All the cranes on the Bristol Harbourside were made by Stothert & Pitt in Bath. They were pioneers of the use of electricity to drive cranes and came to specialise in dockside models like these - at one time, almost every port in the world had their cranes.
They were generally designed to lift between two and five tons (three of ours lift three tons and one can lift 10), about as much as a gang of dockers could load in a short space of time.
The museum’s cranes are the last survivors of eight on this quayside and over 40 in the City Docks during the 1950s.
They were the last ones to work with a regular cargo, helping to offload the last Baltic trader to call here in November 1974.
