History of Bristol

Bristol is a city of half a million people in south west England, which has been amongst England's largest and most economically and culturally important cities in England for eight centuries. The Bristol area has been settled since the stone age, and the city rose to prominence in the Norman era. During the 17th and 18th centuries Bristol's maritime industry boomed, and despite the industry's subsequent decline Bristol has remained affluent.

Pre-Norman

There is evidence of settlement in the Bristol area from the palaeolithic era, with 60,000 year old archaeological finds at Shirehampton and St Annes. [Bristol City Council, [http://www.bristol-city.gov.uk/ccm/content/Leisure-Culture/Local-History-Heritage/archaeology/the-palaeolithic-in-bristol.en The Palaeolithic in Bristol] ] There are Iron Age hill forts near the city, at Leigh Woods and Clifton Down on the side of the Avon Gorge, and on Kingswestern Hill, near Henbury. [Bristol City Council, [http://www.bristol-city.gov.uk/ccm/content/Leisure-Culture/Local-History-Heritage/archaeology/bristol-in-the-iron-age.en Bristol in the Iron Age] .] During the Roman era there was a settlement, "Abona", at what is now Sea Mills, connected to Bath by Roman road, and another settlement at what is now Inns Court. There were also isolated villas and small settlements throughout the area. [Bristol City Council, [http://www.bristol-city.gov.uk/ccm/content/Leisure-Culture/Local-History-Heritage/archaeology/bristol-in-the-roman-period.en Bristol in the Roman Period] .]

Middle Ages

The city, recorded in the Domesday Book as "Brycgstow" (Old English, "the place at the bridge"), was in existence by the beginning of the 11th Century. It is believed that the "Bristol L" (the tendency for the local accent to add a letter L to the end of some words) is what changed the name "Brycstow" to the current name "Bristol".cite book |last=Brace |first=Keith |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Portrait of Bristol |year=1996 |publisher=Robert Hale |location=London |isbn=0709154356 ] The city was defended by the stone Norman Bristol Castle built on the site of a wooden predecessor. The castle was to play a key role in the civil wars that followed the death of Henry I. Stephen of Blois reconnoitred Bristol in 1138 but decided that the town was impregnable. [cite book |last=Potter |first=K.R. |authorlink= |coauthors=R.H.C. Davis |title=Gesta Stephani (Oxford Medieval Texts) (pp. 37-8, 43-4.)|year=1976 |publisher=Clarendon Press |location=Oxford |isbn=0198222343 ] After Stephen was captured in 1141, he was imprisoned in the castle. [cite book |last=Potter |first=K.R.|authorlink= |coauthors= |title=William of Malmesbury - Historia Novella: The Contemporary History (Oxford Medieval Texts) (p50) |year=1998 |publisher=Clarendon Press |location=Oxford |isbn=0198201923 ] The castle was later taken into royal hands, [cite book |last=Sharp |first=Margaret |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Accounts of the Constables of Bristol Castle in the Thirteenth and Early Fourteenth Centuries (p. xviii.)|year=1982 |publisher=Bristol Record Society |location= |isbn= ] and Henry III spent lavishly on it, adding a barbican before the main west gate, a gate tower, and magnificent hall. [cite book |last=Colvin |first=H.M. |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Building Accounts of Henry III |year=1971 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=0199200130 ] By the sixteenth century the castle had fallen into disuse, but the City authorities had no control over royal property and the precincts became a refuge for lawbreakers. In 1630 the city bought the castle and when the Civil War broke out the city took the Parliamentary side and partly restored the castle. However Royalist troops occupied Bristol and eventually Oliver Cromwell ordered the destruction of the castle in 1656. [cite book |last=Stone |first=George Frederick |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Bristol as it was and as it is, a record of 50 years' progress (p. 99.)|year=1909 |publisher=Walter Reid, |location=Bristol |isbn= ]

The city also had extensive city walls, built by Geoffrey de Montbray, bishop of Coutances, but these have largely disappeared apart from some remains in properties in King Street, and the final surviving gateway to the city which is under the tower of the Church of St John the Baptist.cite book |last=Burrough |first=THB |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Bristol |year=1970 |publisher=Studio Vista |location=London |isbn=0289798043 ]

The River Avon flowing through the city centre was used to create Bristol Harbour, making the city an important port in the 12th century, handling much of England's trade with Ireland. In 1247 a new bridge was built and the town was extended to incorporate neighbouring suburbs. The river Avon traditionally marks the border between Gloucestershire and Somerset. In 1373 Edward III proclaimed "that the said town of Bristol withall be a County by itself and called the County of Bristol for ever," [Charter quoted in Rayfield 1985.] but maps usually showed it as part of Gloucestershire, until the county was enlarged in the 19th century, and as the city spilled south of the river, it took the county with it. 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 15-20,000 inhabitants on the eve of the Black Death of 1348-49. The plague inflicted a prolonged demographic setback, however, with population remaining at most 10-12,000 through most of the 15th and 16th Centuries. In 1497 Bristol was the starting point for John Cabot's voyage of exploration to North America.

Early modern

Bristol was made a city in 1542, with the former Abbey of St Augustine becoming Bristol Cathedral. During the Civil War the city suffered (1643-45) through Royalist military occupation [cite web | title= Bristol | work=Fortified Places | url=http://www.fortified-places.com/bristol.html | accessdate=2007-03-24] 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.

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 2000 slaving ships were fitted out at Bristol, carrying an estimated half a million people from Africa to the Americas. Competition from Liverpool from c.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) grew fivefold 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 the Clifton Suspension Bridge.
John Wesley founded the very first Methodist Chapel in Bristol in 1739, which can still be visited today.

The Bristol Bridge Riot of 1793 began as a protest at the levying of tolls on Bristol Bridge.

The Bristol Riots of 1831 took place after the House of Lords rejected the second Reform Bill. Local magistrate Sir Charles Wetherall, a strong opponent of the Bill, visited Bristol to open the new Assize Courts and an angry mob chased him to the Mansion House in Queen Square. Bristol lies on one of the UK's lesser coalfields, and from the 17th century collieries opened in Bristol, and what is now North Somerset and South Gloucestershire. Though these prompted the construction of the Somerset Coal Canal, it was difficult to make mining profitable, and the mines closed after nationalisation. [Keith Ramsey, [http://www.projects.ex.ac.uk/mhn/coal_text.htm A Brief History of the Bristol and Somerset Coalfield] . Accessed 2006-05-05.]

=Modern history= As the location of aircraft manufacture, Bristol was a target of bombing during the Bristol Blitz of World War II. Bristol's city centre also suffered severe damage, especially in November and December 1940, when the Broadmead area was flattened, and Hitler claimed to have destroyed the city. [ [http://weldgen.tripod.com/bristol-history/id6.html Pictoral history of Bristol] , bristolhistory.com. Accessed 2006-04-14.] 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. Like much of British post-war planning, regeneration of Bristol city centre was characterised by large, cheap tower blocks, brutalist architecture and expansion of roads. Since the 1990s this trend has been reversing, with the closure of some main roads and the regeneration of the Broadmead shopping centre. In 2006 two of the city centre's tallest post-war blocks were torn down.

The removal of the docks to Avonmouth, seven miles (11 km) downstream from the city centre, relieved congestion in the central zone of Bristol and allowed substantial redevelopment of the old central dock area (the Floating Harbour) in recent decades, although at one time the continued existence of the central docks was in jeopardy as it was seen merely as derelict industry rather than an asset to be developed for public use. Since the 1980s millions of pounds have been spent regenerating the harbourside. 1999 saw the construction of Pero's footbridge; which now links the At-Bristol exhibition with other Bristol tourist attractions. In 2000, the At-Bristol centre opened on semi-derelict land at Canon's Marsh, although some of Grade II listed buildings were refurbished and reused. . It was funded with UK£44.3 million from the National Lottery, the Millennium Commission, South West of England Regional Development Agency, and a further £43.4 million from commercial partners, including Nestlé, and Bristol city council. Private investors are also constructing studio apartment buildings. The regeneration of the Canon's Marsh area is expected to cost £240 million. [cite web | title=Development areas in Bristol | work=Bristol City Council | url=http://www.bristol.gov.uk/ccm/content/Business/Business-support-and-Advice/development-areas.en | accessdate=2007-05-27] Crest Nicholson were the lead developers constructing 450 new flats, homes and waterside offices, [cite web | title=New Harbourside development given the green light | work=BBC News | url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/bristol/content/news/2001/10/18/news1/harbourside.shtml | accessdate=2007-05-27] under the guidance of The Harbourside Sponsors’ Group which is a partnership between the City Council, key stakeholders, developers, businesses, operators and funders. [cite web | title=Bristol - Harbourside Management | work=BERI Virtual Masterplan | url=http://www.berinetwork.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=135&Itemid=189 | accessdate=2007-05-27] On the evening of December 18, 1974, an IRA bomb exploded on Park Street, at the time busy with shoppers, but killed none. In 1980 a police raid on a cafe in St Paul's sparked the St Pauls riot.

=See also=
* Buildings and architecture of Bristol
* History of England

=External links=
* [http://www.fishponds.org.uk/ Bristol History]
* [http://www.buildinghistory.org/bristol/ Bristol Past]
* [http://romanbristol.tripod.com/kingsweston.html Bristol in Roman Times]
* [http://weldgen.tripod.com/bristol-history/ Bristol timeline]
* [http://www.oldstratforduponavon.com/bristol Bristol in Old Postcards]
* [http://www.fortified-places.com/bristol.html Civil War fortifications]
* [http://www.bristolhistory.com/ History of Bristol Past & Present]
* [http://www.picturetrail.com/bristolhistory/ Photographic Record of Bristol's Past]

=References=

* Rayfield, Jack, 1985. "Somerset & Avon County Companion". London: Cadogan.