"The phrase 'builders of Victorian Bristol' can be approached at different levels. It can refer to all those who contributed to the growth of the city in the widest sense, embracing its physical, economic, social, political and cultural development in the period 1837-1901". Peter Malpass investigates some important names and how they made a different to Bristol in the Victorian era.
Tag: Clifton
“Our Zoo”: The Relationship between Bristol Zoo Gardens and its neighbours
"In 1835, a site of about twelve acres opposite the Durdham Downs was purchased with a view to opening zoological gardens... This article will look at how the situation of the Zoo in the affluent neighbourhood of Clifton has affected the development of its character over the years, how the Zoo has interacted with its neighbours, and the significance of the Zoo's walls in the delineating and enabling control over the space within them".
Mary Rudge: Bristol’s World Chess Champion
'She was "the leading lady player of the world" and "known throughout the length and breadth of the land" in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. The pinnacle of her career was winning the first international women's chess tournament in 1897, but she lived a life of genteel poverty and died almost forgotten. John Richards uncovers the extraordinary career of Mary Rudge and argues the case for a blue plaque to mark her achievements'.
St Thomas’ Church, Bristol: From Medieval Splendour to Classical elegance
'There were 18 parish churches crowded in and around the walls of medieval Bristol. Churchwardens' accounts and other sources show that these churches continued to be well-maintained throughout the 16th and 17th centuries , in spite of the destruction of many furnishings of great beauty and value during all the upheavals of the Reformation'. Joseph Bettey looks at the maintenance of parish churches in the Bristol area, and how congregations approached physical alterations to the skin of the building.
The Phoenix
‘Bristol Record Office could not really be described as a mythical bird but its existence definitely seems to be a cyclical one; and whilst, thankfully, it could not strictly be said to rise from the ashes as each new cycle begins, its latest incarnation has certainly risen from a huge amount of dust and rubble to become the fabulous bird it now is.’ Richard Burley offers a brief history of record keeping in Bristol, right up to the newly refurbished record office in in time for the new millennium.
In search of the real Ann Green
Associated with Clifton, and in particular with Clifton Court (now The Chesterfield Nuffield Hospital) is a character called Ann Green. Her simple gravestone is in Clifton churchyard: died 1864, aged 55. Upon those two facts, a Clifton woman wrote a romantic historical novel, Ann Green of Clifton, published in 1936. Scores of details of the topography, the history and even the botany of Clifton and Bristol are worked into the story: the gallows in Pembroke Road, horseracing on The Downs, the chemist's shop in Clifton village, Rolinda Sharples the painter, and the visit of Princess Victoria to Clifton at the age of 10. In this article, William Evans goes in search of the real Ann Green.