Доки Эйвонмаут: История и развитие порта Бристоля.

The Avonmouth Docks are part of the Port of Bristol, in England. They are situated on the northern side of the mouth of the River Avon, opposite the Royal Portbury Dock on the southern side, where the river joins the Severn estuary, within Avonmouth. Accessible via a long and wide lock, today the docks are one of the UK's major ports for chilled foods, especially fruit and vegetables. Land side freight access and distribution is via either the M5 motorway or the Henbury Loop Line, whilst rail passenger access is via Avonmouth railway station on the Severn Beach Line. However, by the 18th century the docks in Liverpool grew larger and so increased competition with Bristol for the tobacco trade. The limitations of Bristol's docks were causing problems to business, so in 1802 William Jessop proposed installing a dam and lock at Hotwells to create the floating harbour. Construction of the £530,000 scheme began in May 1804, including the construction of the Cumberland Basin, the tidal new cut and a feeder canal to Temple Meads. Entrance was via locks, which had a maximum width of 45 feet (14 m). The harbour was officially opened on 1 May 1809. However, the harbour improvements cost more than anticipated, requiring increased levies to pay back the required loans, and hence reducing the competitive advantage to Liverpool. By 1867, ships were getting larger and the meanders in the river Avon prevented boats over 300 feet (91 m) from reaching the harbour. A scheme was proposed to install a much larger lock at Avonmouth to make the entire river a floating harbour, and to straighten the sharper bends, was but was dropped after work began on the much cheaper docks at Avonmouth and Portishead. The present entrance lock was designed by Thomas Howard and opened in July 1873, with a width of 62 feet (19 m). Around the same time the supporting Bristol Port Railway and Pier was constructed. The BPRP was built and held via a separate sister company, running north for 5.75 mile (9 km) from Hotwells (originally called Clifton), northwards to west of Bristol city centre between the Clifton Suspension Bridge and Bridge Valley Road along the Avon Gorge, to a pier terminus at Avonmouth. The other partners were George Davis, with William and Jarman Peters. The brickworks are visible on the 1879 OS 25" map of the area. The company was dissolved in 1886.

As built, the BPRP was isolated from the rest of the national railway network, having not been intended for anything more than local traffic distribution a docks railway.

The Royal Edward Dock was designed by consulting engineers Benjamin Baker and John Wolfe Barry, who had worked together on several dock projects, together with Baker’s partner A. C. Hurtzig, and C. A. Brereton. The docks run south to north along the banks of the River Severn, closer to that river than the existing Avonmouth Docks, and is the northernmost and largest of the three docks that form the Port of Bristol. Work began in 1902, when the then Prince of Wales cut the first sod, which included the construction of a dry dock. The complex was opened by the then King Edward VII in 1908.

During the later part of World War I, it was proposed to make Avonmouth the UK centre of production of dichloroethyl sulphide, also known as mustard gas. However, its production was against the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907, which explicitly forbade the use of "poison or poisoned weapons" in warfare. Under the cover of the Official Secrets Act, the Ministry of Munitions under its then Minister Winston Churchill nationalised many small smelting works under the new National Smelting Company (NSC). Before the outbreak of WW1, much of Britain's zinc had originated in Australia, but had been smelted in Germany. The NSC was therefore publicly commissioned to build a new zinc smelting works and sulphuric acid plant at Merebank, Avonmouth. The human cost of producing mustard gas was high. In December 1918 the chemical plant's medical officer reported that in the six months it was operational, there were 1,400 illnesses reported by its 1,100 mostly female workers all medically attributable to their work. Three people died because of accidents, four died from associated illnesses, and there were 160 accidents resulting in over 1,000 burns. At Chittening there were reported 1,213 cases of associated illness, including two deaths which were later attributed to influenza.

After World War I, demand for zinc and for sulphuric acid greatly fell, and after running into commercial difficulties it was taken over by a group of British industrialists with interests in metals and chemicals, under whom it was revived. In 1929 the NSC was bought by Australia's Imperial Smelting Corporation, which in 1949 merged with Zinc Corporation to become Consolidated Zinc. After the consolidation, the smaller NSC plants were closed down to concentrate production on Avonmouth now known as the Britannia smelting works where the famous Imperial Smelting Process was developed. From 1967, the Avonmouth Works was home to the largest and most efficient zinc blast furnace in the world. Consolidated Zinc, having failed to develop suitable new mining projects, merged from 1962 with the Rio Tinto Company, a mining company. The resulting company, known as the Rio Tinto Zinc Corporation (RTZ), and its main subsidiary, Conzinc Riotinto of Australia (CRA), would eventually become today's Rio Tinto Group. With smelting cheaper elsewhere in the world, the site ceased production in the 1970s, but remained open as a stock holding and distribution centre until 2003. The site was closed off for a year while experts from the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory conducted a series of tests. In late 2013 MoD clearance was given, allowing the site to be redeveloped as a supermarket distribution centre for Asda, and a recycling plant for SITA UK.

The docks were operated by the Port of Bristol Authority, part of Bristol City Council, until 1991, when the council granted a 150 year lease to the Bristol Port Company, who now operate the docks together with Royal Portbury Dock.

The bulk coal terminal discharged imported coal from both the Royal Edward and Royal Portbury docks, via a rail loading system managed by DB Cargo UK, located just south of St Andrews Road railway station on the Severn Beach line.