CREWS HOLE It is always interesting to delve into place names and piece together information as to how the name originated.

There has always been much conjecture about Crews Hole which was shown as Brafham on a map of 1610 and the main two arguments are as follows:- In the days of sailing ships and the forcible service to serve on them the press gangs would enter Bristol and search for able bodied men to serve an unspecified period at sea.

This was all quite legal in those days and the only way that you could avoid being pressed into service was if you were a tradesman and serving a useful occupation. It is said that any men who were liable to be pressed into such service would travel up the river to Crews Hole and there hide up when it was rumoured that the press gang were operating in Bristol.

The men would then stay there in hiding until the press gang had found sufficient persons to serve on the high seas and leave. The second suggestion as to how the name came about is that the vicinity was inhabited by several off shoots of a family named Cruse and old documents show that this is a fact so Crews Hole could have obtained its name from this source.

 

image above: Rock Cottage home to the Hodge family (demolished in 1933)

But we think Crews Hole takes its name from Cruses Cottages, which once stood on the opposite side of the river. The Cruse family practically owned most of the land there. From Cruse came Screws Hole, and finally Crews Hole. Although the mining of mineral deposits - primarily coal, sandstone and lead - had been carried out in the area from at least the Middle Ages, the Bristol Brass Company brought new industry to the area in 1710, and by 1724 there were twenty-four furnaces operating in Crews Hole. This rose to forty-nine and production continued until 1828, when the derelict mills were sold

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image above: The chimney on Troopers Hill near St.George a very well known Bristol land-mark It relates back to a time when this area was mined for coal,copper and clay etc

A copper works stood nearby at Conham, built in around 1696. It was later sold to the Bristol Brass Company. Much later the site was used as a council rubbish tip. Parts of these old works can still be seen in the woods.

Slag blocks made at Crews Hole still survive throughout Bristol, incorporated into many walls and houses. The Black Castle at Brislington is the best example of a building made with these blocks. Between 1766 and 1803 there were three glasshouses here, two of which produced soap. Also here was the Bristol Fire Clay Co., producing almost unbreakable bricks. The company operated from the 1880s until the early 1900s.

The Crown Clay Co. was another firm making firebricks, but they also produced sanitary pipes and terracotta ware from about the same date. In Victorian times, Crews Hole was compared to the north Devon village of Clovelly, as both were steep, with ranks of cottages that rumble down lanes and narrow roads to the waterfront. In contrast with this idyllic scene was the intense concentration of industry making it the Avonmouth of its day.

Employment attracted workers, and short terraces of dwellings were built amongst the scattering of earlier cottages. A relatively secluded and independent conrmunity grew, its distinct character reflecting the area's setting, development and history.

image above: Thatchers Quarry workers - Hanham Woods Conham 1920

The Feeeder Canal changed the River Avon, which had been a tidal river up to this point. At low tide the ferry was turned into a floating bridge, parked in the middle with planks to the bank on each side.

The History of St George was published by J Sanager in 1931 and in it he described Crews Hole as it was in 1758 (We have sorted out the modern names and these are inserted in brackets). 'Southwards from St George's Church there is a cliff overlooking the River Avon (Avonview Cemetery).

The ground at this point (St Anthony's Chapel) is about 215 feet above sea level but here it billows up and down in a series of heath-clad hillocks. (The ground is still rough and somewhat overgrown) Hacketts Hill, Cupola Hill, Abbots Hill, Pinks Hill, Nobles Hill (all now renamed and refer to alleyways around Crews Hole) In a secluded hollow down below is another memorable spot and two hundred years' ago in 1731 this was a favourite resort of the persecuted baptists.

Those champions of religious liberty who, their own chapels wrecked by religious bigots, were hounded from the town by the civil authorities and the howling mob to worship God in secret in this wild and lovely spot. The steps or terraces were cut in the hillside in 1682 by the orders of Brother Edward Terrell to serve as a gallery for his congregation while he preached (there are still traces to be seen).

Lookouts kept watch from the hilltop to give warning of the approach of the Sheriff or the mob. It is a spot that should always be revered by lovers of religious liberty (however industry took over a large portion of it). From Abbots Mound (near St Anthony's Chapel or Avonview Cemetery) we see the country spread out like a picture, and straight across on the river the Church of St Annes. We are on the edge of a cliff and the river creeps along below.

In the buildings along its near bank dwells copper smelter, glass blowers, cannon founders, brickmakers, nail wrights, and from their works is derived the income of some of Bristol's most wealthy men. It was here at Scruze Hole (Crews Hole) that the late ingenious Mr Padmore invented a curious engine for the waterworks company (this was the engine that was brought from Hanham Hills. It pumped drinking water from the river which was conveyed to a reservoir on the highest point above, from which it dropped down to the city through a line of hollowed elm trunks under the ground. A little along Scruze Hole near Strawberry Alley a stream comes leaping down the stony track (now culverted).

Strawberry Alley is a very steep rough pathway leading down to the river between two rugged hills (Strawberry Alley is still there and leads from Beaufort Road). Here and there you will find rough cottages (now modernised) built once by the hand of a proud owner. He could have been worthless, homeless, or an outcast but he made his way here and,asking the leave of no man, he cleared the ground, set a hedge, and with stone he found in the hills and old bricks he found in crumbling walls of abandoned industries he built his home.

This with infinite toil and with many journeys to and fro he built his four walls and covered them with a variated roof of tiles (stone) found here. He now bends all his energies in wresting a hard living from the reluctant ground'.

Over the years Crews Hole has been recorded in history in connection with religion, education, industry and beauty. Apart from the evangelists who preached from the escarpment there was a little chapel in Crews Hole which was originally used by the Wesleyans.

When its use wained it was purchased by William Butler and improved by the addition of a classroom and schoolroom. The first Hanham School is recorded to have been built at Conham near Crews Hole. It was built in 1727 by Sir Abraham Elton.

This was at Avonview Cemetery which at the time was described as 'on a jutting spur of the plateau on a level with the eminence called Troopers Hill where there is an extensive look-out across the valley of the winding Avon at Crews Hole'.

Over the years many businesses must have flourished and failed in Crews Hole and, in our archives we have many old newspapers, including a copy of Felix Farley's Bristol Journal dated 1st March 1801, in which this notice appeared.

It is interesting to note that the cost of the newspaper in 1801 was 6d. This represented one third of a day's pay for the average tradesman. In those days it is doubtful if this class of the population would have purchased a newspaper due to two things' the ability to read, and the time to do so as they would have been working during the hours of daylight and, after dark, there was only the spluttering candle or oil lamp.

The newspaper contained no pictures as the art of photography was in its infancy so the question of screening pictures for reproduction did not arise. The only way to reproduce a scene or portrait was with the artist's sketch which had to be etched on to a metal plate and probably proved too expensive for newspaper work.

Another force for change in the village was the tar works. In 1843, William Butler was the manager of this tar works owned by Roberts and Dames. He had previously worked with Brunel on the Great Western Railway. Brunel needed products to protect the wooden sleepers under the railway tracks. We are sure Brunel had some connection with this plant, if only in an advisory capacity.

In 1863 a fire broke out, nearly destroying the plant. The owners, fearful of the fire risks, sold Out to William Butler, who then gave his name to the factory. Another fire broke out in 1897, killing one of its employees.

It was described at the time as one of the greatest spectacles seen locally; the burning oil from that fire spread all across the river and was seen for many miles. There was no way of putting it out, so it had to just be left to burn itself Out.

Even serious flooding from the River Avon in 1894 didn't close the plant. A very important company during both wars, their products were needed for the war effort, and they even had their own fire-watchers. It ended its days being owned by the British Steel Corporation.

Today, original cottages from the industrial days of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries co-exist with the 'Quayside Village', built on the old tar works site. Although the heavy industry has gone, along with many buildings, the countryside character and narrow lanes of Crews Hole remain. It is an area rich in industrial and social history.