BRUNEL200NEWSLETTERIssue 1 Winter 2006 www.brunel200.com

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Brunel 200 starts in Bristol on 8 April 2006 with an open air partyfeaturing music, dance, processions, and, as the stunning highlight,the switching on of the new lights at the Clifton Suspension Bridgefollowed by the best fireworks display the city has ever seen. Thenew illuminations, designed by international architectural lightingspecialists Pinniger & Partners, will wash the full structure of thebridge with gentle light so the details of the chains, lattice work,towers and abutments will be visible in the dark.

The arts programme will include a new piece of music inspired bythe bridge written by Bristol-based jazz musician Andy Sheppardwhich Andy will perform with 200 saxophonists. They are joined byBristol Brass Band, Bristol Choral Society, and an extract from thecommunity play being developed by acta celebrating the life andachievements of Brunel which will be performed later in April at theBristol Industrial Museum. Among the participants will be MisfitsTheatre Company and 100 children from four local primary schools.

A special supplement will be printed by the Bristol Evening Postgiving details of the birthday weekend programme withsuggestions for the best viewing points for seeing the bridge lightsand the firework display. A fabulous start to the Brunel 200celebrations is guaranteed.

Brunel 200 birthday weekend launch in Bristol

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When a few people began to discuss,four years ago, the possibility ofhaving a major celebration of the lifeand work of Isambard Kingdom Brunelin 2006, his bicentennial year, I doubtthat any of them would have beenable to predict what would result.

This newsletter tells you about someof the many projects that are planned.With a launch in April, majorexhibitions in At-Bristol, ss GreatBritain and Bristol’s City Museum andArt Gallery, education projects thataim to reach every Bristol child, agraphic biography of Brunel’s life thatwill have a first print run of 100,000copies, and activities extending to thewhole of the South West, 2006 will bea year to remember. On top of thiswill be the first ever South West GreatReading Adventure, Around the Worldin Eighty Days.

Brunel 200 for us is a celebration of aman, his work and the achievementsof the past, as well as being aboutthe future of Bristol and the SouthWest. The inspiration that Bruneloffers will help us create the newBrunels. That is why we are launchingour own call for 200 Ideas for Bristolas part of Brunel 200. Let us haveyour views on how Bristol shoulddevelop – from the small scheme tothe large, from the fun to the serious.

2006 is going to be a wonderful year.We’ve all been inspired by the visionand work of Brunel and hiscontemporaries. Book the dates in yourdiary now and look out for updates aswe move towards the launch.

Leslie PerrinChair, Brunel 200

Brunel 200

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Education is at the heart of Brunel 200

A wide range of learning opportunities and resources will encourage people tofind out about and be inspired by Brunel. In the Brunel spirit, the Brunel 200education programme aims to allow local people and visitors of all ages and

levels of interest to think, create, be empowered, bestimulated, be provocative and make connections. Theprogramme will provide formal, informal, supervised,self-directed and serendipitous experiences taking placein a variety of locations – centres of learning, libraries,community centres, tourist attractions, heritage sites,exhibition and performance venues, the home and thestreet.

Education plans for schools and colleges in Bristolinclude engineers in residence, creative workshops,resource packs, teacher networking and training days,subsidised transport to visit exhibitions, participation inarts projects, and much more.

Brunel’s Kingdom: Tyning Hengrove Junior School

Tyning Hengrove Junior School in Bristol will becelebrating the work of Brunel and his creativecontemporaries in a Victorian-themed project runningthroughout 2006. The project is full of activities that aimto expand pupils’ knowledge and appreciation of the areain which they live and the school in which they study.

Among the highlights of the packed programme are: creating a Great Exhibition;going on a trip to the pantomime; joining the South West Great ReadingAdventure; holding a Christmas fete; performing a music hall show and re-enacting the dinner held for the launch for the ss Great Britain in 1843. The school also contributed to Bristol’s Electric December, an annual on-line festival calendar offering 24 days of digital delights. The calendar

Brunel 200 education

University of Bristol’s Clifton Crossing Competition

On 12 January 2006, the University of Bristol and NewCivil Engineer – the journal of the Institution of CivilEngineers – announced a new design competition derivedfrom the original 1830 brief for the Clifton SuspensionBridge that crosses the Avon Gorge. The competitionchallenges engineers, students and school pupils of allages to draw up innovative bridge designs using moderntechnologies, materials and practices. Outline schemes must be submitted on asingle A1 poster. The judges will then select up to six finalists who will be given abudget to work up their plans ahead of a public presentation in Bristol in mid-July2006. The competition entries will form the basis of a future engineering awarenessprogramme for schools and a holiday activity programme. Further details andcompetition brief available on the Brunel 200 website from January 2006.

The competition is supported by:

showcased creativity and innovation from local groups,businesses, artists and learning organisations.

Paula Shears, the school’s humanities coordinator, made asuccessful application to the Brunel 200 arts projects fundfor support of Brunel’s Kingdom and has made aninvaluable contribution to the development of ideas andresources within the Brunel 200 education group. She said:

‘The link between a wide range of the curriculum and a famous local personality haspresented us with a marvellous opportunity to link our children with their locality.Being able to see examples of Brunel’s work first hand will hopefully inspire childrento consider their own creativity.’

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Brunel 200 arts projects in Bristol

Nearly 30 new arts projects are beingsupported as part of Brunel 200,ranging from a play about Brunel tobe performed in schools, through to adrama project involving black elderstalking about the meaning of Brunel’swork for them. There will beworkshops, music, a mural, a book,exhibitions, talks, film, poetry, dancepieces, installations, short stories, aradio adventure series, sculpture andeven a commemorative drinks-can.

Ashlee Taylor, a student at Colston’sGirls’ School, was the youngestapplicant to the arts project fund.Brunel Exposed will be an exhibitionof photographs of Brunel’s Bristolsites accompanied by introductoryworkshops for young people onpinhole and digital photography. Onhearing of her success, Ashlee said: ‘Iwas grateful and appreciative that thepanel has recognised how passionateI am about photography and Brunel.’

Bristol Old Vic made a successfulapplication for support of a newadaptation of Jules Verne’s Aroundthe World in Eighty Days linked to theSouth West Great Reading Adventurethat will be aimed at young andfamily audiences. Simon Reade,artistic director of the Bristol Old Vic,said: ‘Just as Jules Verne found Brunelan inspiration for his novels, we willin our production seek to match thevision, creativity and ambition of theman himself.’

Nick Hand’s project – Brunel Limited – is an exhibition of interviews andphotographs of company directors and workers from businesses that have takenthe name of Brunel. One of the people included in the project is Joe Allen,proprietor of Brunel Bodycraft. In an interview with Nick, Joe said: ‘... every day Igo to work and a bit of me aspires to be like the great man himself.’

Our Stories Make Waves is a project involving, among others, the sculptor ValdaJackson and writer Ruth Pitter. It will include research, writing workshops, tours,seminars and performances looking at the impact of Brunel on communitiestoday. A spokesperson said:

‘As a dynamic group of artists working in various media we will use originalvoices and creative work to engage new audiences in stimulating interactivediscussion and debate, influenced by Brunel and his work in Bristol.’

Bob Walton’s Triangulation is a site-specific educational and artists’ celebration ofthree of Brunel’s lesser-known achievements in Bristol and will include a multimedia,free public event taking place on the Brunel birthday weekend. Bob said:

‘I’ve had a few sessions in the Brunel Archive and am becoming increasinglyamazed by Brunel’s achievements: how he managed to deal with such tinydetails of design/construction and create such grand visions while enjoying astrong family and social life and putting his life in danger and writing wonderfulletters and diaries, I just cannot imagine. Amazing man.’

The illustration at the top of the page is of Brunel’s tubular swing bridge, whichwas moved to this position in 1873 and remained here until the construction ofthe Cumberland Basin Flyover in the 1960s. This will feature in Triangulation.

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Ashlee Taylor

As part of the Brunel 200 celebrations,there will be a range of attractive andinformative new publicationsproduced, including exhibitioncatalogues and trail guides.

The historian Kenneth Clark wrote thatBrunel ‘remained all his life in lovewith the impossible’. Brunel: ‘in lovewith the impossible’ is a collection ofspecially commissioned essays on thelife, work and world of Brunel. The364-page book will contain over 450illustrations, many rarely seen before.The essays include Angus Buchanan’soverview of Brunel’s life, AndrewNahum’s assessment of theachievements of Marc Brunel andChristine MacLeod’s exploration of thereasons for the engineeringprofessions’ rise to prominence in mid-nineteenth-century Britain. There areindividual chapters on the Clifton

Suspension Bridge, Bristol Docks,Great Western Railway and ss GreatBritain, an insight into the Brunelarchive at the University of Bristol,and a section looking at the widercontext of his work. The book endswith a discussion of Brunel’s legacy,using examples from modern-dayengineering challenges. A copy will bedonated to all schools and colleges inBristol, and to local libraries. It willalso be for sale at exhibition sites andin bookshops from April 2006.

Brunel 200 has commissioned anentertaining graphic biography ofBrunel written by Eugene Byrne withillustrations by Simon Gurr. Aimed atreaders aged 11 and over, the 96-page comic will tell the story of Bruneland the world in which he worked aswell as demonstrate clearly andsimply the engineering techniques andscientific principles underlying hiscreations. 100,000 copies will beprinted, most given away free throughschools, colleges and libraries.

An extract from the comic appearsoverleaf showing Brunel's injury in theThames Tunnel and his arrival inBristol where he hears about theplans to build a new bridge.

Brunel 200 publications

Bristol will be hosting a number of exhibitions during 2006 including major shows atss Great Britain, At-Bristol and Bristol’s City Museum and Art Gallery. ss GreatBritain’s exhibition in the Maritime Heritage Centre, The Nine Lives of I K Brunel, willhave nine zones, each describing a significant moment or crisis in Brunel’s personaland professional life, beginning and ending at the point when he suffered a fatalstroke on board his ship the Great Eastern. The displays will include originalartefacts associated with the engineer and his projects, extracts from personalobservations by himself and his contemporaries, and small-scale interactive exhibits.Among the larger objects featured will be a section from the Great Eastern’s funnel,the propeller of The Rattler, used by Brunel to test propeller-driven sea travel, and afull-scale replica of the broad-gauge locomotive, the Iron Duke.

At-Bristol’s exhibition, The Forces that made I K Brunel,will recreate a sense of the dangers and challenges thatBrunel faced in his ambitious projects, graphicallyillustrating the forces he harnessed through a series oflarge-scale interactive exhibits. There will be five distinctzones, each focusing on a different engineering challenge:Go Deeper!, Go Higher!, Go Further!, Go Faster! and GoForward! The twinned ss Great Britain and At-Bristolexhibitions will run from April to October 2006.

At Bristol’s City Museum and Art Gallery from 15 April to18 June there will be an exhibition of nationally importantartworks highlighting the creative links between art,science and industry. Brunel and the Art of Invention willdraw artistic parallels to the topics examined in the ssGreat Britain and At-Bristol exhibitions and will also linkwith an exhibition of contemporary artists’ responses toBrunel to be held at the Royal West of England Academy inassociation with the University of the West of England. Thefour main thematic areas will be Great Britons, Work andSociety, Travel and Empire, and Brunel: artistic engineer.Artworks will include William Powell Frith’s magnificentlarge-scale canvas The Railway Station showing travellersembarking on the Great Western Railway from Paddington.

Brunel exhibitions in Bristol

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Sample spread from the forthcoming Brunel 200 comic.

Have you got a good idea to make Bristol an evenbetter place to live in, work and visit?

200 ideas for BristolThe South West GreatReading Adventure

2006 starts with the biggest massreading project in the UK: the GreatReading Adventure. Everyone in theSouth West is being encouraged toread Jules Verne’s Around the World inEighty Days, the classic tale of thephlegmatic Englishman, Phileas Fogg,and his hot-blooded French servant,Passepartout, endeavouring to travelaround the world in just 80 days towin a £20,000 bet. This 80-day projectfollows on the success of Bristol’sannual city-wide Great ReadingAdventure which has been runningsince 2003.

Around the World in Eighty Dayswas Verne’s most popular book.Contemporary readers shared Verne’s fascination with travel andtransportation, and the possibility thata once unimaginable trip around theworld was now within their grasp.Modern readers can still share thatexcitement as they are carriedbreathlessly through the book’s fast-turning pages. It is an apt choice for2006 as Verne travelled from Liverpoolto New York on Brunel’s Great Easternand admired the engineer’s work.

Since 5 January 2006 thousands ofcopies of Around the World in EightyDays published in the acclaimedOxford World’s Classics’ series havebeen available for loan from librariesacross the region. A specially adaptedversion for younger readers is alsoavailable. Free copies of both booksalong with the accompanyingillustrated readers’ guide are availablefrom the Blackwell bookshop on ParkStreet, Bristol, Secession Books in Bathand Swindon Advertiser (all offers validonly while stocks last). Copies havealso been given to patients in BristolRoyal Infirmary, and to schools andcolleges.

Aardman Animations has created aspecial Wallace and Gromit image to beused on publicity material and on thecover of the book. University of the Westof England graduate James de la Ruehas been commissioned to illustrate thechildren’s adaptation. His illustrationshave been used by the Bath Chronicle,Bristol Evening Post, Swindon Advertiserand other newspapers across the regionwho have serialised this version.

News of the Great Reading Adventurealong with background material onJules Verne and his work is availableon the website www.swreads.com.

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Brunel was a man of ideas – abouttransport, communications, movement.He saw – and was able to grasp – thegreat opportunities of the industrialrevolution. He brought together artsand sciences in a way never seenbefore, creating projects that werefunctional and beautiful. Brunel builtthe modern world.

Brunel 200 is both about a man andthe past and the future of Bristol andthe South West. We want the spirit ofBrunel to help create new ideas for thefuture of Bristol.

Bristol has been transformed in recentyears with the regeneration ofHarbourside and the city centre, At-Bristol, the renewal of Arnolfini, theBritish Empire and CommonwealthMuseum, Queen Square and muchmore. What would Brunel be workingon now? We want Brunel 200 toencourage new thinking and newideas. These could be big or small,serious or fun. They might involve new

festivals, public sculptures, bridges, anelected Mayor, new forms of publictransport, new ways of working. Theymight involve the complete wiring ofBristol, to build a digital city and theapplication of new technology to allaspects of current life. They might helpsolve some of the environmentalproblems we face.

We want 200 ideas for Brunel 200.There will be an exhibition in May atthe Architecture Centre.

If you have an idea, please let us havebetween 250-400 words about it.

Watch out for the special leaflets andposters, or send your idea toandrew@brunel200.com or to theaddress at the back of the newsletter.Please remember to provide fullcontact details.

Among many other Brunel-linked sites are Bristol Zoo,which in 2006 will be offering an Animal Engineers’children’s trail, and the city docks, which can be touredby foot or by ferry boat. The Brunel Mile runs betweenTemple Meads Station and the ss Great Britain. Along theway it passes elegant Queen Square, where Brunel servedas a special constable during the Bristol Riots. A guide tothe Brunel Mile, along with other walking trails around

the city, will be available for visitors in 2006 and the Bristol Legible City map willhighlight all the Brunel sites for easy navigation.

Many other South West attractions are accessible by travelling by rail and publictransport. Among these are A La Ronde in Exmouth, Powderham Castle nearStarcross Station, Morwellham Quay and Tin Mine near Calstock, the EdenProject overlooking St Austell Bay in Cornwall, the National Maritime MuseumCornwall on the Falmouth harbour-side, the Lost Gardens of Heligan near StAustell and the Egyptian House in Penzance.

For more visitor information including advice on city-breaks and holiday packages contact:

Bristol: Destination Bristol www.visitbristol.co.uk General enquiries: Tel: +44 (0)906 711 2191 (50p/min)Booking service (UK): Tel: 0845 408 0474 (local rate) Booking service (Overseas) Tel: + 44 (0)870 444 0654Rest of the South West: South West Tourismwww.visitsouthwest.co.ukTel: + 44 (0)870 442 0880

The Bristol Ferry Boat Company introduces a brand new boatfor the Brunel 200 year. This state-of-the-art vessel includes adisabled access lift, great visibility, heating and digital soundsystem. The company will be running many special Bruneltours, including cruises under the Clifton Suspension Bridge byday and at night to see the new illuminations.

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Brunel’s railways opened up the South West to goods and trade, and later toleisure travel and tourism. In 2006 the region will be extending a welcome tovisitors wishing to use the rail network to gain access to the region’s historictowns, coast and countryside. An event diary incorporating a map showingBrunel’s major South West achievements and the sites for Brunel 200 activity will be published in March 2006.

Brunel-associated visitor highlights include:

Swindon’s Great Western Railway Works: the site of the Great Western Designer Outlet Centre and STEAM – the Museum of the Great Western Railway.Brunel’s Railway Village: specially built to house the Swindon workers constructing the railway and home to the Railway Cottage Museum. Tyntesfield House in Wraxall, North Somerset: a spectacular Victorian country house and estate, originally built for and owned by the Gibbs family who financed the GWR and owned the ss Great Britain.Clevedon Court near Clevedon, North Somerset: home to Sir Abraham Elton who was closely involved with the Clifton Suspension Bridge competition.Brunel’s Scenic Coastal Railway: following the route of Brunel’s atmospheric railway on a track that hugs the beautiful East Devon coastline between Teignmouth and Dawlish.The Royal Albert Bridge at Saltash near Plymouth: a great feat of engineering which can be viewed on boat trips down the Tamar.

In Bristol visitors can see Brunel’s magnificent Clifton Suspension Bridge, hispioneering ss Great Britain – recently ‘re-launched’ with an enhanced DockyardMuseum and newly reconstructed ship’s interior – and the original terminus for theGWR, now home to the award-winning British Empire and Commonwealth Museum.

Brunel 200 and tourism

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In addition to the large celebration inBristol, Brunel 200 is coordinatingand promoting a rich and variedprogramme of performances, localhistory projects, workshops,exhibitions, art installations,publications, interpretative trails andother activities that will celebrateBrunel’s relationship with the regionand address wider issues associatedwith his work.

Among the events for 2006,Porthcurno Telegraph Museum,Cornwall is celebrating the ss GreatEastern's important contribution totelegraphy which included laying thecable that linked Cornwall withBombay (Mumbai). Pictured above isa depiction of Brunel's ship laying thefirst transatlantic cable.

The Holbourne Museum of Art, Bath ismounting an exhibition on the impactof the building of the railway uponthe city. Pictured below is an original

Brunel 200 projects in the South West

GWR contractor's drawing of Bathstation, drawn to Brunel'sspecification.

This photograph shows gardeners atBrunel's Watcombe estate nearTorbay. The owners of Brunel Manorat Watcombe are restoring thegarden and developing interpretativeinformation for visitors.

Western Railway, housed in abeautifully restored Grade II railwaybuilding in the heart of the formerSwindon works, will be mounting anew exhibition celebrating the life andachievements of Brunel in 2006 andSwindon’s Sixth Sense TheatreCompany will be touring January toMarch 2006 with a new play calledToad’s Great Western RailwayAdventure. The Swindon BrunelFestival will run from 8-16 July 2006and will include a carnival parade,musical performances and workshops.

Devon Library and InformationServices are creating a bookletentitled Devon's Brunel Journey for2006. The illustrations above are froman illustrated album from the 1840sby William Dawson tracing the SouthDevon rail route.

Torquay Museum is the site for anexhibition entitled Brunel and theRailway Age: a social revolution,which will be supported by aninterpretative trail in the town.

Swindon was the main base for theGWR’s engine house and workshops.STEAM – Museum of the Great

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Brunel 200 is a partnership initiative initiated and managed by the BristolCultural Development Partnership (BCDP – Arts Council England South West,Bristol City Council, Business West). South West activities are being developed inpartnership with Culture South West. Brunel 200 is part of Science City Bristol.

Acknowledgements

Brunel 200 is funded by:

Brunel 200 partners include the Architecture Centre, Bristol, Arts & Business South West, Arup, At-Bristol, BBC, BristolEvening Post, Bristol Ferry Boat Company, Bristol International Airport, Bristol Junior Chamber of Commerce, BritishEmpire and Commonwealth Museum, Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, City Sightseeing Bristol, City Inn,Bristol, Clifton Suspension Bridge Trust, Destination Bristol, Discovery Channel, First Great Western, GWR radio,Institution of Civil Engineers, Institution of Highways Incorporated Engineers, Institution of Highways and Transport,Newcomen Society, Osborne Clarke, Rolls-Royce, ss Great Britain Trust, South West Tourism, Swindon Advertiser, SwindonBorough Council, University of Bristol, University of the West of England and Visit Britain.

Individual acknowledgements and partner logos are on the Brunel 200 website.

Designed by: Qube Design Associates. Printed by: Doveton Press.

Published January 2006 by: Bristol Cultural Development Partnership, Leigh Court, Abbots Leigh, Bristol BS8 3RAT: +44 (0) 1275 370816 E: brunel200@btopenworld.comwww.brunel200.com

Image credits:Page 3: Computer-generated image of new lighting scheme courtesy of Clifton Suspension Bridge Trust. Misfits TheatreCompany photo by Mark Simmons. Andy Sheppard photo courtesy of Provocateur Records. Pages 4 & 5: Photos fromchildren's activities provided by At-Bristol, British Empire and Commonwealth Museum and ss Great Britain Trust. Page 5:Photo of Tyning Hengrove pupils during their recent visit to Blaise Castle (Paula Shears). Page 6: Photo used in thebanner supplied by Ashlee Taylor. Page 7: Brunel’s tubular swing bridge (Private collection). Page 8: At-Bristol onMillennium Square. Photo © Barbara Evripidou, Bristol Evening Post. Photo of Bristol's City Museum and Art Gallery byAllan Russell. Brunel stereo-view (detail) from ss Great Britain Trust. William Powell Frith The Railway Station, 1862(detail) from the Picture Collection, Royal Holloway, University of London. Page 9: Watercolour of Avon Gorge, 1851 fromprivate collection. Dawn near Reading, watercolour, 1870 courtesy of Elton Collection: Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust.Brunel family headstone at Kensal Green courtesy of Barry Smith and The Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery. Page 12:Oxford World's Classic cover courtesy Oxford University Press. Children's edition cover illustration © James de la Rue.Page 14: Clifton suspension bridge photo courtesy of britainonview/Pawel Libera. Page 15: ss Great Britain photocourtesy of britainonview/Pawel Libera. Page 16: Contractor's drawing from Adrian Vaughan Collection. Page 17:Entrance to STEAM photographed by Josephine Williams, courtesy of The Commonweal School, A Performing Arts College.

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If you would like to receive regular updates about the Brunel 200 programmeplease either register online at www.brunel200.com or fill in this registrationform and post it to:

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5 January Launch of the South West Great Reading Adventure

8/9 April Birthday weekend celebrations in Bristol

15 April - 18 June Exhibition at Bristol’s City Museum and Art Gallery

April - October Exhibitions at ss Great Britain and At-Bristol

May 200 Ideas for Bristol

16-21 May Bristol Festival of Ideas

6-7 July Brunel Bicentenary Conference

8-16 July Swindon Brunel Festival

mid-September Brunel 200 Finale in Bristol

Summary 2006

www.brunel200.com