When a travellers camp was proposed on Bedminster Down,residents there promptly applied for permission to open a camp on College Green outside the Council House. In the end neither were built, but it was fun at the time

Bedminster Down residents applied for planning permission for a traveller's camp on College Green in revenge for plans to put one on Bedminster Down. And why not. In its time, the Green has been a preaching place, a sanctuary from the law, a burial ground, a place to graze cattle, a rope walk, a drill ground for soldiers and the haunt of local bandits.

After that lot, what difference can a few mobile homes make ? The Green was originally the property of the Canons of St Augustine, the less-than-holy roisterers and profligates who administered the abbey which later became Bristol Cathedral.

They buried their dead there and made a few groats on the side by letting out the land for cattle and for a rope walk ( a place where strands were twisted into rope ).But after an access row with the brothers of St Mark opposite ( now the Lord Mayor's Chapel ), the canons were told they could carry on using the land as a burial ground, but only if they left it flat with no markers - and the grass was to be used solely for covering the floors of churches and not for cattle.

The land was regarded as sanctuary where those accused of treason could go to escape the law, but this ended in the early fifteenth century when Pope Alexander announced that all traitors were enemies to the Christian faith. By 1634, the Green ( now attached to a cathedral rather than an abbey of course ) was in a dismal state.

It was regularly churned up by sledges carrying clothes to dry on Brandon Hill ( a privilege granted by Elizabeth I ). There was also a Corporation whipping post there, and locals used the Green for stop-ball and other games. The Archbishop ordered the place cleaned up, but it was two years before the cathedral got round to it.

The Green was often used as a parade ground for trained bands ( militia ) as well as a playground, and there were gardens there as well. In 1709, the Corporation contributed £40 to another improvement scheme, this time to provide fencing and replace a double row of trees blown down in the great storm of 1703.

The work was carried out but the dean still refused to maintain the Green and, by 1756, the Corporation had to find another 40 guineas to replace the turf and paths. This, however, led to another juicy bit of Bristol scandal.

The city's ancient High Cross had been moved from High Street to the Green in 1733. It made a nice centrepiece, but the corporation and cathedral authorities decided it was in the way of strollers on their new paths.

So the cross was taken down, and stored in the cathedral cloisters until 1764 when the dean gave it away to Henry Hoare, owner of Stourhead, near Warminster in the county of Wiltshire.

It still stands in the grounds there today In 1848, a replica High Cross was built. That, too, was demolished because of vandalism, although the top part survives in Berkeley Square and one of the statues is in a private garden....

Back to the Green. By 1790, so many foot-pads and burglars infested the area that the cathedral let the people who lived round it put up a watch box and employ night patrols.

It was also the scene of three famous Bristol murders. In 1741, Sir John Dinely, an eccentric baronet, was kidnapped by a gang of ruffians from the White Hart on the Green as he left The Great House ( on the Swallow Royal site ) where he had been at a reconciliation meeting with his brother. Dinely was rowed down river to Kingroad and strangled.

It didn't take much detective work for the authorities to work out his brother had set the whole thing up as part of an inheritance row, and the brother was hanged on St Michael's Hill. In 1764, a woman and her maid were found dead in their house on the Green. The killer was never found, although a local baker was suspected.

But the most celebrated case was the murder of Clara Smith in 1835. She had been poisoned by her servant, Mary Ann Burdock, who was hanged outside Cumberland Road Gaol before a crowd of 50,000 spectators.

Many famous people lived round the Green over the years including Mary Robinson; actress and mistress of the Prince of Wales, Sam Worrall; the town clerk taken in by the fraudulent Princess Caraboo and involved in the terrible Bristol Bridge massacre, and poets Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey In the eighteenth century it was a very fashionable residential quarter. By this century, it was a pleasant park surrounded by trees and railings.

Opposite the Cathedral, on the other side of the Green, lies the huge sweeping bulk of the Council House. This is the city's administrative building. Some people say it is ugly.

The Council House was only partially finished at the outbreak of WWII in 1939 and it wasn't until the war was over in 1945 that it was finished and the Council moved in.

The coat of arms of Bristol is made up of a shield showing a ship protected by a castle, surrounded by a pair of unicorns. Both of the two end towers of the Council House bear a golden unicorn.

On the East side of the Green can be found St Mark's, The Lord Mayors Chapel.

Nearby Orchard and Culver Streets are named after parts of the building - a Culver was a pigeon house. The chapel is all that is left of a much larger building, but is unique in that it is the exclusive property of the City. The cost of the clergy and repairs is maintained out of endowments made to it. The Council purchased the building for £1,000 during the dissolution of the monasteries in 1539.

In 1687, and for around 40 years after it was used by French Huguenot refugees who had settled in Bristol. In 1722 there was a dispute between the Council and the Cathedral authorities over the pews in the Cathedral. The Council decided not to use the Cathedral any more and since then have used St Mark's as their place of worship.

From College Green there is a magnificent view up Park Street to the University's Will's Memorial building.

The Cathedral

Robert FitzHardinge founded the Abbey of the Black Canons of St. Augustine in 1140 in the fields to the west of the town, and it was ready for its dedication in 1146. Between 1306 and 1132 the Abbot was Abbot Knowle who started an extensive rebuilding of the Abbey for it was falling into disrepair.

He rebuilt the choir, aisles, Lady Chapel, Berkeley Chapel and the Sacristy. Since those days the Cathedral has undergone much rebuilding and alteration. The last being the two towers built in 1888.

Near to the west entrance of the Cathedral is the decorated Norman Arch. It was originally built in 1142, but restored, along with much of the Cathedral sometime between 1480 and 1520. Two of the niches contain effigies of two of the early abbots, John de Newland (Nailheart) (1481 - 1515) and Robert Elliot (1515 - 1526).