It’s Docks Heritage Weekend tomorrow and Sunday, featuring a variety of attractions, one of the most varied weekends of the year.
Portbury was warming up outside the shed earlier this week.
Take a look at Will Stratford’s video of last year’s event showing some crane and goods action on the quayside:
This summer, Crane 29 has borne an unusual addition. The veteran crane has been host to a luxury ‘treehouse’, where you can stay overnight.
The treehouse is being run by Canopy and Stars.
Here are a few photos from the official website.
Here is what it looks like from the outside:
THE WORLD’S FIRST TREEHOUSE ON A CRANE COMES TO BRISTOL’S HARBOURSIDE
Over the past three years, we’ve been secretly tending to a rather surprising seed of an idea. Canopy & Stars at Crane 29 – a glorious treehouse suspended high in one of Bristol Harbourside’s iconic cranes! We’ve taken all the goodness of the outdoors and put it into a cosy cocoon of calm in the heart of the city to create a surprising, sensory experience and a true natural high. The best bit? You can actually stay in it!
Although we’ve spent years collating our collection of the most unusual places to stay in the outdoors, this is our first ever treehouse in a crane, and, indeed, the first time you can fully experience a Canopy & Stars holiday in an urban environment. This low-impact build, supported by brilliant solutions from B&Q, is completely carbon neutral and built using sustainable materials. The treehouse will grace Bristol’s skyline for just four months. As the first leaves drop from the trees in late September it will disappear but not before leaving the world a little greener. We’ll be donating all profits from the treehouse to Friends of the Earth.
-Canopy and Stars
Alistair Grieve took these great photos at the recent night photo shoot with Portbury, and has kindly given permission for them to be reproduced here.
You can see all of Ali’s photos on his smugmug site.
Crane 29 has now had its restored window panelling and glazing replaced. Very nice it looks, too!
Will Stratford captured these images (posted on the M Shed Working Exhibits Facebook Page) of the Docks Heritage weekend.
and also this timelapse!
With thanks to Will Stratford.
The last operating weekend of the season is this coming Saturday and Sunday on the BHR, before the winter shut down begins. M Shed museum will be open as normal.
The steam tug Mayflower will also be giving rides.
One of the electric cranes is open to visitors from 11am-4pm today, if you want to go up in the cab and see the controls!
Another excellent video of the crane dance, from masscranedance.org
What a nice weekend! The weather was good and the crowds turned out to both the Docks Heritage Weekend, and on Saturday evening, the Crane Dance. The dance, featuring live music and choreographed lighting and movement, was devised by Laura Kriefman and was a collaboration between:
M Shed, Underfall Yard, RSVP Bhangra, The Balmoral, Bristol Pilot Gig Club, Bristol Channel Social Rowers, Watershed, Studio 360.
Here’s a few clips:
Jamie Corbin put together this timelapse of the crane dance:
In the daytime, there were dockside loading and unloading demonstrations, actors from the Show of Strength Theatre Company, mosaics, the steam crane in operation, rides on the tug John King, and the chance to drive Judy for £10, and more…
Here’s an example of one of the mosaics made by Mosaic Madness
The steam crane had quite an unusual load…
Henbury was on display in the yard. She is in need of 149 new boiler tubes for her overhaul and any and all donations towards this are very welcome!
This delightful Bristol bus was busy ferrying people between M Shed and Underfall Yard.
The Xmas steam up event was a success, with all tickets selling out. Rich Skuse and Zoe Robinson were among the lucky people to try their hand at driving ‘Portbury’ and the Steam Crane.
Rich has kindly allowed these photos to be reproduced here!
Some of the surplus track lifted during the remodelling of both ends of the line was collected by the volunteers at the Helston Railway in Cornwall.
This line is based at Trevarno, and they operate two Ruston diesel shunters very similar to the one based on the BHR.
The below photos appear here reposted from the Helston Railway’s Facebook Page.
Bristol Harbour Railway Blog 