Their Towns ...

 

Giles Chambers and Mary Griffin were born in Preston and Bath, Somerset, respectively. Upon moving to Gloucestershire, the family established roots in Bristol and Cirencester. On this page you will find some information and photographs of each of these places. I believe that it is important to have knowledge of the areas in which our ancestors built their lives, it all adds to the story.

 

Bristol ...

The town of Brycgstow (Old English, "the place at the bridge") was in existence by the beginning of the 11th Century, and under Norman rule acquired one of the strongest castles in southern England. The River Avon in the city centre has slowly evolved into Bristol Harbour, and since the 12th Century the harbour has been an important port, handling much of England's trade with Ireland. In 1247 a new bridge was built and the town was extended to incorporate neighbouring suburbs, becoming in 1373 a county in its own right. During this period Bristol also became a centre of shipbuilding and manufacturing.

 

By the 14th Century Bristol was England's third-largest town (after London and York), with perhaps 15,000 to 20,000 inhabitants on the eve of the Black Death of 1348-49. The plague inflicted a prolonged pause in the population growth of Bristol, with numbers remaining at 10,000 to12,000 through most of the 15th and 16th Centuries. Bristol was made a city in 1542, with the former Abbey of St Augustine becoming Bristol Cathedral. During the Civil War, 1643-45, the city suffered through Royalist military occupation and plague.

 

Renewed growth came with the 17th Century rise of England's American colonies and the rapid 18th Century expansion of England's part in the Atlantic trade in Africans taken for slavery in the Americas, a regrettable part of Britain's history.

 

Bristol, along with Liverpool, became a significant centre for the slave trade although few slaves were brought to Britain. During the height of the slave trade, from 1700 to 1807, more than 2,000 slaving ships were fitted out at Bristol, carrying a (conservatively) estimated half a million people from Africa to the Americas. Some years ago, I read an excellent book about this, 'A Respectable Trade', by Philippa Gregory. I thoroughly recommend this book, not only for its sympathetic and honest handling of what is now deemed a vile trade, but for its wonderful descriptions of the growth of Bristol and its surrounding areas, such as Clifton, at the time.

 

To understand Bristol fully, one needs to go first to these old docks and see the soaring St. Mary Redcliffe Church, the restored cathedral, the museum and art gallery adjoining the university and facing the Cabot tower which celebrates Cabot's discovery of North America in 1497. In front of the exchange are four short pillars called "nails" on which merchants conducted cash transactions; hence the expression "paving on the nail".

 

The Redcliffe district is also the home of the Redcliffe Caves. Against the wall on your right, above one of the entrances to the caves, is a plaque referring to the "Middle passage". There are many local myths about these caves. One such story is that slaves were incarcerated in the barred section within the caves, (see the plaque above the entrance). This story may have originated because goods related to the African and West Indian trades were stored there. The only other evidence linking the caves with the slave trade is an 18th century account of French seamen, some of whom may have been black, being taken prisoner by Bristol privateers and kept in the caves in the barred section. The main product of the caves was sand, needed for the production of glass for bottling beers and spirits such as rum (made from molasses from sugar cane which was produced on the slave plantations) and for other glass objects including trade goods for Africa. This area, Temple Gate and St Phillips, were the main centres of glass production in Bristol, with owners listed such as John Cave and George Daubeny.

 

Competition from Liverpool from circa 1760, the disruption of maritime commerce through war with France (1793) and ,the abolition of the slave trade (1807) contributed to the city's failure to keep pace with the newer manufacturing centres of the north and midlands. The long passage up the heavily tidal Avon Gorge, which had made the port highly secure during the middle ages had become a liability which the construction of a new "Floating Harbour" (designed by William Jessop) in 1804-9 failed to overcome. Nevertheless, Bristol's population (66,000 in 1801) quintupled during the 19th Century, supported by new industries and growing commerce. It was particularly associated with the leading engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who designed the Great Western Railway between Bristol and London, two pioneering Bristol-built steamships, and Brunel's spectacular Clifton Suspension Bridge, which spans the Avon Gorge.

 

Bristol's city centre suffered severe damage from bombing during World War II. The original central area, near the bridge and castle, is still a park featuring two bombed out churches and some tiny fragments of the castle. A third bombed church has a new lease of life as St Nicholas' Church Museum. Slightly to the North, the Broadmead shopping centre was built over bomb-damaged areas.

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Please click on first image below to open the gallery to see full images.

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