Bristol UK Postcards - Avon Gorge (1)
The Avon and Bristol Channel from Durdham Down
Francis Danby - 1822
This unused postcard has the printed text...
L6/SP 12514
J. Arthur Dixon
Printed in Great Britain by J. Arthur Dixon
Francis Danby 1793 - 1861
The Avon and Bristol Channel from Durdham Down c. 1822
Bristol Museum & Art Gallery (K4639)
Bristol City Council
The Avon from Durdham Down
J. B. Pyne - 1829
This unused postcard has the printed text...
L6/SP 12517
J. Arthur Dixon
Printed in Great Britain by J. Arthur Dixon
J. B. Pyne 1800 - 1870
View of the Avon from Durdham Down 1829
Bristol Museum & Art Gallery (K585)
Bristol City Council
View of the Avon from Hotwells
Samuel Jackson - 1831
This unused postcard has the printed text...
L6/SP 07409
J. Arthur Dixon
Printed in Great Britain by J. Arthur Dixon
Samuel Jackson: View of the Avon from Hotwells
C. 1831. This painting shows Brunel's orginal
design for the Clifton Suspension Bridge. The
Bridge was completed in 1864, five years after
Brunel had died.
Bristol City Council
Clifton and Avon Gorge from Ashton Meadows
James Baker Pyne - 1836
This unused postcard has the printed text...
L6/SP 10391
J. Arthur Dixon Ltd.
Printed in Great Britain by J. Arthur Dixon
Bristol Museum & Art Gallery
J. B. Pyne (1800 - 1870) painted this picture in 1836. The foundation stone for the Clifton Suspension Bridge was laid in 1831 but political and financial difficulties meant that by 1843 building was stopped with only the towers completed. Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who designed the bridge, died aged just 53 in 1859 and the bridge was finally completed in 1864.
It's barely discenrable in this scan of the postcard but the Camera Obscura and Observatory can be seen on top of the cliff in the centre of the image. This was originally a windmill built in 1766 used to grind corn but ws later used to mill snuff and was known as "The Snuff Mill". In 1777, the mill machinery was destroyed by a gale that turned the sails too fast and caused a fire. It was converted, in 1829, by the artist William West, into an observatory equipped with telescopes and the camera obscura.
West also built a tunnel from the Observatory to St. Vincent's Cave, also known as Ghyston's Cave or Giant's Cave, which opens onto St Vincent's Rocks on the cliff face, some 250 feet above the floor of the gorge and 90 feet below the cliff top. The tunnel opened in 1837.
River Avon, Bristol
This unused postcard has no other printed text.
River Avon, Bristol
This postcard, posted in Bristol on February 2nd, 1907, has no other printed text.
Clifton Downs
This unused, enbossed, postcard has the printed text...
Raphael Tuck & Sons "Heraldic" Postcard Series 159
Designed in England. Chromographed in Bavaria
Tuck issued both the "Heraldic" and "United Kingdom" series of postcards in 1902 / 1903.
Avon Gorge and the River Avon from the Seawalls, Durdham Down
This unused postcard with a hand-written date of January 19th, 1910, has no other printed text.
Avon Gorge and the River Avon from Clifton Promenade
This postcard, posted in Bristol on 14th September, 1916, has the printed text...
Harvey Bamton
Clifton Bridge and Leigh Woods
This unused postcard has no other noraml printed text but it does have a hand-written date of September 4th, 1904. The back of the card has also been printed with an advertisement for Brooks' Dye Works...
Advertisement for Brooks' Dye Works
Brooks was established as May and Collins in 1819. Mr Collins was the uncle to Alfred Brooks who bought out his uncle's share of the business and set up on his own in 1862. The business went into liquidation in February 2007 and has now been dissolved. There is a fascinating look at the abandoned works at the 28 Days Later website.
This page created 23rd August 2009, last modified 17th November 2009
