The weird and lesser-known history of Bristol.
My four WEIRD BRISTOL books are available on Amazon.
My murder/mystery novel SUSPENSION is here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Suspension-Franklin-Charlie-Revelle-Smith-ebook/dp/B0GFY674NN
Weird Bristol
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This stunning door in M Shed was once the entrance to Spicer Hall. Built in the early 1300s and named after a local MP - Richard Spicer. From 1459 it became a kind of warehouse for storing goods where the “freeman of the city” could sell them wholesale to merchants.
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Freemen were tenant farmers who paid rent for their land. Spicer’s Hall was used for this purpose until the 1830s and was demolished in 1885.
Weird Bristol
Shout out to BBC Points West, who just broadcast a montage of scenes of the royal wedding at Kemble this weekend, & accompanied it with the piano instrumental version of Suddenly by Angry Anderson, the theme tune of Scott & Charlene’s wedding in Neighbours. 😂
Weird Bristol
Romans using elephants to cross the River Severn? Great local legend but remains that were found were actually Woolley mammoth, which in a way is more exciting! 🦣 🦣 🦣
www.greatbritishlife.co.uk/magazines/co...
And the answer is:
Dighton Street (just before it becomes Jamaica Street) in Stokes Croft.
Well done if you got this one right!
The first St Johns Church, Bedminster was built in 1003 AD,
destroyed in the civil war, rebuilt in 1662 and redesigned in 1855. It was destroyed completely in the Blitz.
The outline of the 1855 church can still be seen in the former churchyard.
The churchyard is now a park beside East Street
Launched as a ferry in 1949, by the 1960s MV Balmoral became very popular as an excursion boat from Bristol due to a loophole which circumvented the UK Sunday alcohol laws. Once in the Bristol Channel, the bar was open and the ship returned to dock with many “merry” passengers!
Until it was destroyed in the Bristol Blitz, a large granary stood where MShed is now. This peculiar object on the docks was discovered during 2009 excavations of the area and is a pile cap - used to reinforce the soft earth so the granary could be built in 1889.
One of the earliest designs for a bridge across the Avon Gorge was submitted by William Bridges in 1793.
This extraordinary proposal, which would’ve featured around 40 homes, a pub, gallery and chapel was intended to pay for itself via rents and tolls to cross the gorge.
