ABSTRACT
In the course of the nineteenth century, the port of Bristol grew from the small tidal creeks around the confluence of the Avon and the Frome in the centre of the city to a large modern port with extensive enoiosed docks both in the hea,r:t of the city and around the mouth of the A von. The tidal wharves of the :traditional harbour had required little engineering attention, and they had received no major improvements since the thirteenth century when the direction of the Frome had been altered and its course deepened to make its quays more attractive than those of the A von around Bristol Bridge. Apart from the construction of experimental enclosed docks at Sea Mills and Hotwells in the eighteenth century, the port of Bristol remained virtually unchanged fmm the thir.teenth century until the beginning of ,the nineteenth century. The successive stages in the development of the port in :the nineteenth century, however, br.ought corresponding changes, both 'bureaucratic and technocratic, in its organization.
