THE COCKROAD GANG OF KINGSWOOD
In the mid-eighteenth Century Kings Chase was reputed to be one of the most unruly places in the county. A report from the Bristol Gazette dated 23 April 1786 said that Fry and Ward, now under sentence of death,made ten persons who had died on the gallows within 3 years from the Parish of Bitton (Kingswood and Hanham was in that Parish). The gang to which these miscreants belonged kept the neighbourhood of Bitton in so much dread that people used to pay them an annual stipend not to rob them of their poultry and other things. The protection money was usually paid annually at Lansdown Fair.
In Brain’s History of Kingswood Forest, dated 1891 it is recorded that perhaps no other village in England surpassed Cockroad for its notoriety in robbery. So full of lawless persons, highway men and burglars was it that constantly many places near were plundered at the same time. It was also recorded as being the home of many ‘hucksters’ (fences) and that these dealers in stolen goods could be seen passing with their carts but no one dared stop or report them.
Persons were stopped, grossly insulted and robbed in daylight. Gangs of ruffians by day and by night were always on the watch. The spot on which Cockroad Methodist Church stood seemed to be their general rendezvous and outlook, as from this spot they could see anyone approaching at great distance.
Hence they were prepared and no one dared to approach the den. The whole of the village of Cockroad seemed to be robbers and existed on their plunder. Farmers would sometimes come with the Constable in search of lost property, their own livestock being paraded in front of their eyes whilst the robbers laughed. However they dare not touch them as they could not identify their pigs and sheep after they had been killed and dressed.
The place was so bad with robbery and violence that it became a serious problem with the Bristol authorities as to how it could be put down. Eventually they called together the watchmen and city guards and sent them in a mass. at the dead of night to Cockroad, where, aided by the local Constable, they surrounded every house, taking every man they could lay their hands on into custody.
This was indiscriminate arrest and they took them all to Bristol where subsequently only a few were liberated, the majority being transported or hanged.
Several of the notorious Cains or Caines family who came from Cockroad and Cadbury Heath were hanged at Gloucester. This family used to plunder much further afield than the immediate vicinity of Bristol.
Cholera - In 1849 cholera came to Bristol. There were 778 cases, of which 444 resulted in death. A health report later commissioned by the Council stated that:
There were no sanitary authorities in Clifton, in which lived an estimated 60,000 people, or in St. Philip's Parish, Westbury or Bedminster. Sixty-four people were living in one house in one of the stench-filled Courts during the epidemic. Sewage from houses in Kingsdown ran down to St. James and sometimes into the dwelling houses. Some sewage drained into cess pools which filtered into nearby wells.
Whiteladies Road had an open gutter for sewage. Clifton was poorly lit, whilst Bedminster, Redland and Cotham had no lights at all. Ashes and house refuse was thrown daily into many private roads in the suburbs, and never removed. Drunkenness, filth, and excessive mortality were attributed to want of drainage and want of water.
In 1851 a new law gave the council power to make the necessary improvements. When cholera came again in 1866 there were only 29 fatalities.
1865 - OPENED :— Port & Pier Railway; Avonmouth Gardens.
House next door to The Angel Inn, High Street, fell down.
Public Houses to be closed between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m.
(This new regulation added to the tranquility of the streets).
W. G. Grace, when only 17, selected to play in the premier match of the year—Gentlemen versus Players.
Bristol Assize restored.
Working Men’s Industrial Exhibition, Rifle Drill Hall, visited by 116,926 persons.
Trefoil parapet at Cross demolished.
New thoroughfare from College Green to Hotwell Road (Deanery Road) made, following demolition of part of the Deanery at right angles to Norman Arch, thus replacing the existing route by Cow Street and Frog Lane (now under Park Street Viaduct). As a result the road in front of Cathedral was lowered leaving the original doorway in North Transept three feet above the new level.
Two pigs of lead with Roman inscriptions found on banks of Froom near Wade Street—the only important Roman relics so far found in Bristol.
Lovers’ Walk, Redland, sold, partly for building, partly for an open space. An iron church in Tyndall’s Park in temporary use for ten years.
1866 - OPENED :— Rupert Street; Fairfax Street.
Opened :— Pembroke Chapel, Oakfield Road; Triliity Chapel,Whiteladies Road; Emmanuel Church, Clifton.
Mr. J. H. Chute, manager of Theatre Royal, purchased a large house in Park Row and constructed the new Theatre Royal, (Princes Theatre) on the site. Cost £18,000 (Accommodating 2,400).
Bristol Harbour Railway constructed under Redcliff Hill caused the removal of the Vicarage and nearly all one side of Guinea Street, giving the Vestry £2,500 compensation, which purchased ground at Arno’s Vale for the church cemetery.
Rownham Ferry bought by Corporation for £10,000.
The lowering of the road in front of the Cathedral, led to the discovery of the foundations of a small Norman nave and of a later one commenced (probably by Abbot Knowle) but never completed, and inspired an appeal by Canon Norris to reconstruct the nave. This led to the great work of the next twenty years.
Bristol Turnpike Trustees controlling 163 miles of road, reported that the mortgage debt was nearly paid off, and this led to the tolls being abolished in 1867, thus throwing the maintenance of the roads on to the ratepayers, and most of the toll houses were demolished.
(The Clifton toll house at the top of Bridge Valley Road had a large rustic portico, under which the public were accustomed to take shelter during sudden showers of rain).
1875 - OPENED :— Beaufort Road; road round Sea Walls; road from Blackboy to Stoke Hill; Baldwin Street fishmarket.Cabmen’s Rests: St. James Barton; St. John’s School, Blackboy Hill; Bristol Bridge; Old Market; Triangle.
Bristol Industrial Dwellings Company erect tenements in Jacob’s Wells Road.
February: Downs Railway Tunnel completed. (Extension to Avonmouth not opened until 1885)
February 13: Horfield lit with gas.
March 16: Downs Railway Tunnel passed through by the Mayor and party.
May 3: Albert Hall, Hotwells, opened.
June: Alderman. Proctor gives Fishponds Park to the City.
July 31: St. Philip’s Bridge freed to pedestrians.
August: First tram service opened: Perry Road—bottom Blackboy Hill; 115,000 carried in first month. (Proposed extension Victoria Rooms to Victoria Square opposed by Clifton residents.)
October 7: Four killed at South Liberty Pit, Ashton.
December 4: Tram line extended to Drawbridge.
1876 - OPENED: Zetland Road.
Cabmen’s Rests: Clifton Down (near. Suspension Bridge); Clifton Road
(near Clifton Church); Redcliffe Hill.
Chairmen’s Rests set up. Foundation of Bristol University College. Demolition of the mansion, Ashley Court, for building plots. Great fire in Christmas Street.
February: New North Porch of Cathedral adorned with statues of Gregory, Jerome, Ambrose and Augustine, provoked a No-Popery controversy. Replaced two years later with figures of the four Evangelists. Rejected statues now at East Heslerton Church, Yorks.
April 22: Formation of Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society.
June 3: Trains: Old Market to Eastville.
July: St. Philip’s Branch Library opened.
August 1: Amalgamation of G.W.R. and Bristol and Exeter Railway.
September 30: Trains: Perry Road to Old Market.October: Central Library opened.
October 28: Trains: Old Market to St. George.
1877 - OPENED: Cotham Park; Brigstocke Road. Cabmen’s Rests: Joint Station; Caledonia Place; Clifton Down (near. Christchurch); College Green; Clifton Down Station. White Hart, Jacob’s Wells, demolished.
January 1: Acquisition of new Mansion House to cost £800 per year.
January 4: Froom floods Mina Road (three feet deep).
January 25: St. Mary-le-Port Church re-opened. Restoration cost £2,150.
January 26: St. Michael’s Church re-opened. Restoration cost £1,000.
February 13: Nettle Lane in Hampton Road to be widened from a narrow footpath to a carriage road.
February 15: Bristol Museum and Library: since 1863 number of subscribers rose from 188 to 616.
February 24: Avonmouth Dock opened by the mayor in the steamer 'Juno' (first sod August 26, 1868).
March: King Square branch library opened.
March 27: Insurance Companies disband their fire brigades and a Municipal Brigade established six months later.
May 14: Death of Mary Carpenter, aged 70. Red Lodge in Park Row was first Girls’ Reformatory in Great Britain: premises purchased by Lady Byron 1854 and managed by Miss Carpenter.
May 29: Bristol Evening News established.
July 18: Sale of site of St. Werburgh’s and parsonage and adjoining tenements to London and S.W. Bank. for £21,000.
August 12: Last service in St. Werburgh’s.
August 22: Demolition of St. Werburgh’s commenced.
September: Black Rock Quarry (working since 1868 for road material) closes to preserve the beauty of the scenery, led to new quarry on the Somerset shore.
September 29: Bedminster Branch of the Free Public Library opens with 7,200 books. October 14: Gale felled 160 trees in Kingsweston Park.
October 17: 800 attend Scientific Soiree at Museum and Library when Prof. Graham Bell explained his invention, the telephone.
October 23: Cathedral nave opened; western towers up to level of roof, commemorating Colston and Butler, completed 1887.
November 15: Giant’s Castle opened as first house of The Tavern & Club Co.
December 5: A Tramway locomotive made by Fox Walker & Co. for Rouen, traversed the Stapleton to Redland route.
December 13: Fry’s chimney stack erected: 200 ft., 301,000 bricks.
December 31: Rownham Place, Hotwells, old national school room opened as Industrial Exhibition: cake of pure silver weighing 3,000 oz.; working model of vertical steam engine small enough to go under a thimble.
1880 - May 22: 28 Trains carried 125,000 in Whit-week.
June 24: Hotwells Tram service opened.
July 20: Temple Church high wall removed and the two acres laid out as Pleasure Ground.
Sept. 20: Bedminster Bridge feared will be unsafe when trains use it.
Nov. 17: Bedminster tram service opened.
Nov. 18: Horfield route opened with steam trains—great success
Dec. 20: Exhibiton of Photographic Art by the Bristol & West of England Amateur Photographic Association.
1881 - Jan 15: 'The Electric Light' was tested in the four central city streets (not very successful)
Feb 28: Baldwin Street opened by Mayor.
April 20: Cotham Gardens opened.
May 7: 2,424 houses empty in five parishes. Population of Bristol 211,659.
July 26: Industrial Exhibition at Hotwells.
Oct 9: Fire at Canynge’s House.
Nov 4: Horse trains replaced steam trains following accidents by frightened bolting horses.
Nov 28 : Electric Light & Power Company proposed.
1882 - June 15: Sir Greville Smyth gave Ashton Park to city.
June 30: St. James’ Churchyard (part near church) laid out with paths, trees and seats.
Sep: Stone Cross set up in St. James’ Churchyard.
Oct 17: Fourth Musical Festival attended by H.R.H. The Duke of Edinburgh, Queen Victoria’s second son (d. 1900). Halle conducted.
Oct 24: Most serious floods yet in areas surrounding Baptist Mills in Hereford Street. Bedminster, the waters were 8-ft. deep.
1883 - Mar 7: Much water in the quarry in Park Row accidently released in the making of a tunnel houses in Wells Street, Culver Street and Frogmore Street were flooded.
April: Horlield Gaol completed.
October: Proposed railway to London via Andover, with a central station to be built on the future Colston Avenue welcomed by all Bristolians, plans were quashed by agreement between G.W.R. and L. & S.W.R. not to oppose each other.
Nov 21: New Bedminster Bridge opened.
December: Decided to end quarrying on Clifton Down (at top of Pembroke Road) but this rescinded shortly afterwards.
1884 - Jan 8: Council support movement to restore Bristol Bishopric.
Feb 19: Council purchased Avonmouth and Portishead Docks.
April 8: Plan for a railway line from Clifton Down Station (with a station near Richmond Hill) to go under Brandon Hill and finish up behind she Royal Hotel in College Green.
May 1: The footbridge, used temporarily during the rebuilding of Bedminster Bridge, was floated upstream to St. Luke’s, and opened as Langton Street footbridge.
June 30: New YMCA Hall opened in St. James’ Square.
July 1: New Fish Market in St. Nicholas Street opened.
Oct 21: Plea to abolish Sunday delivery of mail rejected.
1885 - January: Proposed to extend boundary to include Sneyd Park, Horfield, Totterdown, and Knowle.
May: Death of Frederick John Fargus, a Bristolian, whose literary career as 'Hugh Conway' had been of great promise.
May 25: Annual Horse Parade 700 aninials on show.
June 8: Redland Library opened.
June 30: Hope expressed by Council that Sunday Concerts on the Downs be discontinued these were started by a group of gentlemen interested in the welfare of the working classes—20,000 attended, and audiences grew in 1886, but sales of programmes were insufficient to cover costs. Clergy defended the Concerts, so the Council’s proposed bye-law was dropped.
July: Merchant Venturers’ School, Unity Street, opened.
Aug 1: Children’s Hospital new building opened. Institution founded 1866 by Mr. Mark Whitwill and friends.
Aug 11: Council consider plan for footbridge from top of Bridge Street to Counterslip.
Aug 29: Death of Mr. E. S. Robinson (Mayor 1866). 54 carriage funeral. 'A colossal and prosperous business remains a monument of his sound judgment and undeviating integrity
Oct 2: Totterdown Bridge over Avon planned.
Nov 16: Colston Hall presentation to Mr. S. Morley on his retirement as M.P. 'Address elegantly illuminated by Mr. J. Lavars'.
Nov 30: Floods at Black Swan, Stapleton Road, up to the counter in bar.
Dec 21: Dr. White’s Alinshouses, Temple Street. rebuilt.
1886 - June: St. Matthias Park and Mina Road Park opened.
Sept 10: Dean Lane Colliery explosion 8 killed.
Nov 16: Flooding of the Froom to be offset by making a culvert from Broad Weir to Bristol Bridge.
1887 - April 9: Baldwin Street, Park Street, Suspension Bridge first bus route started by Bristol Tramways Co.
June 21/25: Queen’s Golden Jubilee celebrations 30,000 assembled on Downs.
Oct 14: New road planned—top of Park Street to Colston Street (never built).
Oct 22: At Bristol Bridge 25,000 watched unveiling of statue of Samuel Morley; 18 years M.P. for Bristol.
Oct 25: Wine Street Pump disappeared in the previous night.
1888 - Jan 21: Rupert Street tram line connecting Horfield branch to St. Augustine Bank opened.
Apr 24: Land (afterwards laid out as Eastville and Victoria Parks) purchased from Sir J. Greville Smyth. June 8: Cathedral illuminated by ' the electric light' to celebrate restorations.
1889 - Jan 28: Dean Lane Colliery explosion 4 killed.
July 26: Mayor recommended the new bridge at St. Augustine’s be a Swing bridge voting 30 to 8 in favour of a Lifting Bridge.
Sept 29: Mayor’s Chapel re-opened.
John Wayne never knew it but he owed a lot to Frampton Cotterell
All the cowboy heroes on television should be wearing Christy's rather than Stetsons. It seems a bit bad, considering Christy won a legal battle to decide who invented the broad brimmed Western hat.
John Wayne never knew it but he owed a lot to Frampton Cotterell. So did Randolph Scott, Tom Mix and every other rootin' tootin' gunslinger who ever toted a shootin' iron through Dodge City For one of the most enduring legends of the Wild West was born in the West of England ? The famous ten gallon hat - white for goodies, black for baddies - was invented in the old cow town of Frampton Cotterell.
Christy's famous hat factory in Park Lane, which once employed a quarter of Frampton Cotterell residents, is now a listed building and a spacious house. Christy's built their factory in 1812 in an area where hatting was already a major cottage industry The main business was trading with the West Indies, making large brimmed felt hats for slaves harvesting sugar cane in the rainy season.
The ten gallon hat should really have been known as a Christy - and might have been, but for a nifty bit of piracy An American hat maker called J. B. Stetson liked the wide brimmed high crowned hat so much he started making his own. Christy's were furious.
Bristol University lecturer John Moore, said:
'Few people know that the ten gallon hat was invented in Frampton Cotrerell but it's well documented in the records of the hatmakers who built and owned the factory last century J. B. Stetson fought a long patent case with Christy's - and lost.
The result was that he had to pay a licence fee to market the famous Stetson hat'
Stetson might have lost, but he won in the long term. That style of hat is known universally as a Stetson, and Christy's role is completely forgotten. So is the company's link with the Mounties.
The famous pointy hat, later adopted by the Boy Scouts and a television lager commercial, was another Christy invention and is still in wide use across the world today But again no one remembers who developed it.
Christy's were also partly responsible for a much nastier sideline of history The company used poisonous mercury in the felt making process, while keeping windows tightly closed to avoid the fine rabbit fur blowing away The fumes so affected the workers that the saying as mad as a hatter' was born.
Hat workers sometimes went 'as mad as a hatter' from the poisonous fumes from the feltmaking process.
Lewis Carroll even picked it up for a character in Alice in Wonderland.
But of all the Stetson wearers, cowhoy film star Tom Mix was the crowning glory.
On a visit to Bristol in 1938, he wore the biggest ( and silliest ) Stetson ever seen - at least a 20 gallon hat. A bit impractical for hiding behind rocks or saloon bar doors but the huge crowds thought he was wonderful. No one asked Christy's what they thought.
Frampton Cotterell was chosen for a hat factory because it had clean water, coal, skilled workers - and an easy supply of rabbit fur.
The area was such an important centre that the Hatters union had its headquarters at nearby Watley's End.
Felt hats were made from a mixture of fur, chopped wool, mercury and size.
They were the only waterproof hats until oilskins were invented in the 1820s.
The factory's best known product was the beaver - an ordinary broad-brimmed hat covered with beaver fur, imported from Canada through the Port of Bristol.
The industry was killed off in 1871 by the new fashion for silk toppers and the rocketing price of imported beaver fur.
At one time, the old factory was used as a home for Roman Catholic nuns.
' A ten gallon hat is often thought to be large enough to hold ten gallons of water.
this is not true ( unless you have an exceptionally large head ).
The gallon in 'ten gallon hat' derives from the Spanish galn meaning braid.
So a ten-gallon hat is a hat with a braiding around the brim'.
1801 -Population of Bristol 68,000.
1803 - An Act of Parliament is passed to allow the construction of the New Cut, a new course for the River Avon to enable the Floating Harbour to be created.
1806 - Isambard Kingdom Brunel is born at Portsea, near Portsmouth, on April 9. His mother is English; his father is the great French engineer Sir Marc Isambard Brunel.
1823 -The Bristol Chamber of Commerce is established.
Bristol inventor takes his Charvolant, or Flying Car, to Ascot Races
1823 - A Bristol inventor takes his Charvolant, or Flying Car, to Ascot Races to demonstrate it to George IV.This magnificent contraption, which was tested on Durdham Downs, is the brainchild of Clifton schoolmaster George Pocock, an eccentric boffin who has already built an automatic caning machine to deal with his wayward pupils.
The Charvolant is made up of a carriage for four people that is powered by two giant kites. On a good day it can reach speeds of 25mph. - After displaying his machine to the public, Pocock begins using the Charvolant as a family vehicle, tearing through towns and villages outside Bristol at speeds that scared the living daylights out of the locals, - While he might have seemed a complete maniac at the time, in hindsight he looks like an Eco travel pioneer. Albeit an eccentric one.
BRISTOL RIOTS OF 1831
The Queen Square riots began on October 31, 1831 and remain one of the most serious outbreaks of civil disobedience in the history of England. - The disturbance is generally said to be connected to a series of uprisings across the country sparked by the rejection by the Lords of the Reform Act. - However, there is evidence that the fighting was a popular local uprising in protest at a corrupt City Corporation: it was more of a revolution than a riot.
It all kicked off thanks to the arrival in town of the Recorder of Bristol, Sir Charles Wetherell. a committed opponent of reform. Sir Charles pitched up on October 29 to preside over the Court of Assizes. - Two days later the centre of Bristol was in flames. - The fires could be seen in Newport and Sir Charles was forced to escape from the Mansion House in disguise by clambering over rooftops.
The Bristol Riots lasted for three days and were centred on Queen Square - The Mansion House, Excise Offce and Custom House were torched and the Toll House destroyed. - Prisoners were released and the prisons set on fire at Bridewell, New Gaol and Gloucester County Gaol. - Private houses on two sides of Queen Square were destroyed.
The residence of the Bishop of Bristol, the Palace on Lower College Green, was gutted and razed to the ground — more than £60,000 was later paid out in compensation for damage to private property alone.
A watercolour of the riots by TLS Rowbotham (on show at the City Museum and Art Gallery in Queen’s Road) shows the mob being attacked by soldiers from the 14th Light Dragoons, or the Bloody Blues, as they were known. - The 3rd Dragoon Guards, who were based in the city were thought to be sympathetic to the cause, which could explain why Bristol was controlled by the rioters for three days.
Although the arrival of Sir Charles Wetherell undoubtedly sparked the Queen Square riots, it’s likely he was the catalyst for the popular uprising against a ‘rotten’ Corporation — the city’s rulers had failed to re-invest tax money in the city’s infrastructure, particularly the docks. - The Corporation had become increasingly secretive and out of touch with the city and, by 1831, was as unpopular with the Tories as it was with the masses.
In 1833, a Royol Commission on Municipal Corporations investigated the Bristol Corporation and reported: ‘The ruling principle of the Corporation appears to have been at all times the desire of power, the watchful jealousy that nothing should be undertaken within the limits of the city over which they cannot, at pleasure, exercise control!.
1831 - Brunel begins work on the Clifton Bridge
In 1833, a Royal Commission on Municipal Corporations investigated the Bristol Corporation and reported: ‘The ruling principle of the Corporation appears to have been at all times the desire of power, the watchful jealousy that nothing should be undertaken within the limits of the city over which they cannot, at pleasure, exercise control!.
Suspension Bridge. Building stops in 1836 and the project is abandoned in 1853. - Work restarts in 1862 and the bridge is eventually opened on December 8, 1864. - The final cost of the project is £100,000. about £45,000 over budget. - Brunel does not live to see the completion of this wonderful bridge, he died in 1859 aged lust 53.
Bristol Dinosaur discovered
1831 - Bones belonging to the Bristol Dinosaur are discovered in a quarry on Durdham Downs.The dinosaur is similar in size and table manners to the Diplodocus and is thought to be one of the oldest of all the giant plant-eating reptiles dating back some 210 million years. Now scientists have even been able to pinpoint the exact spot that the big beast called home. - In 1881, local geologist Charles Moore identifies the dinosaur’s stomping ground as being in the Beigrave Terrace area off Blackboy Hill, just a rock’s throw from the Downs.
The area has now been built on, so no more evidence can be found, not that any more fossils are needed. - In 1975. five tonnes of bones were found in a quarry near Bristol and the whole lot was taken to the University for further study. It took 25 years for the Bristol Dinosaur Project to secure the funding they needed to start work. In 1999 a team of Palseontologists began the laborious process of separating rock from bone. Needless to say, they’re still at it.
1836 - Bristol Zoological Gardens opens.
1837 - Brunel’s Great Western steamship is launched in Bristol.
1841 - The opening of Brunel’s Great Western Railway between Bristol and London.
1843 - Prince Albert visits the Great Western Dockyard in Bristol and names Brunel’s new ship the Great Britain.
Cricket legend W.G. Grace born
1848 - Cricket legend W.G. Grace is born on July 18 in Clematis House, North Street, Downend, though the family lived a few doors away in Downend House.
1860 - Restoration of St. Stephen’s tower begun. (Pinnacles and upper storey completed September 1862)
1860 - Restoration of St. Stephen’s tower begun. (Pinnacles and upper storey completed September 1862)
Woodland Road laid on footpath through Tyndall’s Park (Footpath known as 'Cantock Closes', 'Long-Leaze ', 'Claypitts', 'High-Meadow', and 'Traitor’s Well'.
Mr. E. M. Grace first attracted attention for his skill in cricket.
The Dean left the Old Deanery, which became the Y.M.C.A.
Prince of Orange in Bristol.
Corporation acquired Durdham Down (212 acres) for £15,000.
River Froom arched over from Union Street to Merchant Street, forming Fairfax Street.
Stoke Bishop Church consecrated.
Volunteer Artillery Corps formed and received their gun in grand procession.
1861 - Bristol Bridge widened and eastern toll houses demolished (western toll houses removed 1873).
Redland Park Congregational Chapel opened.
St. Bartholomew’s Church, Union Street, consecrated.
St. Luke’s Church, Bedminster, consecrated.
City Road and Philip Street Baptist Chapels opened.
Tyndall’s Park Road opened.DAEDALUS arrived at Mardyke.
Census population 154,000.
First parade of 2nd Gloucestershire Engineer Volunteer Corps.
Proposed that the Council water the streets. (Operation delayed until 1867).
Right-of-way dispute at archway leading to Victoria Square, brought to a head by the lifting of a pram (then a new vehicle) over a gate. Legal argument turned on the obstruction caused by a baby’s carriage not being so formidable as one crinoline meeting another crinoline.
The battle of Boyce’s buildings ended in 1873, when the eccentric owner was in his 92nd year.
The Broadmead Rooms, being too small, the Colston Hall Company was formed. The Great House demolished 1863, and the new hall opened 1867.
Bishop’s College purchased for the Volunteer Rifle Corps H.Q. Drill Hall adjoining opened 1862.
City Lunatic Asylum at Fishponds opened.
Colston School boys transferred to Bishop’s Palace, Stapleton.
Clifton Down (230 acres) and Durdham Down (212 acres) secured by Act of Parliament to the citizens for ever as place of public resort and recreation.
Blondin performed on the high rope at the zoo.
1862 - OPENED :— Clifton College; Emmanuel Church in the Dings; Hensman Memorial church,Victoria Square.
Road on Downs made: Upper Belgrave Road to Sneyd Park.
Statue of the late Prince Consort proposed to stand in front of Victoria Rooms, but subscriptions not sufficient to proceed.
Volunteer Review on Durdham Down; 6,746 Volunteer troops of all arms present. Spectators numbered 100,000.
1863 - OPENED :— Philip Street, Bedminster; Buckingham Vale, Clifton; Richmond Park Road; Windmill Hill; Arley Hill. Victoria Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, Whiteladies Road, opened.
College Green Hotel Company formed, and Royal Hotel opened 1868.
White Lion Hotel, White Hart Hotel, and The Plume of Feathers Inn acquired for a new Hotel opened in 1869, subsequently named the Grand Hotel.
Marriage of Prince & Princess of Wales: oak tree planted on Brandon Hill; 4,000 children taken to zoo; electric light and fireworks; necklace given to the Princess by the ladies of Bristol.
The Elephant, St. Nicholas Street, set back.
Sir Greville Smyth planned to sell Nightingale Valley, Leigh Woods, to a building speculator for the erection of 800 tenements of poor character; the Leigh Woods Land Company formed by some generous citizens, to prevent the desecration.
Bristol Port & Pier Railway begun. Bristol and North Somerset railway begun.
City boundaries perambulated and sailed over.
Bristol and South Wales Union Railway opened.
1864 - New north aisle added to St. James’s Church, but incongruity criticised.
Oakfield Road Unitarian Chapel opened.
Stables fronting Queen’s Road at the back of Berkeley Square houses being converted to shops.
Red Lion, Redcliff Street, demolished. The Angel Inn, High Street, removed.
Garibaldi passed through Bristol. Bath & West of England Show on Downs.Church Congress in Bristol.
Clifton Suspension Bridge opened.
