Bristol Tramways & Carriage Co
S.G. 14 Aug 1895 to 11 Apr 1941
| This section is based in its entirety on Peter Davey's book "Bristol's Tramways" - a remarkable photographic record of the period 1895-1941. Both words and pictures used are derived from it as extracts and summaries. The book contains over 120 photographs and 70 odd of these are included in a slide show presentation of each of the final routes Contact details are available HERE |
History
The first trams in Bristol were pulled by horses commencing on 9th August 1875 running from Perry Road (Colston Curve) to Apsley Road, known as Redland Terminus. The horses were kept at the Colston Stables, wedged between the triangle of Perry Road, Colston Street and Griffin Lane (now Lower Park Row).  Peter Davey's Collection On 14th October 1895, the first electric cars ran from Old Market to Kingswood and were kept at the depot in Beaconsfield Road, St. George, which was also the power station. Eventually 17 tram routes existed which were reduced to 12 in thc final pattern. (The first bus route was 18). In 1900/01 the largest depot, workshop and maintenance complex was built at Brislington and it was used for the construction of trams. Later many of the City's buses were built and housed there. It still exists (a listed building) and some of the tram tracks are still down in the old engineering shops at the far end.  The fleet commenced with various horse trailers, totalling 109 with 678 horses. These were eventually replaced by electric cars which totalled 237. The last new batch was built in 1920 to the same basic open top design and style as those of twenty years before. With a few exceptions all cars were rebuilt as the "standard" car through the 1920s and 1930s. Details of the Generating stations employed by the Bristol Tramways and Carriage Co. are available in Histelec Supplement No.30
Abandonment commenced in 1938 and was to be carried out in five phases, but during an air raid on Good Friday 1941, bombs dropped on St Philip's Bridge outside the power station and disrupted the system's electricity supply. Buses immediately appeared, unplanned, the next morning. During the next few weeks the powerless cars had to be towed to Kingswood to face their sad cremation. The last one to disappear in the flames was car 64 on 16th October 1941 The Last Few Moments Of Car 205 S.Miles Davey |
Electric Tram Routes Listing
Prior To Opening Electric First Tramway
Old Market - Kingswood 1895
M.J.Tozer Collection
| A few days before the Old Market - St.George - Kingswood Electric Line was opened, cars 89 and 92 are seen just delivered from Milnes, Birkenhead. The Scene is at St.George and no doubt various tests are being carried out. Car 92 has yet to be fitted with her lamps but she illustrates the seeming awkwardness of the Dick Kerr trolley masts. |
Tram Routes Visited
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The visits come in the shape of a slide show with pictures and text controlled interactively. Click first on the route you wish to follow and a tram at the terminus of that route is depicted and described. Click on > to move forward to the next slide. Reverse < takes you back to the previous slide. Fast Forward >> takes you non stop to the other end and Fast Rewind << takes you to the beginning unless you press Pause || to retain a picture. The pictures will change automatically if you do not touch the controls and you go to manual control.This reverts to auto if you do not click on the controls for 2 minutes |