Fact 194: FOOTSTEPS INTO HISTORY
The heights of Ashley Hill have always attracted people, from the old Benedictine monks of medieval St James's Priory to that remarkable man George Muller centuries later.In olden times, when the monks lived and worshipped in their priory near the Horsefair, the possession of a country manor out in the countryside at Ashley - where the boiling springs ran fast and clear - must have been a welcome relief from the dusty, dirty and noisy town. After the priory and all their rich lands and possessions were confiscated at the Reformation, the manor of Ashley attracted men of wealth - men like the notorious Sir Humphrey Hooke, who made a fortune out of mercantile adventures.
By changing sides, to first Royalist and then Parliamentarian, the turncoat managed to safeguard his fortune. Cromwell spoke of him as having 'done something considerable' (we don't know what) at the capture of Bristol by the Roundheads in 1645. He bought the manor of Ashley and its mill became known as Hooke's Mill.
Our walk begins in Ashley Down Road by the great grey stone orphan houses built by George Muller. In those days, Ashley Down was still surrounded by open fields and made an ideal site for Muller's great family of 2,000 orphan children. The five houses cost £115,000 to build and, despite their recent conversion into private apartments, look staunch enough to continue to stand as a memorial to this remarkable man for many centuries yet to come. The crocodiles of orphan girls in their bonnets and shawls have long since vanished from the scene as the children were moved, in the 1950s, into much more suitable houses around the city and the surrounding countryside.
Further along Ashley Down Road, in the direction of Sefton Park school, you will find evidence that this district, with its magnificent views across Ashley Vale to as far away as Kelston Tump, was a favoured spot for the well-to-do to build their houses. Some, like Ashley Grange, once the home of cricketer W G Grace, have vanished to make way for modern flats, leaving only its name on a block of stone near the base of a silver birch tree which perhaps the great man himself planted.
Tudor Lodge, another fine house, has also been demolished to make way for modern houses. But Glenfrome, a house of character, remains, as does Ashley House itself, a one- time residence of Lord Mayor Walter Bryant. Turn off to the left down the steep path just beyond the turning to Kathdene Gardens. This will take you down into Ashley Vale through a hillside of allotments.
Down these slopes ran the stream that once fed the quay pipe on the corner of St Stephen's Street in the heart of Bristol. The water flowed from Ashley Hill through Baptist Mills, under Newfoundland Street, Milk Street and Horsefair, and over Bridewell Bridge to emerge into a cistern.
Old city records tell us how, in the 16th century, payment was made for 'taking three cats out of the quay pipe'. At one time, the many sailing ships leaving Bristol relied on this supply to fill their water casks.
At the bottom of the track known as Stoney Lane, you will pass the South Wales Railway Tavern, a pub that takes its name from the nearby railway line to the Severn Tunnel and South Wales. To locals, however, this pub is better known as The Farm, taking its name from Watercress Farm.
Looking around today, it's strange to reflect that once this was a pleasant rural retreat that attracted Victorian picnic parties, who rode out in wagonettes to sample the open air and eat the fresh cress sandwiches always on sale at Watercress Farm. Our path now lies along Mina Road through the low arched tunnel for a glimpse of a church with a strange story.
It is St Werburgh's, whose beautiful tower rises gracefully over the suburban streets just as it once did over Corn Street in the city. In the late 19th century, this medieval church posed something of a headache to the authorities as it jutted out into Corn Street, one of the most crowded of city highways even in those days. Since the number of parishioners attending services had dwindled to a mere 18 souls, it was decided to find it a new home.
After the last service, on August 12, 1877, began the task of numbering every stone and pinnacle. Horses pulled the wagon-loads of stone block across the city to Mina Road in an area then known as Baptist Mills. When the tower was dismantled, Bristol lost one of its curfew bells telling townsfolk to douse all domestic fires in their half-timbered houses before retiring. It had sounded since time immemorial from St Werburgh's tower. The 'church that moved' had travelled lock, stock and pulpit across Bristol to give its name to a whole district.
Fact 195: Bishopston was once in open countryside
The tree-lined handsome,well-built houses of Bishopston have been popular with home-buyers since the area was developed in Victorian times. Bishopston is today a peaceful residential suburb off the Gloucester Road. But it began with an argument that had to be settled by Parliament. Bishopston today seems little different from Redland and St Andrews which borders it to the east and west. The houses are a little younger than old Redland, and a little older than most of St Andrews. But it took Parliament to settle an argument which held up the development of the land for years. In the 1840s, the area where Berkeley and Egerton Roads now stand was farmland and orchards in the countryside between Bristol and Horfield, which was said to be so wild that a small Horfield boy froze to death on his way home one night.
It was obviously prime building land once Cotham and Montpelier were built up, but it was then part of the manor of Horfield over which the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol had virtually feudal rights. The Ecclesiastical Commissioners decided in 1846 to take over the lease of Horfield - then a much different parish than today - on the grounds that the income topped the £5,000 a year permitted.
The bishop, Dr James Monk (remembered in Bishop Road and Monk Road among others) offered to sell his interests for £11,587, with half the proceeds going to his family and half towards improving the living of poor parsons. Dr Monk managed to negotiate a lease which would have given him the title Lord Farmer as well as the recipient of that useful £545 a year.
The complexity of the situation and the ancient feudal rights led to debates in Parliament, with doubts over the legal status of the bishop’s holdings as well as the rights of leaseholders and copy-holders on the estate. While this was going on, no development could take place. Dr Monk seems to have been a well-meaning man who tried to thread his way through the ancient Laws of lease and copy-holding as best he could. But the £545 a year income from the manor attracted the interest of the Revd Henry Richards, Perpetual Curate of Horfield (an old title with feudal powers), who tried to persuade Parliament that Dr Monk had no right to sell the lease.
Richards, the largest copy-holder, had an eye on the cash and the title, and was furious at the bishop trying to strike a deal without his agreement. As Dr Monk recorded, ‘His indignation exhibited itself in railing against his bishop’.
In the end the government vetoed the deal, so Dr Monk granted a new lease ‘for three lives’ to his secretary. Parliament was very unhappy with the compromise, with MPs insisting the bishop should have regarded the manor as a public trust rather than his own property. Dr Monk argued that he wanted to end the ancient feudal rights system and improve the living of Horfield and this was the best way to do it. The row simmered on until 1858 when a board of trustees finally bought the lease for £5,000. ‘With the emancipation of the district from the copy-hold system dates its rise and rapid growth as a suburb’ recorded annalist John Latimer.
But the greedy Richards was not finished. He agreed to the formation of a new parish in Horfield to be called Bishopston and for the bishop to be the patron. But after Dr Monks’ death, he backed down, claiming he would never allow a Low churchman to nominate a clergyman in his parish. Richards obviously had his eye on the value of living, which was increasing as Bishopston developed.
He built a new church on Gloucester Road and offered to endow it, providing the patronage was vested in him and his heirs. But the trustees now administering the manor of Horfield persuaded the new bishop to once again reject Richard’s offer ‘to the great wrath of the vicar who must have seen that through the increasing population, the value of the living would soon be augmented’.
The church of St Michael and All Angels was opened on June 20, 1858 on what is locally still called Pigsty Hill. The new parish included parts of Horfield, Stapleton and Montpelier parishes. Bishopston, the suburb, began with Berkeley and Egerton roads, handsome tree-lined streets built in orchards stocked with mature trees, many of which still survive today.
There is a persistent story handed down in the area that no pairs of houses were to be identical. It is impossible to say if it is true after more than a century, but there is still an astonishing diversity in house design and decoration. Richards reappeared in history one more time when he opened a pleasure garden at Horfield on the lines of Rennison’s in Montpelier. However, it was too far out of town for fashionable Bristolians and it soon closed. Richard cut his losses by selling the land to Bristol Corporation for a new prison which is still there today. Sadly, his church of St Michael’s, a local landmark for more than a century, had to be demolished in the 1990s when it was found to be unsafe.
Fact 196: LOST LODGE WILL BE MISSED
Blagdon Lodge, which stood at the bottom of Bristol Hill in Brislington for more than 180 years, had no less than three names, and yet many local people would not recognise any of them. The house, number 55 Bristol Hill, has recently been demolished for a new flats development. It was originally known as Ivy Lodge, and this name could still be seen on the entrance path pillars until they were demolished a few months ago. It is believed the house was built about 1820 for one of the Ricketts family who lived nearby at The Grove, a large late 18th century house which still survives at the top of Bristol Hill.
The Ricketts were well known glass manufacturers for more than 60 years. They owned The Phoenix Flint Glass Works in Portwall Lane at Temple Gate. In 1820 Henry Ricketts patented the first machine for moulding glass bottles. Blagdon Lodge may have been built for Henry's son, Richard, and it is likely the family continued to own the property until the huge estate which made up The Grove was sold in 1900. The first occupier of Blagdon Lodge that we can name is Mrs Worsley, widow of Phillip John Worsley, a Redcliffe Back sugar refiner. She came here in 1837 when Arnos Vale House - a large Georgian mansion set in 40 acres of parkland - was demolished to make way for Arnos Vale cemetery.
After her death in 1843, Blagdon Lodge became the home of John Cox, a Bristol tanner. Various occupiers then followed, all living there for short periods, which ties in with the theory that the house was rented out. From 1880 to 1885 John Brookman - a 'cab proprietor', according to the 1881 census - lived there. His wife, Caroline, ran a private school from the house. From 1886 to 1890, the house was home to the Rev John Lindsay, then resident curate at St Luke's Church in Brislington, and it was during this period that the house received its second name St Luke's Lodge.
The next occupier was Arthur Lawson, of Bristol soap manufacturers Lawson & Co, who was instrumental in getting electric light installed in Bristol Cathedral in 1888. He was succeeded by Charles Isbell, a solicitor, who appears to have renamed the house Blagdon Lodge in about 1902. In 1904, Harold Almond ran The Derry Laundry there, a business which was taken over by James Galley in 1908.
This family lived at the house and ran their laundry business there for more than 50 years. Older Brislingtonians still know the house as The Derry Laundry. The house was taken over briefly by an engineering firm, but the final chapter in its history came in 1959 when it was bought by Robert Verrecchia, of the well known ice cream manufacturing family. Robert's father, Eugenio Verrecchia, had founded the business in Bedminster in 1925. The family opened a factory in Stockwood Lane, Brislington in 1959 and this ran until the business finished in 1998.
Several generations of local children knew the 'Vereeshas' (the correct pronunciation is 'Vereckia'). It was Robert who converted the house into flats, living in one of them himself for many years. Many of the original tenants were employees at the TWW TV studios (once HTV and now the home of ITV West) which opened on the Bath Road in 1960.
Work on the redevelopment has now begun and sadly, Ivy Lodge, St Luke's Lodge, Blagdon Lodge, The Derry Laundry - call it what you will - is no more.
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