Brunel's Other BridgeBrunel Swivel Bridge Project 2024
Volunteer Workdays
Workdays for 2024 as follows:
- February 24th
- March 16th
- April 20th
- May 19th
- June 15th
- July 13th
- August 17th
- September 21st
- October 26th
Sounds like fun? No experience needed, all equipment provided, and you'll get really involved in helping to save Brunel's Other Bridge. We need your help.
We start at 9.30am so do please join us if you can. We provide free tea and coffee, so why not bring a picnic lunch? There is plenty of parking space and basic toilets are available. Please wear stout footwear, and you might like to bring overalls, gloves and something to kneel on. We have gloves, high-vis vest and a helmet you can borrow, and we provide tea and coffee!Youngsters are welcome provided their guardians are with them full time please.
Contact Geoff Wallis (jandgwallis@gmail.com) if you wish to help. We need to have an idea of numbers.
Tasks for 2024
We plan to continue restoration of the Bridge and other heritage structures nearby, and maintain the 'Tongue' area.
March 2024
'I am amazed and delighted at the distance folk travel to help out on our workdays' said honary project manager Geoff Wallis. Jeff Beckett regularly comes to Bristol from Cambridgeshire to support Bristol City and spends the morning volunteering with us, and Chris regularly drives from Warminster.
Today Nicki came from East Anglia to visit a friend and spent half the day working with local ace-photographer Rupert Martin cleaning down the 'dangerous' side of the Bridge beside the Dock. Wearing a safety harness and lifejacket they cleaned 5m of the side span using a mystery liquid to remove lichen. If you want to know what it is, come along on 20th April and find out!
Nicki and Rupert described their experience as 'strangely satisfying'. Not surprising because it does look very good! Thank you folks.
Geoff and Charlie removed the middle strip of felt, south side and fitted a new one which also looks good. Reece cleared vegetation from Jessop Lock wall, whilst Chris did amazing work power-sanding and repainting the turntable ring in a very tight space under the bridge, and then strimmed. Charlie lassoed & removed a scaffold board thrown by vandals into Brunel's Lock and then measured the slope of silt. He is doing some calculations to verify the feasibility of sluicing out the silt naturally.
See the photos March 2024