Once a year the Bristol docks are revived. What was once an essential component of a city built on trade, the docks closed in 1976 after the port was downsized and the maritime trade relocated to the more convenient outskirts of the city. Still operational, every year a team of volunteers return to resurrect the cranes and rail network that contributed such a major role in shaping the city’s identity.

Known as Heritage Weekend, the weekend event was created as a celebration of the ingenuity and machinery of the industrial revolution, with volunteers dedicating years of their lives to restoring the harbourside. The naming of the event, however, points at a darker part in Bristol’s past and has angered some, in what has been described by British newspaper The Guardian, as the most divided city in the UK. The success of Bristol’s maritime past, prior to the industrial revolution, was largely built upon its participation in the slave trade, the presence of which continues in the city with prominent slave merchant, Edward Colston, providing the name to schools, street names and a concert venue. As a result, there is anger among some in the city at the idea of celebrating Bristol’s maritime history and a perceived refusal to acknowledge its chequered foundations.