Clifton

Today's photos
Today we were heading west to Clifton in Bristol, we had planned on coming here on our last visit a couple of months ago, but didn't have the time and with today's fine weather it looked like it was to be a fantastic day. There's plenty of engineering work on the line this weekend, which actually benefits us, normally the train that we get is always packed, but due to it starting at Fareham there weren't that many on it plus it was only going as far as Bristol Parkway instead of Cardiff so that would help on the way back, I hope.

We arrived in Bristol only a couple of minutes late, but as sod's law dictates that was just enough time to miss the bus, they are supposed to be every 8 minutes. We promptly boarded one about 15 minutes later and as this is a very popular route everyone was now crammed onto the bus. It doesn't help when most people don't have any idea of where they are going to even though these are the sort of people that will moan like on social media when Google Maps could provide you with everything you need to know.

After a 25-minute ride through the congested street's we arrived at Clifton village, then took a 10-minute walk to the Clifton Suspension Bridge, today had an amazingly clear sky with no wind at all. We first followed the path across on the northern side of the bridge which gives you spectacular views north up the river and gorge. It's a bit tricky the footpath on the bridge as the pavement is only about 4 feet wide so you need to squeeze passed oncoming people. Once on the other side, it's just a short walk to the visitor centre, which I think has only recently opened and is free to enter. There are so many fascinating facts that you can learn about the bridge and a wealth of photos of the construction.

The bridge opened in 1864 and has a span between the two towers of 702 feet and at 331 feet above the River Avon is a dizzying drop when you look down. 

We returned across the bridge via the south walkway which then gives you fantastic views over Bristol, it also helped to be on this side as the sun was shining on that side of the bridge which made for some cool photos from the southwestern viewing area.

A short walk from here down a steep hill is the Clifton Rocks Railway and although it's not fully open or even part of the heritage open week this year they were running free tours every 20 minutes so. This railway has only 2 stations and the tracks run diagonally down through the cliffs via a tunnel about 400 feet in length to the bottom station which is about a 200 feet below the top station. It was mainly used to transport guests from the river to the adjoining hotel next door at the top back in its heyday.

The site originally opened in 1893 and struggled for many years until it finally closed in 1934, it was then used again during the war by the BBC and other government departments who weren't very sympathetic with their construction work so not much of the original bottom station is left inside. After the war the railway was once again abandoned and soon fell into disrepair until 2008 when it was taken over by a charitable organization who has partly reopened it to visitors but much work still needs to be done, you are only able to take a short tour of about 20 minutes around the top station but there are plenty of items to see that have been uncovered during the restoration project. They will also be offering a full tour in the future again after some safety work has been carried out which will then take you from the top station, down a walkway tunnel that runs adjacent to the tracks and into what is left of the bottom station. This is something I would like to do in the future and although there is a fee it's less than £10 per person.

By now it was around 1 o'clock, we had planned on having lunch in the Brunel Pub a short walk from the railway, strangely they only do food on Sundays it would appear so had a couple of drinks before heading round the corner to a chip shop which I wish we hadn't bothered with as the sausage and chips were overcooked.

From there we crossed the road to the bus stop and as per usual, there wasn't a bus for about 15 minutes then 4 turned up. I was hoping to get to a pub part way back called the Berkeley, which has an amazing ceiling at the back but by now the time was around 3 o'clock and if we had to wait too long to get a bus later on we probably wouldn't get to go to the pub near the station so decided that the best course of action was just to head straight to Temple Meads station and go in the pub there.

It was a fairly hair-raising ride back to Temple Meads station on the bus and there was also plenty of horns blowing from the driver, he's probably going to give himself a stroke if he carries on like that. Once there, it's only a short walk around the back to the Knights Templer for some apple pie and a couple more drinks, it was busy here, but it's a big pub with plenty of seating and lots of staff serving behind the bar.

Our train was leaving at 17:22, so we left the pub just before 5, it seems to be standard practice now that there is never anybody on the platform for the assistance that we booked which makes you wonder why you have to call and book in the first place but at least we arrived back in Fareham on time to catch the bus home.