Underfall Yard

The Underfall Yard is a historic boatyard on Spike Island serving Bristol Harbour, the harbour in the city of Bristol, England.

Underfall Yard was commonly referred to as "The Underfalls" and takes its name from the underfall sluices. The original construction was in the early 19th century with revisions by Isambard Kingdom Brunel in the 1830s.

Following restoration in the 1990s, this Victorian work yard is now a Scheduled Monument that includes several listed buildings. The harbour and its equipment are still actively maintained, and host a cooperative of boat builders.

In the early nineteenth century, the engineer, William Jessop was engaged by the Bristol Dock Company to create a non-tidal Floating Harbour to combat continuing problems with ships being grounded at low tide. With his system, which was completed in 1809, water was trapped behind lock gates so ships could remain floating at all times, unaffected by the state of the tide on the river. Part of the project included building a dam at the Underfall Yard with a weir, known as the overfall, to allow surplus river water to flow into the New Cut, an excavation that by-passed the Floating Harbour and joined the River Avon near Temple Meads.

The docks' maintenance facility was established on the land exposed by the damming of the river to construct the harbour and remains sited at this location to the present day. By the 1830s the Floating Harbour was suffering from severe silting and Isambard Kingdom Brunel devised the underfall sluices as a solution.

The Bristol Docks Company never achieved commercial success and was taken over by Bristol City Council in 1848. In 1880 the Council bought the Slipway and yard to enlarge the docks' maintenance facilities.

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