This is a ticket for the opening day of the Clifton Suspension Bridge on 8 December 1864, which I think is a rather lovely little survival from one of Bristol’s great civic set-pieces. The ticket was issued to Mr Henry Nockless (although more on that in a moment), who was requested to be at the entrance roadway opposite the Clifton Hotel. The bridge had taken a very long time to reach this point, having been designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806–1859), who rather inconveniently died five years before it opened.
The bridge itself had been discussed, delayed, redesigned and generally subjected to the kind of long civic gestation period that makes modern planning disputes seem almost brisk. It used chains from Brunel’s demolished Hungerford Bridge in London, which is pleasingly thrifty in a grand Victorian way. This ticket belongs to a particular morning, a particular entrance, a particular man and a particular instruction to arrive precisely on time. It’s a nice reminder of history and at least back then they didn’t just send a PDF.
Back to Henry Nockless and I don’t understand where the museum has got that name from. There was no Henry Nockless in the country at that time and I think that ticket reads Henry Nickless, of which there were numerous locally. No Henry Nockless has ever been mentioned in a UK newspaper, but I find it highly unlikely that the museum hasn’t checked this.