A1Tourism.com: Bristol Hotels Are Raising A Glass (But Not Of Smuggled Wine) To Historic Bristol!

GLOUCESTERSHIRE, ENGLAND, March 12, 2011 (Press-News.org) The Bristol Harbour Festival has been held every year since 1971 and is a fitting annual celebration of the city's maritime past that dates back as far as c.1020 when the town known as Brycgstow ("the place at the bridge") began to develop as a port.

Receiving a Royal Charter in 1155 to give it city status, Bristol was granted county status in 1375 and for the next 500 years was recognised as one of the three most important cities after London, until the rise of the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th century saw Liverpool, Birmingham and Manchester take precedence over the south western "capital" in economic terms.

But it is as a port that Bristol is best known for which in its heyday was as busy as any in the world. By the 15th century it was the second most important in Britain trading to Ireland, Iceland and Gascony, and became the launch jetty for many historic voyages including the one taken in 1497 by John Cabot to North America which gave rise to further expeditions by Bristol merchants to the New World to explore new trading routes and nations.

However, Bristol isn't without it's darker side and there is something of the mercenary and brazen about the place thanks largely to the onset of smuggling to and from the port that became rife in the 16th century. When Britain was at war with Spain, Bristol merchants were shipping out canon...to the enemy! These guns were manufactured in the nearby Forest of Dean iron-foundries and commanded a high price abroad - especially from the Spanish Armada which was in effect quite literally armed by the country it was fighting. Before that, in the Elizabethan era, there was wine smuggling from France and the Mediterranean, and then tobacco from Bermuda and Virginia.

Even darker still, is the city's links with the slave trade in the 17th and 18th centuries. Bristol, along with Liverpool, became the centre for the "Triangular trade" which consisted of a pattern of exchange featuring goods and African slaves that at one point involved 2,000 ships being fitted out in Bristol with a "cargo" of 500,000 slaves destined for enchainment in the Americas. Thankfully that trade came to an end in 1807 with the Slave Trade Act - but with it came a further nail in the coffin of Bristol as successful trading port. Competition from Liverpool around the mid-1760s had already damaged commerce, and a war with France in 1793 also proved costly.

Navigation of the Avon Gorge, and the Bristol Channel itself, had always presented a challenge though and became increasingly more difficult as ships grew larger, and by 1991 the Bristol City Docks in the centre of the city had come to a close, with the area becoming a much-loved and renovated Harbour area and there are plenty of nearby Bristol hotels where you can stay close to the area at http://www.a1tourism.com/uk/bristol.html

But it is as a port that Bristol will always be remembered and commemorated and the 40th anniversary of the Harbour Festival earmarked for July is bound to be an experience that all Bristolians and visitors alike will enjoy and savour for years to come. Many venues around the harbour such as Colston Hall, the Old Vic theatre, the Arnolfini film and arts centre, as well as the historic Tobacco Factory will all be celebrating the city's heritage in their own special way.

And with dragon boat races, strolling entertainment, music on boats, and much more, the week-long festival will have all the swash and buckle to bring back the flavour of those smuggling and seafaring days with not a slave in sight or smuggled wine to the fore - unless there happens to be a brazen waiter serving at your table that is! You can find your next Bristol hotel at http://www.a1tourism.com/uk/bristol.html