Talk:Bristol Channel

Flood date
It was stated in the article that the flood happened on 20 January 1607, or 20 January 1606 "because of calendar change". The change to the Gregorian calendar was only about 12 days, and otherwise I have no idea what the comment may have meant. Oliver Chettle 14:58, 25 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * The source for this is the BBC documentary about the flood, I'm not too sure what they meant either. -- Joolz 15:51, 25 Apr 2005 (UTC)


 * As I understand, the correct New style date is 30 January 1607. The OS date used at the time would have been 20 January 1606. This is because of the 10 day lag in the Julian calendar plus the different convention for when the year number changes; under the Julian in England, it was on Lady Day, 25 March; under Gregorian on 1 January -- so that year didn't become 1607 to them until March. I have used the NS date in List of United Kingdom disasters by death toll. --mervyn 13:04, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Width of channel
"It takes its name from the English city of Bristol and is over 5km across at its widest point." Is this correct? The channel looks a lot wider than that. --B.d.mills 10:39, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

Severn crossings
The Severn road bridges cross the "Mouth of the Severn", further upstream from where the Bristol Channel starts. Bristol and Cardiff are both technically on the Severn too if my understanding is correct as the Bristol Channel starts and the Severn ends at Flat Holm and Steep Holm. I've got the Philips Street Atlas for Cardiff, Swansea and the Valleys (2nd impression with revisions, 2006, mapping sourced from Ordnance Survey) in front of me and the route planning pages clearly label the channel as "ABER HAFREN, MOUTH OF THE SEVERN" right next to Cardiff (Caerdydd) just upstream of these 2 small islands. Aber is the Welsh word for River by the way. Didn't want to change the article myself to reflect this as such a dramatic edit could be controversial - JVG 19:16, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

Coastal cities and towns
Slightly offtopic, however - Bristol is mentioned in this section, however is it actually considered a city on the English coast or not? Elynnia 22:52, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

Estuary vs Channel
This article confuses the Bristol Channel and the Severn Estuary. Both are different, although adjacent pieces of water. It would be much clearer if the estuary related content e.g. the Severn bridges, tunnel and bore were moved into the River Severn article and then the redirect changed. Given some time I may do this. --Cheesy Mike 22:36, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

Aber Henfelen
Hihi, just working on the Missing Articles Hotlist and came across "Aber Henfelen" and found this: Aber Henfelen. Name for the sea between Wales and Cornwall, i.e. the Bristol Channel, in Welsh narrative in: A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology. James McKillop. Oxford University Press, 1998. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Also seems to be something similar at http://cy.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%B4r_Hafren, but I can't read it :) Here's a spot where its being used in context: http://www.celtnet.org.uk/gods_rh/rhiannon.html. I'll leave it to peoples smarter than I am to figure out if/where to put it. Legotech (talk) 19:08, 13 January 2008 (UTC)
 * According to this - http://www.answers.com/topic/aber-henfelen - Aber Henfelen is or was the Welsh name for the sea "between Wales and Cornwall". It's also mentioned here - http://www.mentercaerffili.org/saesneg/gwybodcaerffs.php?hanes=27.  Môr Hafren certainly means Severn Estuary, and Môr Celtaidd, I guess, means Celtic Sea (I don't speak Welsh, unfortunately) - so does that mean that Aber Henfelen should be used as the Welsh term for the Bristol Channel?  Ghmyrtle (talk) 23:33, 28 April 2008 (UTC)

Ecology
The claim in this article that Bristol Channel has second highest tides in the world is incorrect. Ungava Bay in Canada and the Bay of Fundy in Canada both have higher tides. Tiddy (talk) 02:14, 12 May 2010 (UTC)
 * That is not what the references say. --Simple Bob (talk) 02:16, 12 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Much of the current content of the ecology section refers to suitabaility for surfing and is inappropriate in this section. Moreover much of it reltaes to coastline beyond the article area. I may have a go at reassiging or deleting some of this. Geopersona (talk) 18:36, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

Restructuring of article
I have made a number of bold changes to the article due to its previously confused nature. I hope that other editors don't mind! though I think more changes could yet be made to make it more logical. In particular I have taken out a number of chunks of text entirely as they related to stretches of the coastline westward of the Bristol Channel or eastward of it ie the Severn Estuary and were simply not relevant to this article. Geopersona (talk) 19:50, 15 September 2010 (UTC)
 * I've tweaked some of your tweaks, and added some of my own. It's still a pretty poor article really, but I don't have the time or energy at the moment to attempt a full rewrite. I'm astonished that Bideford Bay doesn't have its own article (yet?)  Ghmyrtle (talk) 22:06, 15 September 2010 (UTC)
 * I was surprised too but it does now have a stub which I will do some further work on! Anyway thanks for all the extra tweaks on BC - like you I ran out of oomph on it. cheers Geopersona (talk) 06:08, 16 September 2010 (UTC)

Satellite view image
There is a problem with the appearance of this on the page causing some text to be obscured from the neighbouring section. I don't know how to fix it but I'm sure someone can. Geopersona (talk) 18:13, 23 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Works OK for me - it may be a problem with your browser. Try WP:VPT.  Ghmyrtle (talk) 20:10, 23 September 2010 (UTC)

Darren Jaundrill / Three Channels Challenge
I think it is best to remove all mention of this, as per this edit. I can find no evidence - outside Jaundrill's own claims - that the "Challenge" exists, let alone that he has completed it. His claims are here, but his other claims have been questioned, and his own site is down. Ghmyrtle (talk) 12:20, 16 March 2015 (UTC)

The West Country Challenge
Would you like to win up to £250 in Amazon vouchers for participating in The West Country Challenge?

The The West Country Challenge will take place from 8 to 28 August 2016. The idea is to create and improve articles about Bristol, Somerset, Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, Dorset, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, like this one.

The format will be based on Wales's successful Awaken the Dragon which saw over 1000 article improvements and creations and 65 GAs/FAs. As with the Dragon contest, the focus is more on improving core articles and breathing new life into those older stale articles and stubs which might otherwise not get edited in years. All contributions, including new articles, are welcome though.

Work on any of the items at: or other articles relating to the area.
 * Core articles
 * Missing article hotlist
 * Missing photograph hotlist

There will be sub contests focusing on particular areas:
 * Bristol (Day 1-3)
 * Cornwall and Scilly (Day 4-6)
 * Devon (Day 7-9)
 * Dorset (Day 10-12)
 * Gloucestershire (Day 13-15)
 * Somerset (Day 16-18)
 * Wiltshire (Day 19-21)

To sign up or get more information visit the contest pages at WikiProject England/The West Country Challenge.&mdash; Rod talk 16:11, 18 July 2016 (UTC)

External links modified
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External links modified
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Tidal range
The 'urban myth' that has it that the Channel and Severn estuary have the second highest tidal range in the world (behind the Bay of Fundy) lives on, bolstered - one suspects - by that statement having been presented here on Wikipedia. Ungava Bay has been shown to have a tidal range similar to that at Bay of Fundy. Now since the previous references state (incorrectly so far as is apparent to me) that this area has the second highest range I've retained them (since WP prefers verifiability over accuracy) and attempted to word it in such a way that further references verify Ungava Bay's claim to a higher tidal range than this place. Mention of Ungava Bay has been removed from this article previously, thereby helping perpetuate the myth. Further refs re Ungava Bay may be found at https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/6650/high-and-low-tides-in-bay-of-fundy. and also at https://casualnavigation.com/where-are-the-highest-tides-in-the-world/ which references mean tidal ranges and which specifically references this - https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/faq2.html#26. cheers Geopersona (talk) 05:20, 15 November 2020 (UTC)
 * As an observation, a recent BBC TV series, Tide also claimed Ungava Bay had the greatest tidal range. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0005sx4 Difficult to use it as a ref though. Murgatroyd49 (talk) 10:06, 15 November 2020 (UTC)

Welsh Channel?
I notice that Welsh Channel is a redirect to this article. The only Welsh Channel I know of is the one by the mouth of the River Dee near Talacre. , used for navigation. No Wikipedia page contains a link to Welsh Channel (until now), and none of the Wikipedia pages I checked refer to the term. The searches I've tried for the term just come up with a lot of references to S4C.

Is "Welsh Channel" a term which is connected with the Bristol Channel in some way? Thanks. Aoeuidhtns (talk) 14:04, 4 September 2023 (UTC)