Originally a small pill ('pill' is Welsh and means a tidal inlet), used for boat building, in 1810 Bullo Pill was selected by the Forest of Dean Tramroad Company to be developed as a port for exporting Forest coal and stone. This involved building of a large dock basin with tidal lock gates and a upper basin for water storage, which was followed by the installation of coal chutes plus whaves and stone revetments along the river bank for additional cargo-handling and mooring. This was completed by 1833 as was a tramway running from Cinderford and before long, Bullo had grown into one of the most important ports in the area.

Around the basin several factories sprung up, notably a marble-works and in later times, a rubber-mill. In 1854, the tramway was superseded by a broad-gauge branch railway line running from a newly built junction on the main Great Western Railway. All this increased Bullo's capacity and its height, the port was handling over 1000 tons of cargo a day but after 1900, as the railways grew, Bullo's trade gradually declined and it finally closed in 1926. The basin began to silt up, but in 1991 it was cleared and new lock gates installed when plans were put forward to develop the basin into a marina. Nothing has come of this as yet though some private yachts and boats are stored here.