Clifton Rocks

Clifton Rocks Railway

I’ve been slacking off, sorry about that.  But you see I had no idea anyone was even reading this stuff.  Well it seems you are so Sinead Nua has decided to get cracking on another set of adventures, starting with a visit to Clifton Rocks Railway. 

This funicular railway, built in 1893, served nineteenth century Bristolians with transport between Hotwells and Clifton before being drafted as a war hero to protect the many evacuees during the air raids of the early twentieth century.  It is now sadly in a pretty shabby state, and having been transformed during the war it is difficult to know what to do with this place that houses such different slices of Bristolian history.  Aswell as the railway & the bomb shelter this became a safe base for the BBC during the war and it also contained a dance hall where many a Brizzle couple courted.  With the permission of current owner, the Avon Gorge Hotel, an eager group of volunteers from the Bristol Industrial Archaeological Society visit it to restore and cheer it up.  And a mighty job they’re doing too, they’ve already uncovered some fantastic relics including the turnstiles that passengers would pass through in order to ride the railway and some household items left behind by evacuees once it was safe to venture out again.

The volunteers open the gates of the site for public tours at a small fee which goes towards restoration.  On the top level, where the tour starts, one can see the turnstile that was unearthed by the bare hands of these volunteers and look out onto the railway tracks that stretch down into the side of the Avon Gorge.  Donning a high vis vest and a hard hat, feeling very ‘builder’, I was guided down the concrete stairs, deep into the memories the walls hold.  Shortly into the tour it’s impossible not to feel the passage of time around you, stories of Victorian railway passengers meld into accounts of evacuees piling into the custom built air raid shelters.  I could almost hear the voices of Mums ushering their kids along and sushing them to sleep on the concrete slabs while chaos ensued outside the thick walls.  Some tealights placed along the lower parts of the walls fast forwarded us to the seventies where it was reported that teenagers used to break into the shelters and have parties.  A nostalgic air filled the huge rooms while the mixed ages of the tour group watched and imagined the various stages of history that linger in this dark musty place.

At the bottom of the stairs we were led to a hole in the wall where we climbed through to a secret room, as I shimmied through, I conjured up visions of Alice in Wonderland - although slightly less graceful as I tumbled through the gap in the wall.  On the other side was the now empty haven used by the BBC to broadcast from during WW2 with it’s thick brick walls offering protection from bomb blasts.  Further on, the entrance where Clifton bound railway passengers would arrive echoed reminders of the original railway now hidden and locked in by a metal gate, the other side of which leads back to the hustle and bustle of the twenty-first century.  Talk about time travel!

http://www.cliftonrocksrailway.org.uk/

Images: Sinéad Millea.