Fact 110: 'I can't get no satisfaction'
The Rolling Stones were once refused entrance to The Bristol Grand Hotel
The Rolling Stones were once refused entrance to a Bristol hotel because Mick Jagger wasn't wearing a tie. Will the hotel - now the Thistle Bristol - ever live it down ?
Britain has been a rude and discourteous country according to a recent survey. But at least these days, groups of smartly groomed young men wouldn't get turned away from a posh hotel simply because the headwaiter didn't approve. Yet it happened in 1964 and the press were there to record it. A bunch of smartly dressed young men with neatly cut hair stood glumly in the street after being refused admittance to Bristol's poshest hotel, the Grand. They may have been the demon kings of rock-'n'-roll and the idols of millions back in the early 1960's. But to tail-coated head waiter Dick Court, the Rolling Stones were simply young men who were improperly dressed.
'We cannot serve you sir, unless you wear a tie and jacket' he told lead singer Mick Jagger, elegant in expensive grey striped sweatshirt and tailored jeans. The Stones didn't argue - they wandered off to the Bali in Park Street for curried prawns.
Mr Court was unrepentant: 'I realise the young gentleman was something of a celebrity but that does not change the position, I would feel compelled to refuse anyone - even a king - if he did not dress correctly'. The amazing thing is, looking back at pictures from the time, is that the Stones looked so clean and well groomed. But that was the rock 'n' roll era..
Fact 111: Sadler's Balloon Ascent from Bristol in 1810
The increased interest in ballooning in recent years is particularly apparent in and around Bristol, but probably only a few people are aware of the city’s associations with James Sadler (1753-1828), the first English aeronaut. When Thomas Beddoes (1760-1828) established the Pneumatic Institution at Clifton in 1798 Sadler, who had been his assistant in Oxford, was employed as a 'machinist' (Stock -1811, 90-91).
Sadler made a single balloon flight from Bristol, accompanied by William Clayfield (1810s-1830s). This ascent took place from Stoke’s Croft on the afternoon of 24 September 1810 in a balloon described as 'The largest and handsomest that ever ascended in this country'.
James Sadler (1753-1828) James Sadler’s early years were probably spent working in the family confectionery business in Oxford. He made several balloon flights during 1784 and 1785 and had even planned a crossing of the English Channel. He then abandoned the hazardous pursuit of ballooning for a number of years, and did not make another flight until July 1810, when he made an ascent from Oxford.
The reason for his long absence from ballooning is not known, but may have been financial. Apart from being a skilled balloonist Sadler was also a skilled and inventive engineer and chemist, abilities which were developed and put to service during this period.
The Oxford ascent was followed by a flight from Bristol using the same balloon. He made a number of flights in the following year, 1811, one of which, made from Birmingham on 7 October, is of particular interest. This flight, his twenty-first, was marked by the striking of a medal, an example of which is in the Museum of the History of Science, Oxford.
It commemorates what was probably the fastest journey to have been made at that time. Sadler and his companion, a Mr. Burcham, travelled 112 miles in one hour and twenty minutes. Both were lucky to survive. When they attempted to land in Lincoln-shire Sadler was thrown out and the basket with Burcham in it was dragged for a mile and half before the balloon snagged in a tree. Each thought the other to have been killed, and their relief and delight when they met in a small village near Spalding can be readily imagined.
Sadler is recognised as having an advanced appreciation of the art of handling balloons and the failure of his attempt to cross the Irish Sea in 1812 has been attributed, not to lack of technical expertise or proper planning, but rather to over-confidence.
William Clayfield (1810s-1830s) Of Sadler’s companion, William Clayfield, little has been published. Evans (1824, 305) described him as the 'youngest son of Chatterton’s liberal patron'. Clayfield, like Sadler, was employed by Beddoes. During this period he identified the very important locally occurring mineral celestine as strontium sulphate,he is also known to have had a fine collection of minerals and to have been an able botanist.
The Bristol Institution Annual Reports record several donations of minerals and fossils during the 1820s and 1830s, including a specimen of strontium sulphate from the 'Red Marl' at Arno’s Vale, donated in 1832.
The ascent from Stoke’s Croft, 24 September 1810
The crowds flocked into Bristol to witness the flight. The report in Felix Farley ‘s Bristol Journal recorded how ... 'the crowd continued to increase, till the adjoining gardens, fields, and hills seemed one forest of people; arid all the windows, roofs, and the very trees, in the immediate neighbourhood, were covered with spectators.'
The same report also describes in some detail the apparatus used to prepare the hydrogen with which the balloon was filled. This operation involved the familiar reaction between sulphuric acid and iron filings, but on a large scale — two and a half tons of filings were used on this occasion.
The same report also described the balloon: 'This magnificent machine, the same in which Mr. Sadler ascended at Oxford, was made of silk, glazed or painted in ribs of green and light purple; it was about thirty yards in circumference, and the middle was enveloped by a circle, inscribed in letters of gold — Rigbt Hon. Win. Windbam Grenville, Baro de Wotton, Cancel. Univers. Oxon.'
A watercolour of the balloon is in the City of Bristol Museum and Art Gallery. On the back of the drawing is written 'Sketch by W. Edkins of the Ascent of Sadler’s Balloon from Bristol. Sadler was accompanied by Mr. Win. Clayfield. My father painted the banner held by Sadler in his Ascent. Win. Edkins Jnr.'
The fresh north-north.easterly wind carried the balloon over Leigh Down, where the acronauts dropped by parachute a small basket containing a cat. It was retrieved by a lime-burner and passed into the hands of a local doctor who appropriately christened it ‘Balloon.
They shortly passed over the coast, and recorded that as they neared Cardiff they drank the health of 'Col. GORE and the Bristol Volunteers'. (The Volunteers had controlled the crowd while the preparations for the ascent were being made, allowing them to take place without hindrance). The balloon 'Descended so low as to hear the shouts of the people, and the breakers between Barry and Scily Islands. (A typographic error, Sully was intended.) Fearing the main land could not be reached, and a current of air impelling the Balloon towards the sea, more ballast was thrown out, in doing which, Mr. SADLER lost his hat.'
The balloon continued its drift to mid-channel, but Sadler and Clayfield were able to check the descent by releasing a quantity of ballast. They recorded that as they neared the coast of Devon they drank 'To all absent friends'; about half an hour later, off the small town of Linton, they again had to attempt to check the balloon’s descent.
They 'threw out everything that could be parted with, including a great-coat, a valuable barometer, a thermometer, a speaking-trumpet, the grapling iron, — and even part of the interior covering of the Car, in the hope of reaching the main land about Barnstaple; but, owing to the exhaustion of the gas, the Balloon would not rise sufficiently . . .' and they landed in the sea, about four miles from the land. Fortunately the event had been seen from the shore and a boat was launched immediately. It took an hour to reach them, and another two hours to completely deflate and secure the balloon.
The rescuers and rescued reached Linton at nine o’clock. An eventful day.
Fact 113: BRISTOL SETTING AIR STANDARDS
January 2005 Once again, Bristol has a hand in helping to create an aircraft that sets new standards. From the Box Kite to the Brabazon and from the Britannia to Concorde, planes that left their mark on the world of aviation have relied on Bristol expertise. And so it is with the latest in that line, the giant Airbus A380.
Even before she has made her first flight, this aircraft has redefined air travel, in the numbers of people she will carry, the facilities aboard and in her sheer size. She is one of those machines which will turn heads. She may not have the originality of the Box Kite, the propeller-driven grace of the mighty Brabazon or, for certain, the revolutionary look of Concorde. But she will stand out from the crowd thanks to her sheer size and she will usher in a new era of plane travel.
Just like the Brabazon and Concorde, people will hold their breath on the day this mighty aircraft takes to the skies for her maiden flight. That is expected to be towards the end of March although no date has yet been confirmed. We can already anticipate the excitement and the expectation of that day and the anxiety. For no matter how many thousands of hours have been spent predicting her performance using computers, there is no substitute for the acid test of opening her throttles and attempting a take-off.
But when that day comes we are confident she will have a successful maiden flight and the name of Bristol will be written into another chapter of aviation history. It will be an immensely proud event for all the 1,000 people who work on the wings, landing gear and fuel systems at Filton. And perhaps it will give us all the chance to pause and to marvel at how far aviation has come since the first powered flight more than a hundred years ago. 'We wish her well'.
