After 20 years of research, the Filton Community History Group closed in 2018. Some notable contributions included the BAC 100 (Bristol Aeroplane Company) oral history project, the Millennium Schools Project, and the ‘Inspiring Women’ exhibition for South Gloucestershire Council. All these successful projects have connected the local community of Filton to their rich and proud history. Jane Tozer, Treasurer of Filton Community History Group looks back on the group's achievements.
Tag: South Gloucestershire
Constructing a rail ferry across the Severn: 1845-68
Over Court: the life and death of an Elizabethan Manor House
"Wealthy Bristolians have always escaped the pressures of city life for the peace of rural South Gloucestershire. Country estates frequently changed hands as fortunes were made and lost and fashionable mansions were built with the profits of trade, including the Slave Trade. Sarah Hands has traced the story of Over Court from its medieval origins".
Continuity and Change in Agricultural Practices on Severnside
"Mary Jane Steer concentrates on farming life where Bristol expanded into the Severn Vale in the later 19th and 20th centuries. George Watkins and his family are the focus of her research. Like most of the rural population before 1900 they worked mainly as agricultural labourers, although George came to the area as a labourer on the Severn Tunnel in the early 1880s".
Medieval Redwick, South Gloucestershire
"The Severn Vale salt marshes attracted our Prehistoric ancestors because of the wealth of food - especially fish and wildfowl. Regular flooding prevented permanent settlement but left silt behind which enriched the soil... Sue explores a wide range of records kept by church and state to piece together the lives of Redwick's medieval inhabitants".
Slimbridge and an American Connection
Eric Carpenter looks at the American connections with Slimbridge, relating to the many who travelled to the New World to find their fortune. Using church records and other available pieces of evidence, he looks to establish a background to the migration, as well as ascertain the motivations behind the original emigration of the Bridger's to the New World.
Of Trees and Kings: Some thoughts on the History Trail
Peter Fleming provides input on 'tree-hugging' in South Gloucestershire, and the process of adapting academic study for television's 'The History Trail'. He describes the processes explored whilst researching the Battle of Nibley Green, 'the last private battle fought on English soil'.