Nearby places
BRISTOL, Gloucestershire
"Bristol, city, municipal and parliamentary borough, seaport, and county of
itself, chiefly in Gloucestershire but partly in Somerset, at the confluence of
the rivers Avon and Frome, 6 miles from the Bristol Channel at Avonmouth and 120
miles west of London by rail, the port being 29 miles from Cardiff, 70 from
Swansea, 245 from Dublin, 255 from Cork, and 325 from Liverpool; municipal
borough, 4632 acres, population 206,874; parliamentary borough, population
253,906. Bristol is built on a number of eminences, and has a fine appearance.
It contains important institutions, religious, educational, and charitable. It
has several fine churches, notably the Cathedral (1142-1160), and the church of
St Mary Redcliffe. It includes the suburbs of Clifton Down, a magnificent
suspension bridge spans the river Avon, having an elevation of 245 ft. above the
high water mark. From an early date Bristol has been a seaport of great
importance, its position being very favourable to commerce. In the reign of
Henry II. it carried on trade with the north of Europe, and between 1239 and
1247 there was occasion for enlarging and improving the accommodation for the
shipping. There are now extensive docks, not only within the city itself, but
also at Avonmouth on the north side of the mouth of the river, and at Portishead
on the south side; both these harbours being in direct communication with the
city by railway. The coasting trade is of great magnitude, steamers plying
regularly between Bristol and Cardiff, Swansea, London, Cork, Dublin, Liverpool,
and Glasgow; while the foreign trade extends to nearly all parts of the world.
Bristol has manufacturers of glass, soap, and earthenware; shipbuilding,
tanning, and sugar-refining; and extensive chemical and engineering works.
Bristol returns 4 members to Parliament - 4 divisions, viz., West, North, East,
and South, 1 member for each division; the parliamentary limits were extended in
1885 so as to include the local government districts of St George, Horfield, and
Stapleton, and an additional part of the parish of Bedminster. It returned 2
members till 1885."
[Extract from Bartholemew's Gazetteer of the British Isles, 1887]
- Original source material relating to Bristol City, and other parishes in
Diocese of Bristol may be found at the
Bristol Record Office.
- Bishop, Ian S. - The City & Kingswood Line
(A History of Bristol's Trams, 1995), and
Stories from St.Phillip's.
- ISBN: 0-9526490-0-4 and ISBN: 0-9526490-9-8
Written, produced and published by
Bishop Books -
two of several modestly-priced accounts of local history told through the
medium of old postcards from the author's personal collection.
-
Bristol Cathedral Website -
some very attractive photographs of inside and outside this
centre of worship, founded in 1140 as an Augustinian Abbey .
-
St Mary Redcliffe is (I think) Bristol's most attractive
church - this official site has an account of its history
accompanied by some wonderful photographs.
- Phil Draper's
Church Crawler site
has a special section for Bristol Cathedrals, Churches and Chapels.
Church Crawler is devoted to news and information about
churches in the UK, and worldwide, where the emphasis is on
"less-well-known churches that do not appear on the tourist
trails of the world". Phil's Bristol pages also include
links to many other web-pages relating to Bristol's churches -
an excellent presentation.
- Farmer's Bristol is an excellent site hosted by
Michael Farmer. Of particular interest is his
Bristol History
section, covering the development of Bristol from prehistoric times.
- Transcription of section of
Pigot's Directory of Gloucestershire, 1830 for Bristol (with Clifton, Bedminster, Ashton, Brislington, Pill, Stapleton, etc.), by Ted Wildy.
Alternatively, Comma-Separated-Variable (CSV) version of the above -
Pigot1830.CSV (379K)
has been prepared by Ivan Bateman from the above text, and is
available for browsing offline.
Hint: When your browser offers you the option to download this file, choose
'Save file to disk' and click 'OK' . You can then view it offline by importing it into a spreadsheet
such as Microsoft Excel - if you double-click on the file in Windows Explorer it
will open it automatically if you already have Excel installed. For other operating
systems or spread-sheets please consult your user manual.
- Transcriptions of Commercial sections from
Bristol Directories (notably Robson's 1837 and Slater's 1868), by Cathie
Bennett - an impressive collection!
- Transcription of section of
Morris & Co's Directory of Gloucestershire, 1876 for Bishopston - Trades & Professions, by Cathie Bennett.
- Bristol - City & County Archive - a collection of genealogical
material relating to Bristol, provided by Kevin Davis as part of his
Family History Archive.
- The
Bristol Look-Up Exchange, hosted by Vance Mead - an impressive list
of reference material relating to Bristol on which Vance is willing to
undertake small searches. Alternatively, if you have any reference material for
Bristol, on which you are willing to do look-ups yourself, contact Vance, and
he will add you to his list. Note: one of the available
reference sources relates to the Hundred of Berkeley, and so covers
a wider area than Bristol itself.
- Alan Ward's
Bristol Family History Research Guide,
covering Bristol, North Somerset & South Gloucestershire.
- David Stiles'
Bristol Index: Genealogy lists a good deal of useful information
about Bristol.
- Electronic Mailing List:
- BRISTOL_and_SOMERSET - a mailing list for anyone with a genealogical or historical
interest in the city of Bristol and/or the County of Somerset.
Check here for subscription
details for the above list.
- Edward III made Bristol a "City and County" in 1373,
although today, and in recent times past, it is not generally
considered to be both. For genealogical purposes, and specifically
in the International Genealogical Index (IGI) the City of Bristol is
considered as part of the County of Gloucestershire. In contrast,
the postal address prior to 1974, and the creation of the county
of Avon was "Bristol, Somerset".
"It has always been a proud place. In 1485 Henry VII visited and the
citizens appeared in their best apparel; but the king, thinking their wives
too richly dressed for their station, imposed a fine of twenty shillings
upon every citizen who was worth £20."
(From the item on Bristol in Lewis's Topographical
Dictionary, 1835, very kindly supplied by David Hawgood)
The area today known as "Bristol" is larger than the historic
City and County. The City Boundaries now extend as far north as
Stoke Gifford and Winterbourne, and to Shirehampton and Henbury
in the west.
- Various items relating to the history of Bristol are
available on the
England's Past for Everyone (EPE) website. Added 5 May 2008.
-
The Changing Face of Bristol & its People -
memories of the City of Bristol, and the area of Kingswood Forest over the last
100 years. There is much more on this site than might be at first apparent -
on its own admission it is vast, and it is suggested you use the site
search facility to find items of interest.
- The
Fishponds Local History Society site features several articles of
interest to those researching in Bristol, including:-
- A military history of Bristol during the Revolutionary War 1793-1802
- Economics of the Bristol region, 1780-1850
- An examination of the eighteenth century newspapers of Bristol and Gloucester
To reach the articles, choose the BRISTOL HISTORY
entry, from the menu on the left of your screen.
- Bristol and Transatlantic Slavery -
"all about the transatlantic slave trade and the effect on Bristol from the 1400s right
up to today". Still under construction (3 Sep 2003) but promises to be an
interesting site.
-
Bristol's Lost Pubs - a very attractive, and
easily navigable site dedicated to providing information about public
houses that have disappeared from Bristol, with photographs and
information gleaned from trade and street directories, &c.
- The About Bristol
site contains useful information about Bristol's Churches as they were in
early days - for instance whether individual churches were within,
or without the City walls. Please follow the link to Churches
in the left hand menu.
- See also
The Cathedrals of England - National Database.
- The Charter for the endowment of Bristol Grammar School was issued by Henry VIII to the
Thorne family, and the school dates from 1532.
- All Saints (1560)
- Cathedral (1669)
- Christchurch (1538)
- Holy Trinity (St Philip) (1832)
- Redland Green (1754)
- St Augustine the Less (1577)
- St Ewen (1538)
- St George (1756)
- St George (Brandon Hill) (1832)
- St James (1559)
- St John the Baptist (1558)
- St Leonard (1689)
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- St Mary le Port (1669: destroyed)
- St Mary Redcliffe (1559)
- St Michael the Archangel (1653)
- St Nicholas (1538)
- St Paul (Portland Sq) (1794)
- St Peter (1611: badly burnt)
- St Philip & St Jacob (1576)
- St Stephen (1559)
- St Thomas (1552)
- St Werburgh (1558)
- Temple (or Holy Cross) (1558)
|
[Original content based on information prepared by Brian Randell - 3 Mar 1998]
© Copyright Rosemary Lockie, GENUKI and Contributors 1999-2009, &c.
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[Last updated 14 Apr 2009 - 13:03 by Rosemary Lockie]
