important and impressive Bristol pub dating from 1664. Tradition has it that Daniel Defoe met Alexander Selkirk, the inspiration for Robinson Crusoe, here and Robert Louis Stevenson used the pub as inspiration for the Admiral Benbow in Treasure Island.
"; r_text[28] = "Bristol was first chartered as a city in 1155, and became a separate county by order of Edward III in 1373, the first provincial town to receive this honour.
"; r_text[29] = "Giovanno Cabotto (anglicised to John Cabot) was a Genoese or Venetian sea captain who believed that by sailing westwards he could discover a new route to the lucrative spice markets in China and India. He believed that there was a land mass in between (unlike Christopher Columbus), and in 1497 returned from a Bristol-funded voyage of exploration claiming that he had found it. He is known to have sailed on another expedition the following year, this time from London, but nothing more is known of him.
"; r_text[30] = "The Bristol dialect also includes words and phrases unique to this area. Examples include Lush - really good, Keener - works hard, 'Makes I laff' - funny, 'ark at ee' - listen to him.
"; r_text[31] = "In 1830 Isambard Kingdom Brunel won a competition to design a bridge that would span the Avon Gorge. Politics and money however prevented the bridge from being completed until 1864 by which time Brunel had died. The Clifton Suspension Bridge spans the Avon Gorge and is 214m (702ft) long and 75m (246ft) high.
"; r_text[32] = "Bristol had a spa in the 18th century known as Hotwells Spa. In its heyday it was was crowded with the nobility and gentry. There was a ball, a public breakfast and a promenade every week, and sometimes twice. The Pump Room was packed and the walk to it was thronged with the most fashionable company.
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