Kingswood Reformatory School

1903 The original Wesley Methodist School before it moved to the city of Bath later it became Kingswood Reformatory School. - Founded in September 1852 by Mary Carpenter and Russell Scott. Certified 4th October 1854 for 150 boys. Re-certified July 1892 for 120 boys. Initially the boys were in a former Wesleyan College, and later in a purpose-designed building. It became an Approved School from 1933.

Kingswood Castle

1905 Kingswood Castle it once stood opposite Cossham Hospital at one time used as a windmill. - Bristol is now surrounded by large suburbs. These suburbs have made a great contribution to the wealth of the city as well as giving historical and social interest. In the days when the Castle stood near St. Peters Church the Royal Kingswood stretched away from the back of it into Gloucestershire as far as St. George and it extended a considerable distance along the South side of the River Avon which included Hanham, Bitton and Oldland.

This part was known as Fillwood but the full extent of the forest as we know it would have begun at Pucklechurch. The Forest consisted of fir trees and oaks. The cutting down of 'Furchis' as it was called, was recorded at a very early age and hundreds of oaks were cut down for building and repairing boats. Hunting was prohibited unless with Royal permission, and without this poachers were liable to a heavy fine or imprisonment. As the years passed the character of the countryside changed. For many centuries the Forest became known as 'the great Coal Field' for it was from this land that coal was mined to supply the growing needs of Bristol and elsewhere.

Kingswood Regent Street

Regent Street and the dawn of the motor car 1920's. - Methodist Isaac Pow and his Boot & Shoe Factory at Kingswood 1839 1910 - Isaac Pow is recorded to have combined religious devotion, business, enterprise, and earnest interest in the life of Kingswood. He was a successful boot manufacturer, his premises being situated on the site of Lucas and Company in Moravian Road, Klngswood.
 
This factory was recorded as being fitted throughout with labour saving machinery which must have been of great benefit to the factory workers of those days as well as enabling the owner to make larger profits. Factory conditions were grim you worked a 12 hour day, six days a week with a 6 am start. There was no stopping for tea, no sickness benefit, low wages and no central heating. It could only be described as an existence although there was no other way of earning a living in the cities and industrialised areas.

Kingswood Shoe Trade

All dressed in their Sunday Best ready for a works outing to the seaside from one of the many Boot and Shoe factories in Kingswood 1920's. In 1939, in a Kingswood corset factory, had to change from corsets to make parachutes, gas mask cases and gun turret covers. Queen mary came to visit the factory, she said I expect you say, oh bother it, when things go wrong' Workers from 8 in the morning to 6 o clock at night. Most workers had to get up in the night to go down into the air raid shelter. 

There was incendiary bombs dropped in the field opposite because Douglas' factory was in Hanham Rd, off Orchard Rd.  All the men, our fathers, rushed over to the fields with water to try and put out the incendiary bombs. They had to use liquid paraffin to make cakes because you couldn't get any fat. Dripping wasn't rationed so you'd go miles to get a quarter of dripping to put on our bread.

Kingswood's first Picture House

A modern store now replaces Kingswood's first Picture House on right of picture. - From the early 17th century pin making was an important Bristol industry. In 1607 Thomas Nash was advanced a loan of 6 Pounds from the Bristol Corporation to help him run a pin manufactory to employ paupers. In 1623 the Corporation purchased a garden adjoining the House of Correction to provide a workshop for the unemployed of the city to make pins.

Kingswood Regent Street

Peaceful view of Regent Street 1930's. - On 13 March 1755 Jack Slack, a 29-year-old butcher from Thorpe, on the outskirts of Norwich knocked out Cornelius King Cole Harris at Kingswood near Bristol. Harris is listed as a miner, but in fact was a dangerous, probably insane creature who was beyond the law. Its fairly certain that he killed a woman, with whom he had gone for a romantic interlude in the countryside, and her former boyfriend, who had disturbed them. The bodies were found, but nobody dared accuse him. Harris fought regularly on village greens after making challenges in public houses and was also said to have left more than one man for dead in the coalmines where he worked.

If a man upset him, he would challenge him to a fight to the finish in the bowels of the earth. This is why they called him King Cole. He gambled 100 guineas on beating Slack and gave him a gruelling, desperate fight. But in the end Slack outlasted him and left him unconscious with a blow that landed between the eyes.

When Harris awoke to find the champion had gone away to celebrate, he was so crazed by the defeat and the loss of his money that he ranted and raged like the madman he was, threatening all kinds of retribution. No doubt those who saw the fight were pleased to see him absorb a hammering for once. And no doubt they opted not to say so?. Slack later beat Broughton for the championship, and went on to become the new champion of England. He later ran a butcher's shop in Chandos Street, London for a while and died in 1778.

Kingswood Zion Chapel

The Zion Chapel 1930 building still stands today. - The Whitefield Tabernacle is one of the most important places in the world as far as Methodism is concerned yet it remains derelict. Wesley's Tabernacle is in a very sorry state, especially after losing its roof in an arson attack three years ago. But this Grade One listed building - whose origins go back as far as 1742 deserves more than our passing attention. Along with the New Room, in Bristols Broadmead, which was founded by John Wesley and his non-conformist followers in 1739, it is one of the most important places in the world in the history of Methodism and should therefore be saved for posterity George Whitefield was, along with the more famous Wesley a leading light in the 18th century spiritual struggle against what was seen as an uncaring and hierarchical Anglican church.

Kingswood High Street

Fine view over the roof-tops of Kingswood from the top of Holy Trinity Church tower 1925. - Kingswood Forest from the time of the early Roman settlements through Anglo-Saxon royalty, to the rape of the forest by rich landowners. Discover how the impoverished people of the Kings Chase fought against the laws of the land; how Wesley and Whitfield brought religion and education to the poor; how great industrialists like William Champion and coal from Kingswood mines put the area at the forefront of the industrial revolution.

Kingswood Moravian Road

Methodist on the march down Moravian Road Kingswood 1957 the birth place of the Methodist Church. - The Baptists, who founded a Chapel at Hanham, made a brave attempt at missionary work in the 17th Century but they were badly persecuted and several ministers were killed by the ruffians; it was not until the coming of John Wesley and George Whitfield that the people seemed to respond to a better way of living.

Kingswood Cinema

Kingswood Picture House 1930's now replaced with a modern shopping centre 'Kings Chase'. - The striking modernist lines of the Ambassador cinema which opened in Kingswood in March 1938.
The programme included British Movietone News, a Mickey Mouse cartoon and Jessie Matthews in Sailing Along. The building was designed by F. C. Mitchell and built by the Berkeley Construction Co. Ltd. of London. Its main feature was its tower which became a land-mark at night, with its red and blue neon lighting. It had seats for approximately 2,000 people and there was a clear view of the screen from all parts of the auditorium.

Kingswood Shoe Trade

Off to the seaside Boot factory works outing Kingswood 1918. - Every man and his dog worked in the Boot and Shoe trade this was the main industry in Kingswood. - There was still considerable crime in parts of the Forest and the Kingswood people formed themselves into an association to try to prevent trouble and a troop of Yeomanry was raised which gave great assistance. The authorities in Bristol at last realised that sterner measures had to be taken; they collected the 'Watch', raided the thieves dens and stronghold at Cockroad and marched them off to prison, and after that Kingswood had peace!

Kingswood Regent Street

Regent Street Kingswood 1950's where the Kings Chase Shopping Centre now stands with the former cinema on the left and the Woolworth store on right - this store is still trading and must be one of the oldest survivng shops in Kingswood today.

Kingswood High Street

High Street early 1900's looking towards Bristol. - The Hollybrook Brick Company Kingswood Bristol. The brick production here involved a number of key processes and the site had three distinct areas; pits, manufactory and waste. The clay pits themselves covered a wide area stretching from the site of the present- day cycle path/footpath, down to the Argyle Hall in Whitefield Road and a nearby large property called Linden House. It was in these pits, during the summer months, that the clay was extracted Before the days of mechanised clay extraction equipment it was all dug by hand.

Kingswood Regent Street

The shopfront of J.H. Mills Ltd 69 Regent Street Kingswood.

Kingswood Douglas Motorcycles

Tomboy Rosie Douglas and her vintage 'Duggie' 1920's - Douglas motorcycles were made in Kingswood for many years. The offices of this former company in Hanham Road and their works between there and Forest Road are now occupied by the Westinghouse Brake and Signal Company. Although famous for their motorcycles, the company started as iron-founders before the turn of the century and their drain covers, manhole covers, lamp standards can be observed in many parts of the area.

Kingswood Hill Street

Journey's End Hill Street Kingswood late 1930's. - Bristol's once mighty tram fleet is to be scrapped and replaced by buses - On the evening of Friday 11th April 1941, Bristol was under blitz. The last Kingswood tram was heading home to the depot, up Two Mile Hill, into Regent Street, and past the Clock Tower. Suddenly the lights went out and the car ground to a halt. The St. Philips Bridge Power Station had been bombed and all power to the trains had been disconnected.

Left without power, driver Webster and conductor Brittan decided to push - one or two onlookers joined in and soon the tram was sailing down High Street to the depot. The handbrake wasn't applied until the tram had swung through the depot gates; and onto the tightly curved fan outside the main shed.

This blitz marked the end of the Bristol Tramway System and all the remaining cars were eventually towed to the Kingswood Depot and destroyed. Late in 1940 the Government asked the Bristol Tramway Company to undertake the assembly of imported army vehicles.

Kingswood Forest

Old Hunting Lodge of Kingswood Forest pulled down many years ago this historic building once stood on top of Lodge hill - back to a time when the whole area was a Royal Hunting forest. The miners of Kingswood had a collective identity and were culturally isolated from the towns and cities. Their isolation and shared occupations and dangers drew them together with a resolution and collective consciousness which was to play an important role in part in opposition to the control of their coal's prices and to the establishment of toll gates.Bristol was practically totally dependent on the area for its coal supplies. Kingswood's coal fueled the early industrial successes of the City including, Brass and Copper, Glass, Potteries, Distilleries and Sugar Refineries.

Kingswood Regent Street

A early view of Kingswood 1890's before the days of the motor car. - In the early period Kingswood boot factories tended to be small, family-run units relying heavily on outwork. The various parts of the boots were collected by the outworkers from the factory and made up at home, the boots being returned to the factory to be 'finished'.
This type of production which was later superseded by larger, more mechanised factories better geared to mass production. For hundreds of years, leather production and manufacturing has been a high profile feature of Kingswood.

Kingswood Hospital

Cossham Hospital has existed on the site since 1907. It is situated at the top of Lodge Hill and its clock tower is the highest point in Bristol. The hospital became a day facility in 2000. - Handel Cossham (31 March 1824 - 1890) was a British MP, colliery owner, lay preacher and Mayor of Bath. - He was born in High Street, Thornbury, in a house where his father, grandfather and great-grandfather were also born.

His father Jesse Cossham, a carpenter and builder, named his son after the composer of 'Messiah', George Frederic Handel. A plaque at his birthplace describes him as a 'non-conformist Preacher, Industrialist, Geologist, Politician, Educationalist and Public Benefactor'. - The Cossham Hospital in Kingswood, Bristol is a memorial to Handel Cossham, who instructed in his will that his estate be used for the building of a hospital.