 |
Miss W. and Miss M. Fuller remember their early days in the village when their family lived at Linton Farm:
'Linton Farm was the only farm in the middle of the village. Grandpa went there in 1880 - you couldn't buy a plot of land with the old Squire owning everything. Dad took over in 1900 and we were there till 1925 - we should have been there still, I guess, but Squire Ireland died and Colonel Armstrong, who wasn't the rightful heir, came and he upset twelve farms and we had to move to Flowers Hill. It was a bigger farm and Linton wasn't a farm any more.
He sold some of the land and let the farmhouse as an ordinary dwelling but we took over the fields where Callington Road is now and George's Sports Ground. Linton was about 60 acres but it was divided by West Town Lane. Some of the land was that side. George's Sports Field was our 10 acres and that went right through to the top of the golf links. We had all that, then they took land for the golf links and they split it all up when Colonel Armstrong came into the estate.
The milk round was hard work - horse and carts, no motors, no bottles or anything like that. You had two or three gallon buckets with your half pint measure - you lugged them from customer to customer then you had the milk churns - 15 or 17 gallons, which had to be hauled up into the carts. We served Mardons at St.Annes - they had to have their milk by half past seven.
You always rushed to get there before half past seven then you'd get somebody to help you lift the churns from the cart to the platform - 17 gallons in each. Then we went right the way through to Whiteladies Road in Grandfather's time and Jones in Wine Street. They had a restaurant there and Grandfather was the first to supply them.
We had to milk very early, up at half past five. A waggon and two horses used to come in from Compton Dando, with milk - we bought the milk from five farms out there. We were a central place for collecting it and we used to buy 100 gallons each day.
They used a four wheel waggon, like an old hay cart, and two horses when it was respectable weather, but if it was snowing, four horses and they never let us down the whole time. They used to come in and you'd feed the men and feed the horses. Mother had eight men to breakfast every day. We used to employ school boys for the afternoon round nearby and that meant providing tea so we always had a full house. In the hot weather we used to cross our fingers and hope the milk would be alright - we stood it in great big tanks of water, there was no refrigeration, no ice. You could get ice in Bristol but by the time you got it out from town in a horse and cart the benefits were gone.
All the milking was done by hand, no machines in those days. We made our own electricity at Emery Farm later on but there was nothing like that at Linton Farm. We had lamps and candles - you had to check all the hurricane lamps through the winter, eight every day. Young people don’t know what it was like. In a bit of a hurry you would perhaps break one of the glasses and that meant going to Mr.Comer’s shop right down in Winchester Road for a replacement.
We both made the butter and cheese. There were classes held at Whitchurch in the school room by the Church. They were trying to encourage farmhouse cheese-making in the early 1920’s. The first cheese was made in the old kitchen at Linton Farm - you couldn’t move in the Dairy. The villagers had never seen cheese being made, it caused great excitement.
We sold it in the village. We made butter too - pans of cream over the copper boilers. We didn’t have a steam boiler till Flower’s Hill. They brought in the gas not so long before we left Linton so we were lucky to have a gas stove but you would have to stay up till two in the morning with all those pans of milk and the orders. It was a case of having to do it, we didn’t know any other way. When the steam boiler came and did four pans we were in clover - marvellous.
One thing we remember, the soldiers coming through during the First World War. They came from camps on Salisbury Plain but Dad would always leave a churn of milk for them and they would rest in the village - they gave the mules a rest. Dad would see there was some refreshment. You never knew when they were coming. The convoys lasted about three or four hours, regiments going through, day and night.
I suppose Avonmouth was a big centre. On each gun carriage there were eight men and six mules. They would very often come to the back of Linton Farm for the mules to drink and they would commandeer the hay. Dad had two hay ricks set on fire - there was arson around. Dad was a special constable, and one day he was guarding the ricks up in West Town Lane and saw one of his own going up in Flames, but he could do nothing about it. It was people who were like the Communists today - they wanted to destroy the hay so the mules couldn’t be fed.
If you wanted to go to town you ordered a carriage from Millers in Water Lane where the jam factory was. Wagonettes they called them, and they’d take six or seven and if you wanted to go to Keynsham the only way was to order from them. You could go along any time you wanted, there was no fixed service. Then there was great excitement, the horse buses went from the village to Saltford and you walked from there to Newton St.Loe and you got on the old toast rack buses and you went from there to Bath - a day’s outing.
The Bible class outings ‘went in Wagonettes from the five farms that lent them. They would go to Weston once a year and also to the big Firework Display on the Downs and the Zoo.
We were about the first to have a car in the village, great excitement, about 1927. So many had a ride on it. It had running boards and we took one or two old gentlemen but they were so afraid that Tommy Fuller’s girls would take liberties, they used to sit on the outside and hold the door open!
There were many great characters in the village - old Skite, for example, poor old Skite. He came from a very well-to-do family but he preferred to live rough. He used to come and get the cows in about half past four in the morning and he’d join the farm, put himself on the payroll.
Then he had an accident, he was bitten through the leg by a pig, so Mum nursed him through that, then he’d take umbrage over something and he’d go to the next farm and put himself on there .... something would happen there and we’d find our cows in again at half past four in the morning. Mum always looked after him - his food and his clothes. She once asked him to skin a rabbit for her.
He took it and half an hour later he was trying to pluck the thing, beads of perspiration dropping off his faces He could imitate a cuckoo and you wouldn’t know the difference. He was bringing the cows in one afternoon and he was cuckooing away for all he was worth and there were some townies walking up Brisilington Hill and a couple of rooks went over.
‘There he goes’, they said, ‘Isn’t it marvellous, we’ve seen the cuckoo in March!’ Then there was poor old Mrs. Clarke - it wasn’t what she drank, it was when she drank it. She’d have her drink half warm on the hob all the time - she was real merry.
She had a heart of gold. There was a very poor family, eight or ten children, in the village, but she was a mother cum everything to those kids. Later, she wouldn’t leave her cats during the raids. Everybody tried to persuade her to come out but the house had a direct hit and she died with the cats. She lived up in the cottages called Gossip Row.
There was another family who worked for Dad for many years. They lived in a little cottage next to the Church. There were 16 children and they lived on 18 shillings a week and the milk and vegetables they had from Dad. She didn’t have a pram or a cradle, but they were all turned out so well. They had one room downstairs and a scullery at the back and two small rooms upstairs.
Nurse Atkins the much beloved village nurse who claimed to have brought more than 1,000 babies into the world during her 40 years service in Brislington. She always travelled to see patients on foot and died about 1928.
The second Mrs. Cooke-Hurle replaced her with a more modern nurse but was never forgiven by the village for doing this and when she stood in local elections she came bottom of the poll.
Nurse Atkins was doctor, deaconess, nurse and a great friend to everyone. We all went to her. She lived in Montrose Avenue just above Mr.Palrner's shop.
I think you paid into a Nursing Association Fund every year and they paid her salary.
But in any case she'd be there. Nothing was too much trouble for her. She was loved by everyone. There was a lot of illness in the village - part of the old Keynsham workhouse was the isolation hospital, a dreadful old barn. I was in Ham Green and Dad and Mum had to go by governess cart after dark to see me through a window. I had diptheria and being in the milk business no-one was allowed to know.
The postman used to sort all the letters at our Farm - the Royal Mail from Bristol to London went through the village and opposite Linton Farm there was a coach house where they used to stop, rest the horses, pick up mail and carry on. The mail for the village came out on the coach too and they brought it across to the Farm. The postman would sort it and go out and deliver it; then again in the afternoon, there were two deliveries each day. Later the mail came out by tram. Mum always used to feed the postmen.
The four sisters were the daughters of George Vowles,on the seat at the right .Three of them married men from prominent local families: Mr. Allen from The Elms,Mr. Williams from Eagle House and Mr. Norris from Woodland House. Miss Williams? family has now lived in The Chestnuts for over 100 years.
Dr.Fox?s patients used to come round quite a lot, that is those on parole. One I remember, a Miss Land, very wealthy. She was fond of Dad and she used to call round and ask for a duck?s egg. She used to wear a muff and collect all sorts of treasures inside it.
Very often Mum had a messenger on a bicycle to say: ?Please keep Miss Land while we raid her bedroom to get the treasures back!? Some of the patients at The Beeches were very wealthy, they brought their own carriages and servants and they?d vie with each other as to who kept the best horse and carriage. Old Mrs. Fox was a great character - her handwriting was appalling.
She couldn?t spell and so she did a wiggly line to cover up. She would write a letter to give a message to a meeting she couldn?t attend, like the Farmers? Union and on many occasions they gave it to Dad to take back to ask her what she wanted. ?Tommy,? she?d say, ?how do you expect me to know. I can?t read it myself!? When you went to Brislington House you were always locked in, men one side and women on the other.
A meal was provided if you went collecting on Flag Days, (it was a lonely walk up there, along the dark lane where the factories are now. I used to be terrified). The tin and flags went round and if Mrs.Fox thought the patients hadn?t given enough she would send us back and tell them to give more.
There was one patient in Heath House in 1940, a lady who wouldn?t believe there was a war on but the night the House had a direct hit she was shot down over the stairs and outside and she said ?Well, I think there must be a war on, don?t you??
The gentleman in the bowler hat who looks asleep was a member of the Fox family.
The Club was started in 1868 and played at first on Pear Tree Field next to Heath Farm and in the grounds of Brislington House.
There was a Tank Regiment here during the Second War - they were on camp when war broke out and they were stationed at the Co-op at the bottom of our garden at Emery farm.
They were also stationed at Winash and The Beeches and part of Dr.Fox?s and down in the village where Mr.Parry lives. The ammunition was stored at the Co-op - we had no idea. They were very nice fellows. Mum used to clean their beret badges and darn their socks. We were very fond of them. Dr. Fox started a ?Happy Warrior Canteen? in the old coach house in the village. We used to go down and serve coffee and cocoa.
The boys were only 18 or 19. They mostly died at El Alamein.
Memories of ST. LUKE'S CHURCH -1979
St Luke's, after at least 559 years of existence is still the most dominant feature of the Brislington landscape. It is situated on a small hill just to the south east of the old Square, hence the reason for its asserting presence.
One of the earliest photographs of Brislington, probably taken in the 1860's.
As with many churches it is on the east-west axis, with its tower at the west and the altar at the east. It is mainly constructed of the local red sandstone which sometimes appears purple and green if containing different types of iron ore. The stone used around the arches, doorways and for ornamentation is of a harder texture, namely oolitic limestone, more commonly known as Bath stone.
The Tower:
This is architecturally the greatest feature of the Church. It dates from the 15th century and is the best example from a group of Somerset churches, all with fine towers. It is a three staged building with diagonal buttresses and a stair turret. The buttresses end in pinnacles and the stair turret in a bold spirelet, higher than the others. There is arched panelling below the spirelet and arch pannelled battlements. On the south face are two rather worn statues set in the tower.
These are said to represent Lord and Lady de la Warr whose family provided money for the building of the original church. Set in the west face is the church clock. It dates from 1883 when it was installed as a memorial to a Dr.Fox of Brislington Asylum. It is still widely used by Brislington inhabitants. it can be seen clearly from the top of buses leading out of the village and many a No.13 has been judged late by its time. Also in the tower are six bells, five of which date from 1669 and the other, a treble, added in 1874. The tower survived being struck by lightning in 1919.
The Porch:
The south porch also dates from the 15th century but was added some time after the south aisle was built. Above the doorway is an ogee gable made from oolitic limestone. It also has buttresses and pinnacles. Inside there is a modern carving of St. Luke.
The South Aisle:
This has five bays and dates from the early 15th century. It is the oldest part of the Church. Originally there was a sixth bay but this has been covered up at the chancel end by a later panelled arch. It has a remarkably well preserved roof in the ‘wagon’ style. This is so called because the braces resemble those of a wagon. In the south wall at the end is a basin for washing communion vessels known as a piscina. This probably shows that the altar was here before the late 15th century addition of the nave and chancel. Above the door is the coat of arms of King George III with its lions and unicorns. This is there because of a tradition started by Henry VIII of placing the royal coat of arms in the church after his break with the Pope. This aisle was extended in 1874 and the end buttress which supported the wall has now become ‘stranded’ as now it serves no useful purpose.
The Nave:
The Pillars on either side of the nave are of Greek cross plan at their base and they have broad concave curves to connect the arms, with shafts attached to the arms and thin shafts set in the hollows. The significance of the Greek cross plan is that it was used in the earliest Byzantine churches of Southern Europe and the style was eventually transferred to England. The chancel arch is unusual in two ways. It is not in a central position in line with the roof or uniform in itself. Some explanation of this is that it represents Christ suffering on the Cross and his twisted position. The roof here is of wood and of a similar but less pronounced ‘waggon’ style. There is a beautiful pulpit with simple Jacobean motifs.
The North Aisle:
This aisle was a later addition to the Church in 1820. It cost £851. It was built with the same red sandstone of the rubble type but because of bad building it does not fit flush on to the nave and tower wall. The addition was necessary to accommodate the expanding village in the early 19th century, (from 776 people in 1801 to 1,214 in 1821). An unsuccessful attempt was made to copy the wooden waggon roof. On the walls are many memorials to prominent local families.
The Chancel and Sanctuary:
This was extended when the church was ‘restored’ in 1874. The Victorians grotesquely decorated the walls of the sanctuary with mock Gothic ornamentation. The stained glass windows were all shattered by bomb blasts during the Second World War and only three were replaced. As a consequence, the Church is now much lighter than it used to be.
Probably taken in Victory Park. In 1935 the Bristol city boundary was extended to Hicks Gate and the parish council ceased to have any function. Dr.Fox is third from left on the back row,Tom Fuller is second from left on the front and the Chairman is Harry Sherman, 'For many years a member of the Church choir and never known to be on time for practices.'
Photograph above probably taken in Victory Park. In 1935 the Bristol city boundary was extended to Hicks Gate and the parish council ceased to have any function. Dr.Fox is third from left on the back row,Tom Fuller is second from left on the front and the Chairman is Harry Sherman, 'For many years a member of the Church choir and never known to be on time for practices.'
Please feel free to add your own comments to the Guestbook or Forum
Memories of Bristol over the past 100 years including 3000 photographs on-line
This non commercial 'hobby' site, has been evolving and expanding on line since 2001 and is intended for educational and entertainment purposes only.