A landmark on Bristol's docks, these cargo cranes are a link to
the city's 1950s trading heyday.
The four cranes - the biggest objects in the whole of
Bristol's Museums Galleries and Archives collections - are the last
survivors of eight which were originally on this quayside and of
over 40 which were originally in the City Docks during the
1950s.
Cranes like these were developed to load and unload ships as
quickly as possible in port. They were designed to be able to work
in close proximity to each other, so that three or four could work
over a ship's holds at the same time.
These cranes were the last to work with a regular cargo, as they
helped to offload the last Baltic trader to call at the dock in
November 1974.
After the closure of the City Docks to commercial traffic in
1975, the remaining cranes were due to be sold for scrap. The
pressure group City Docks Ventures was formed to buy two of the
cranes, as apart of a series of measures to bring new amenities to
the closed City Docks. Bristol City Council purchased the remaining
two.
All four cranes passed into the care of the Museum Service in
1989.
After a period of neglect, the museum's volunteers started to
restore the cranes in 2001, they are now able to move under their
own power.