Bristol Ariel Rowing Club

Founded in 1870, Bristol Ariel Rowing Club is the oldest rowing club in Bristol. The club was originally based on a barge near Bristol Bridge, in the city centre. The rowing equipment was somewhat more primitive in those days: until the sliding seat was widely introduced after 1871 the rowers wore tight linen shorts to slide on a greased surface with each stroke.

In 1884 the clubhouse was replaced with ‘The Barge’, which was not a barge at all, but a French frigate captured in the Napoleonic wars. The Barge housed all the club’s boats and documents and a cockroach infested changing room for the rowers. Much was lost when, just as she was due for repairs, the Barge sprang a leak and sank: but she was raised, drained and served as clubhouse for another 8 years until 1900, when Bristol Ariel Rowing Club moved to St.Anne’s and the current clubhouse was built.

In the Second World War, the club was hit in a bombing raid on the strategically important pumphouse and the railway line that runs behind the grounds. On December 6th, 1940, a first bomb obliterated the teahouse, blasted the roof off Avery’s boathouse and badly damaged the clubhouse. The second hit the pumphouse and took its roof off. The third ricocheted off the railway tunnel and hit the 4.52pm Salisbury to Temple Meads passenger train, with a great loss of life. With so few active members remaining, the clubhouse fell into disrepair and boats lay abandoned until after the war.

Bristol Ariel Rowing Club has fostered many rowers at all levels over the years. The one who went the furthest in his rowing career was Nick Birkmyre, who won at Henley and came home with a silver medal from the 1960 Rome Olympics, beaten in the final by the Soviet Union.