Bristol

Introduction

When I started this site there was not much information available about the city online at all. I relied on my own collection of books and pamphlets and went around the city taking many photos. Over the years, people started writing about what interested them about the city and people interested in genealogy added their own sites.All of these helped trmendously when I added or updated my pages.

Nowadays there are any number of resources to draw on. Google and the Internet Archive have scanned millions of documents and books. A fanastic source, offered by Bristol City since 2006, are the set of maps and other information on the Pinpoint and Know Your Place pages.

Help wanted:-

Every now and then I get emails from people who would like further information on specific questions they have about Bristol. I've gathered these together and they are now on the Help Wanted pages, please pay this page a visit and contact me if you know anything at all about them.

Bristol - A history and a Guide

This is my history and guide to my home city - Bristol. I hope you enjoy it as Bristol is one of the best cities in the world.

A good place to start would be to tell you where we are . . .

Bristol is situated 120 miles west of London, England. If you are interested the city centre is located at Lat. 51:27:15 Long. 2:35:12. and at Ordnance Survey co-ordinates 359249 173007

Map showing Bristol in relation to some major UK cities

Here's an interesting fact about the UK - Everyone lives within 60 miles of the coast.

Map showing Bristol and some major surrounding cities and towns.

The area bounded by the mauve rectangle is shown in the satellite photograph below.

To give you some idea of the scale of this map the distance between Bristol and Bath is 15 miles

Satellite photo of the area around Bristol

If you would like to see more detailed maps then go to my links page

Bristol has a population of around 376,000

Satellite photo of Bristol

Each side of this map is about 10 miles long.

Present day Bristol is a conglomeration of the many villages and hamlets that used to surround the original city and have since been swallowed up by it. Usually, but not always, all that has survived are the names of these villages. Hence people still talk of Brislington and Clifton villages.

Incidentally, do you know the difference between a village and a hamlet?

(The answer is at the bottom of the page)

Part of a 1975 tourist brochure
Published by the Bristol City Public Relations Office

Many thanks to Libby Maher, who visited Bristol in 1975. She picked up this brochure and kept it for 46 years before giving it to me in July 2021. I have scanned it and made a PDF from it.

Other useful sites you may like to visit can be found at :-

Old English Weights, Measures and Coinage

While I was writing this, I realised that some of the terms I would be using are no longer in common usage, these sites will give more information

Chard Jewellers an excellent site that has much information on the British pre-decimal coinage system
English Weights and Measures
Footrule - pages explaining the old volume / capacity measurements
Jaques Proot - pages explaining all sorts of old measurements
Paul Lewis - a page explaining the old British pre-decimal coinage system
General Unit Conversion

United Kingdom

Association of British Counties
The Counties of England
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch from the BBC in 1964
Generic Forms in Place Names (Wikipedia)
Key to English Place Names
Toponymy of England (Wikipedia)

Other pages in this section...

Place Names
Legends, Pre-history and the Romans
Birth of the City
1100 - 1450 - Norman Times, Knights Templar, King John, New Frome and Bristol Bridge, Three Edwards, Trade Guilds and the Red Books, The Plague and after, The New Charters - we become a County, the Cathedral, St. Mary Redcliffe
Voyages
1450 - 1650 - The War of the Roses, Social Life, Queen Elizabeth I's visit, the Great House, Red Lodge, America and other Colonies, The Civil War - Causes
1650 - 1700 - The Civil War, Charles II, Growing City, Diarists, Religious quarrels, Monmouth's Rebellion, The Bloody Assize, The Duke and Duchess, The Slave Trade, Other Trade and Industries
1700 Onwards - Social Life, Prisons, Relief for the Poor, Education, News, George Whitefield, the Wesley's and Methodism, Prisoners of War and Manor Park Hospital, The Industrial Revolution, cast iron, the roads, lead shot, postal services. Dr Tucker, Edmund Burke, Joseph Cottle and the poets, Humphry Davy
Boundaries - City and parish boundaries
Seals, Arms and Logos (Page 1)
Seals, Arms and Logos (Page 2)
Riots (Page 1) Food Riot - 1709, Political Riot -1714, Weavers Riots - 1728 / 1729, Turnpike Riots - 1727 - 1749, Food Riot - 1753, Bristol Bridge Riot - 1793, Political Reform Riot - 1831
Riots (Page 2) G.I. Riot - 1944, Political Riot -1980
The Blitz - The WWII bomb raids on Bristol
Paul Plumley's wartime evacuation
Virtute et Industrial
Historical Perspective
Avon Gorge (Page 1) - Leigh Woods, Stokeleigh Camp, Nightingale Valley, Suspension Bridge, Suicides
Avon Gorge (Page 2) - Suspension Bridge, Flying
Avon Gorge (Page 3) - Rock Slide, Observatory, Camera Obscura, Giant's Cave
Bedminster (Page 1) - The New Cut, Old gaol
Bedminster (Page 2) - Police Station, Pubs, Bristol Blue Glass
Bedminster (Page 3)
Bedminster (Page 4)
Bedminster (Page 5)
Bedminster (Page 6)
Bedminster (Page 7)
Weare Street, Bedminster
Brislington
Broadmead - John Wesley's Chapel, Merchant Tailors Almshouse and Quakers Friars
Castle Green (Page 1) - including Victoria Street
Castle Green (Page 2)
The Old City (Page 1)
The Old City (Page 2)
The Old City (Page 3)
The Old City (Page 4)
College Green (Page 1)
College Green (Page 2)
Christmas Steps (Page 1)
Christmas Steps (Page 2)
Clifton (Page 1)
Clifton (Page 2) - St. Andrew's Church
City Docks
Hotwells
St. George's House, St. Augustine's
King Street (Page 1)
King Street (Page 2)
Old Market
St. George (Page 1)
St. George (Page 2)
St. George (Page 3)
St. George (Page 4) - Old Georgians
Temple (Page 1)
Temple (Page 2)
Temple (Page 3)
Troopers Hill
Union Street - Fry's chocolate & excavations of a medieval site
@ Bristol
Arno's Vale Cemetery (Page 1)
Arno's Vale Cemetery (Page 2)
Blaise Castle (Page 1)
Blaise Castle (Page 2) - including Sea Mills and Blaise Hamlet
Bristol Bridge
The Castle (Page 1) - The Norman Conquest, Robert Fitzhamon and Robert of Caen, Matilda, Maud and Stephen
The Castle (Page 2) - King Richard I and King John, Taxes, The Mint, Wales
The Castle (Page 3) - Peter de la Mare, Edward II, The Despensers, Death of Edward II, William Scrope, War of the Roses, Wyrcester's Account of the Castle, More Taxes
The Castle (Page 4) - Religious Dissent, Civil War, The End of the Castle, Remains
The Castle (Page 5) - Remains
The Castle (Page 6) - Remains, Sources
1935 Hanham Woods Murder of Mrs. Gladys Nott
Oldest House
St. Mary Redcliffe (Page 1)
St. Mary Redcliffe (Page 2)
St. Mary Redcliffe (Page 3)
1893 Exhibition - The 1893 Industrial and Fine Arts Exhibition
Anchorites and Hermits
Breweries (Page 1)
Breweries (Page 2)
Lead Working
Mackies Engineering, Kingswood
Early Photography
Polar Adventures
E. S. & A. Robinson
I. K. Brunel (Page 1) - Bristol Suspension Bridge, Temple Meads, Great Western Railways
I. K. Brunel (Page 2) - SS Great Western, SS Great Britain
Ma Pugsley
Wilmot Family
Yeamans - An important 17th century family
Bristol Postcards
Maps, Photos, Books and other Publications - A bibliography
Other Sites
Help Wanted (Page 1)
Help Wanted (Page 2)
Help Wanted (Page 3)

(A village has a church and a hamlet hasn't.)