About Us
At Bristol Balloon Collectors we take care of old, retired hot air balloons to preserve them for future generations to enjoy. Most of our envelopes have been based locally around Bristol and Bath, but some from further afield.
Hot air ballooning started in Bristol in the late 1960s with the creation of Don Cameron's Bristol Belle, which sparked his interest in the sport and led to him founding Cameron Balloons Ltd. In 1979 the first Bristol Balloon Fiesta took place from Ashton Court with 27 balloon teams coming from all over the world to take part. It became increasingly popular with the number of balloons and publicity growing year on year. Soon Bristol was globally recognised for hot air ballooning and the fiesta was one of the city's most popular events. And of course balloons don't just come in regular 'teardrop' shapes; we have seen many weird and wonderful special shapes grace the skies of Bristol over the years. Rupert Bear, Caramel Bunny and the Piper to name a few. 2018 saw the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta celebrate its 40th anniversary! |
Hot air balloons are often built for commercial use and advertising purposes, but some are also created for private use. Many of the balloons in our collection have been flown and tethered for many hours, so they are no longer airworthy. However, all can still be hot inflated and tethered so people can still enjoy them.
How the collection started
Back in 2014 Liam was looking out for an envelope to practise inflations on.. this is where Badgerline G-BRHG came along, 3 years later we received a message about 3 old envelopes that needed shifting from a barn near Bath these where Cameron N-90 G-BUVW 'Bristol Balloon' which is the lead balloon for the collection, the first official donated balloon was Cameron O-105 G-BTKW formally sponsored by Decora and finally Cameron N-90 G-BMJZ 'Uvistat' which is being stored with us at the collection. This is when we thought we should start preserve and save old balloons then shortly after we set up a website and social media platforms and that's when Bristol Balloon Collectors were created.
The collection has continued to grow and in 2018 we attended the 3 largest balloon events in the UK. Glorious weather greeted us at Ragley Hall for the inaugural Midlands Air Festival and allowed us to display 6 balloons during the weekend. On Saturday morning we inflated alongside some classic special shapes including the Michelin Man, Action Man and Bertie Bassetts! It was a special year for the Bristol Balloon Fiesta and we were invited to celebrate their 40th anniversary. G-EIIR, built for the Queen's Silver Jubilee in 1977, had been donated to us and this appeared at the first ever fiesta. We tethered on Friday with some other old envelopes and newer special shapes. Our final event of the year was Longleat's Sky Safari, where we enjoyed inflating our balloons on the lawn beside the Longleat house.
Some of our other balloons you might recognise are Sunrise, BWS Security Systems, Trademaster, Roman Baths and Bryan Brothers. We are looking forward to much more hot air ballooning action in 2023! Keep up to date by following us on Facebook and Twitter.
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Featured Videos
Our friends at MJ Ballooning have videos of some of our inflations on YouTube. See which of the collection you can spot!
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