White Funnel Fleet Sailings 1965

Posted by on Mar 5, 2022 in Bristol, history, One Mile Matt, Updates | 2 Comments
White Funnel Fleet Sailings 1965

I started getting more interested in (very) local history when I started my One Mile Matt project. One of the things that fascinated me was the history of P & A Campbell’s White Funnel Fleet, which used to sail from very near me in Hotwells. I’ve always loved taking pictures of the vestiges of this paddle-steamer enterprise in Bristol, especially of the old landing stage at the end of the Hotwell Road. (Here’s a historical postcard of a paddle steamer there in its heyday.)

I also found out that I’ve passed their old head offices, the Britannia Buildings (apparently named after what was then the newest ship in their fleet), thousands of times without realising it, as it’s on my usual walking route to and from the city centre.

Anyway. This piqued my interest enough that I’ve just bought an old flyer of theirs listing their sailing schedule from the Hotwells landing stage for July to October 1965. I found it pretty fascinating, so I’m popping some high-resolutions versions of it here on the web for anyone else who’s interested. Bear in mind these are reasonably large files!

Hear are two high resolution JPEGs, one for the front of the flyer and one for the back, plus a PDF document which is in lower resolution but has both front and back and has also been OCR’d to a searchable text document:

There’s a preview of what you’ll get below. If you find this resource useful, I’d appreciate it if you could buy me a coffee! It helps keep this website running. Thanks!

White Funnel Fleet Sailings 1965 Front
White Funnel Fleet Sailings 1965 Back
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2 Comments

  1. Robin Dixon
    August 27, 2022

    Fascinating information. Now aged 77, I well remember travelling across to Cardiff/Penarth and back to Bristol to see relatives in the summer holidays in the early fifties and later. I ‘m now old enough to be vice-chair of Keynsham and Saltford Probus Club and many of my fellow members would have equally vivid memories of these venerable old vessels. 

    One of my current tasks is to sort out a programme of speakers for my Probus Group for 2023/4. Do you give talks on this topic to groups like ours. We meet in Saltford Golf Club BS31 3AA Please would let me know whether or not you could help us. 

    • Matt Gibson
      August 27, 2022

      Hi Robin! I’m afraid I don’t know anything like enough to give a talk on the subject — I’m sure your members already know a lot more than I do about it! It might be worth enquiring with the CHIS, the Cliftonwood and Hotwells Improvement Society as I saw that one of their members, Professor John Bradfield, gave a talk called “Tales from the Hotwells Waterfront” earlier this year. Sadly I couldn’t make it then so I’m not sure how much of the White Funnel Fleet etc. was covered.