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Of the open spaces in and near Bristol the most extensive are those bordering the river in the neighbourhood of the gorge, Durdham and Clifton Downs, on the Gloucestershire side (see Clifton). Others are Victoria Park, south of the river, near the Bedminster station, Eastville Park by the Frome, on the north-east of the city beyond Stapleton Road station, St Andrew's Park near Montpelier station to the north, and Brandon Hill, west of the cathedral, an abrupt eminence commanding a fine view over the city, and crowned with a modern tower commemorating the "fourth centenary of the discovery of America by John Cabot, and sons Lewis, Sebastian and Sanctus." Other memorials in the city are the High Cross on College Green (1850), and statues of Queen Victoria (1888), Samuel Morley (1888), Edmund Burke (1894), and Edward Colston (1895), in whose memory are held annual Colston banquets.
Harbour and Trade.?Bristol harbour was formed in 1809 by the conversion of the Avon and a branch of the Frome into "the Float," by the cutting of a new channel for the Avon and the formation of two basins. Altogether the water area, at fixed level, is about 85 acres. Four dry docks open into the floating harbour. In 1884 the Avonmouth and Portishead docks at the river entrance were bought up by the city; and the port extends from Hanham Mills on the Avon to the mouth of the river, and for some distance down the estuary of the Severn. The city docks have a depth of 22 ft., while those at Avonmouth are accessible to the largest vessels. In 1902 the construction of the extensive Royal Edward dock at Avonmouth was put in hand by the corporation, and the dock was opened by King Edward VII. in 1908. It is entered by a lock 875 ft. long and 100 ft. wide, with a depth of water on the sill of 46 ft. at ordinary spring, and 36 ft. at ordinary neap tides. The dock itself has a mean length of 1120 ft. and a breadth of 1000 ft., and there is a branch and passage connecting with the old dock. The water area is about 30 acres, and the dock is so constructed as to be easily capable of extension. Portishead dock, on the Somerset shore, has an area of 12 acres. The port has a large trade with America, the West Indies and elsewhere, the principal imports being grain, fruit, oils, ore, timber, hides, cattle and general merchandise; while the exports include machinery, manufactured oils, cotton goods, tin and salt. The Elder Dempster, Dominion and other large steamship companies trade at the port.
The principal industries are shipbuilding, ropewalks, chocolate factories, sugar refineries, tobacco mills and pipe-making, glass works, potteries, soaperies, shoe factories, leather works and tanneries, chemical works, saw mills, breweries, copper, lead and shot works, iron works, machine works, stained-paper works, anchors, chain cables, sail-cloth, buttons. A coalfield extending 16 m. south-east to Radstock avails much for Bristol manufactures.
The parliamentary borough is divided into four divisions, each returning one member. The government of the city is in the hands of a lord mayor, 22 aldermen and 66 councillors. The area in 1901 was 11,705 acres; but in 1904 it was increased to 17,004 acres.
History.?Bristol (Brigstow, Bristou, Bristow, Bristole) is one of the best examples of a town that has owed its greatness entirely to trade. It was never a shire town or the site of a great religious house, and it owed little to its position as the head of a feudal lordship, or as a military post. Though it is near both British and Roman camps, there is no evidence of a British or Roman settlement. It was the western limit of the Saxon invasion of Britain, and about the year 1000 a Saxon settlement began to grow up at the junction of the rivers Frome and Avon, the natural advantages of the situation favouring the growth of the township. Bristol owed much to Danish rule, and during the reign of Canute, when the wool trade with Ireland began, it became the market for English slaves. In the reign of Edward the Confessor the town was included in the earldom of Sweyn Godwinsson, and at the date of the Domesday survey it was
