Gauging point at entrance to Bristols Floating Harbour
Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2008-04-14 08:00:50 - Graham Ellis
What is a "GAUGE POINT"? This curious contraption is set on the point where the River Avon forks as it comes up into Bristol from Avonmouth - to the left is the true course of the river and to the right is the entrance lock at Cumberland Basin to the floating harbour.There are two gauge point devices - one either side of the river, and I'm guessing that they're used with a cable between them when a boat passes over to see how deep the boat is below the waterline, but if anyone has any other guesses, please do email me
As an interesting aside, the rise and fall of the tides on the Bristol Avon are enormous - said to be the second highest in the world, and as we stood for a few minutes the waterline which was level with one line of mortar in the stone blocks of the lock fell noticeably by half a block.