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The City of Bristol
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Local Government
The Avon
traditionally marked the border between Gloucestershire and Somerset.
In 1373 Edward III of England proclaimed "that the said town of Bristol
withall be a County by itself and called the county of Bristol for
ever", but maps usually instead show it as part of Gloucestershire, and
as the city spilled south of the river, it took the county with it.
In 1974 it was made
into a district of the newly formed County of Avon, which was abolished
on April 1, 1996. It has now returned to its former status of a county
in itself.
History
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 place 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 15-20,000 inhabitants on the eve of the Black Death of 1348-49.
The plague inflicted a prolonged demographic setback, however, with
population remaining in the region of at most 10-12,000 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 the city suffered (1643-45) through Royalist military
occupation and plague.
The main front of
Bristol Cathedra in 1497 Bristol was the starting point for John
Cabot's voyage of exploration to North America.
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 a (conservatively) estimated half a million people
from Africa to the Americas and slavery.
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)
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 the Clifton Suspension Bridge.
Bristol Bridge seen
across the HarbourBristol'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.
The removal of the
docks to Avonmouth, seven miles (11 km) downstream from the city
centre, relieved congestion in the central zone 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
docks was in jeopardy as it was seen merely as derelict industry rather
than a potential asset.
Aeronautics
In the 20th century,
Bristol's manufacturing activities expanded to include aircraft
production at Filton, six miles (10 km) north of the city centre, by
the Bristol Aeroplane Company, including the key British role in the
Anglo-French Concorde supersonic airliner project.
Concorde components
were manufactured in British and French factories and shipped to the
two final assembly plants by road, sea and air. The French assembly
lines were in Toulouse in southern France with the British lines in
Filton. Luckily the very large three-bayed hangar built for the Bristol
Brabazon was available.
The last ever
flight of any Concorde, 26th November 2003. The aircraft is seen
overflying Filton, before landing on the runway from which she first
flew in 1979.The French manufactured the centre fuselage and centre
wing and the British the nose, rear fuselage, fin and wingtips. The
largest proportion of the British share of the work was the powerplant,
the Rolls-Royce/Snecma 593. The engine's manufacture was split between
British Aircraft Corporation, Rolls-Royce (Filton) and SNECMA at
Villaroche near Paris.
The British Concorde
prototype G-BSST made its 22 minute maiden flight from Filton to RAF
Fairford on 9 April 1969, the French prototype F-WTSS had flown from
Toulouse five weeks earlier. Most of the employees of BAC and Rolls
Royce, plus a huge crowd, watched from around the airfield. Fairford
was chosen as the test airfield for Concorde because the runway at
Filton was rejected for test flying, its length was inadequate and
there were problems with the slope, and the first 1000 feet (300 m) of
the runway at its eastern (A38) end could not be used. However, from
the end of 1977, all test flying on the second production aircraft
G-BBDG was done from Filton, following the closure of the BAC Fairford
test base.
In 2003 the two
airlines using Concorde (British Airways and Air France) and the
company supplying spares and support (Airbus) made the decision to
cease flying the aircraft and to retire them to locations (mostly
museums) around the world. For the precise location of all the aircraft
see Concorde.
On 26 November 2003,
Concorde 216 (G-BOAF) made the final ever Concorde flight, returning to
Filton airfield to be kept there permanently as the centrepiece of a
projected air museum. This museum will include the existing Bristol
Aero Collection which is currently kept in a hangar at Kemble Airfield,
forty miles (60 km) from Filton. This collection includes a Bristol
Britannia aircraft which would presumably also be brought to Bristol.
Another major
aeronautical company in the city is Cameron Balloons, the worlds
largest manufacturer of hot air balloons. Annually, in August, the city
is host to the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta, one of Europe's
largest hot air balloon events.
Arts and leisure
The city has two
significant football clubs: Bristol City F.C. who play in Football
League One and Bristol Rovers F.C. who play in Football League Two. The
city is also home to a Rugby Union club currently known as Bristol
Shoguns and a first-class cricket side, Gloucestershire C.C.C.
Each summer the
grounds of Ashton Court to the west of the city play host to the
Bristol Balloon Fiesta, a major event for followers of the sport of
hot-air ballooning in Britain. The "Fiesta" draws a substantial crowd
even for the early morning lift that typically begins at about 6.30 am
and a fairground atmosphere is sustained throughout the day. A second
mass ascent is normally scheduled for the early evening, again taking
advantage of lower wind speeds.
Ashton Court also
plays host to the Ashton Court festival each summer, an outdoors music
festival which used to be known as the Bristol Community Festival.
St Mary Redcliffe
church and the Floating Harbour, Bristol.The city's principal theatre
company, the Bristol Old Vic, was founded in 1946 as an offshoot of the
Old Vic company in London. It has premises on King Street consisting of
the 1766 Theatre Royal (400 seats), a modern studio theatre called the
New Vic (150 seats), and foyer and bar areas in the adjacent Coopers'
Hall (built 1743). The Theatre Royal is a grade I listed building and
the oldest continuously-operating theatre in England. The Bristol Old
Vic also runs a prominent Theatre School. The Bristol Hippodrome is a
larger theatre (1981 seats) which hosts national touring productions,
while the 2000-seat Colston Hall is the city's main concert venue.
The music scene is
thriving and significant. In particular, Bristol was the birthplace of
a kind of English hip-hop music often called trip hop or the Bristol
Sound, epitomised in the work of artists such as Tricky and Massive
Attack among many others.
The Bristol City
Museum and Art Gallery houses a collection of natural history,
archaeology, local glassware, Chinese ceramics and art of a variety of
periods. The Bristol Industrial Museum, on the dockside, shows local
industrial heritage and operates a steam railway, boat trips, and
working dockside cranes. The City Museum also runs three preserved
historic houses: the Tudor Red Lodge, the Georgian House, and Blaise
Castle House. The Watershed media centre and Arnolfini gallery, both in
disused dockside warehouses, exhibit contemporary art, photography and
cinema.
Stop frame animation
films and commercials painstakingly produced by Aardman Animations and
high quality television series focusing on the natural world have also
brought fame and artistic credit to the city. It is where the British
Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has its regional headquarters, and
Natural History Unit. This was a key attraction to a number of
independent media companies who located in the city, and in recent
times have grown into a significant industry. Bristol is also the
birthplace of the actor Cary Grant.
Education
Bristol is home to
two major institutions of higher education: the University of Bristol,
a "redbrick" chartered in 1909, and the University of the West of
England, formerly Bristol Polytechnic, which gained university status
in 1992. The city also has two dedicated further education
institutions, City of Bristol College and Filton College as well as a
theological college, Trinity College, Bristol.
Transport
The passenger
terminal at Bristol International Airport, LulsgateThere are two
principal railway stations in Bristol: Bristol Parkway and Bristol
Temple Meads. Bristol was never well served by suburban railways,
though the line to Avonmouth and Severn Beach survived the Beeching Axe
and is still in operation today, while the line to Portishead has
recently reopened to freight traffic. Long-standing plans for a light
rail system in the Bristol area have so far come to nothing.
The city is
connected by road on an east-west axis from London to Wales by the M4
motorway, and on a north-southwest axis from Birmingham to Exeter by
the M5 motorway. The M32 motorway is a spur from the M4 to the city
centre.
The city is also served by its own airport, at Lulsgate, which has
recently seen substantial improvements to its runway, terminal and
other facilities.
Despite being hilly,
Bristol is one of the prominent cycling cities of England, and is home
to the national cycle campaigning group Sustrans. It has a number of
urban cycle routes, as well as links to National Cycle Network routes
to Bath and London, to Gloucester and Wales, and to the South-Western
peninsula of England.
Dialect
Many Bristolians
speak a distinctive dialect of English (known colloquially as Brizzle
or Bristle). The best-known feature of this dialect, unique to Bristol,
is the Bristol L (or Terminal L), in which an L sound is appended to
words that end in a vowel sound. This is exemplified by the name of the
city itself, which has been transformed from the Old English Brycgstow
to the modern Bristol. It may also lead to confusions between
expressions like area engineer and aerial engineer which in "Bristle"
may sound similar.
External links:
Official tourist office site
Guide to Bristol
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