We had a lovely day meeting old friends, chatting and gossiping, catching up on each others’ news. We met in Bristol by the new M-Shed museum where we had coffee, and some of us had cakes! The M-Shed is Bristol’s newest museum and tells the story of the people of the city, and situated on Princes Wharf where quays and docks grew along side the river over the last couple of hundred years. It was an area of major importance and a huge granary was built there.
As the importance of shipping declined, and new areas were opened up, so the princes Wharf declined too, and in 1977 it became a museum.
It has now been re-organised and modernised and offers a fascinating glimpse into Bristol’s history, including the darker side of commerce and trade, slavery. The merchants of Bristol were very march part of the evil trafficking of humans from Africa to the Americas.
The mighty disused machinery of imports and exports now stand as memorials to a by-gone era, but also as a key to understanding the modern city.
Lois Elsden 