Highly expensive new flats have been built on the site of the old Limekiln Dock - that's the area opposite the SS Great Britain, formerly used for a timber yard and as part of the old gas works.
It was to No. 7 Limekiln Lane that Francis Greenway, Olive Greenway and John Tripp Greenway - how they were related isn't clear - moved from the isolate rural village of Mangotsfield to set up business as stonemasons, architects and builders. Francis was probably the architect of the business and in 1806, a year after the company was set up, the Greenways were offered a design and build contract for a hotel and assembly rooms at the head of The Mall in Clifton.
This was the time that Clifton was full of unfinished houses, which had been started speculatively with money made by slave, rum and tobacco trading. But war with the French led to a drying up of funds and many of the grand terraces remained half completed.
The Greenways thought they could make a killing and bought a number of houses, which they completed and sold. They obviously overstretched themselves for in May 1809, they were declared bankrupt.
But after he was made bankrupt, Greenway alleged the owner had promised to pay an extra £250, but that he had lost the document. It mysteriously reappeared the containing an endorsement from a lawyer backing Greenway's claim.
Unfortunately the for lawyer denied ever signing it, and Greenway was arrested. He admitted forgery at Bristol Assize and was sentenced to death, later commuted to transportation for life.
His supporters claim he was merely thinking of his creditors and that there had been verbal agreement about the extra payment.
Old court records include among their assets - 'marble in blocks, handsome modern chimney-pieces, Painswick stone slabs, pennant and other paving stones, figures in plaster of Paris after the antique, some finished to represent bronze, and two ornamental Gothic chimney tunnels intended for Portumnia Castle'.
It was around this time that Francis Greenway ran into a problem which changed his life and altered Australia for the better, He had a contract to finish a house in Cornwallis Crescent for 1,300 guineas.
In any event, he was sent to Australia in 1813 where he became known as the father of Australian architecture He designed a number of Georgian-style squares in Sydney and many public buildings and a even ended up on an Australian banknote.
Olive and John Greenway seem to have got round their financial problems for they stayed in Limekiln Lane until around 1820.
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