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Bricgstowe
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Bristol : The First Thousand Years.

Bricg=bridge.
Stowe=settlement.

So, place or settlement by the bridge. Over time this evolved:
Brigstow - Bristow - Bristol
Pinned
This terrific film, directed by Mary Francis, was commissioned to promote Bristol at the Festival of Britain in 1951. The city as portrayed, albeit idealistically, is hardly recognisable with its contented, plucky Bristolians drenched in history. [bfi 18mins]

player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/wa...
Watch Bristol, British City - BFI Player
How a thousand years of history have helped the West Country capital to emerge from the blitz as a modern city of art and industry.
player.bfi.org.uk
This terrific film, directed by Mary Francis, was commissioned to promote Bristol at the Festival of Britain in 1951. The city as portrayed, albeit idealistically, is hardly recognisable with its contented, plucky Bristolians drenched in history. [bfi 18mins]

player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/wa...
Watch Bristol, British City - BFI Player
How a thousand years of history have helped the West Country capital to emerge from the blitz as a modern city of art and industry.
player.bfi.org.uk
December 1, 2024 at 6:19 PM
The previous posts were originally posted to Twitter from 2020, and are now resited here. My Twitter X feed is now formally discontinued.
December 1, 2024 at 4:35 PM
Admiral Sir William Penn, b 1621 in St Thomas' Parish, whose monument is in St Mary Redcliffe Church [oil on canvas by Lely]. His son was William Penn, a Quaker, who founded Pennsylvania in 1682.
December 1, 2024 at 4:33 PM
Bristol historic resources, courtesy of the Bristol Record Society:

bristolrecordsociety.org
December 1, 2024 at 4:31 PM
The original Henry Wallis, 1856 painting depicting Thomas Chatterton's suicide was exhibiting at the RWA on Queens Road during 2020. [Photo by myself]
December 1, 2024 at 4:28 PM
'A Surge of Power'' [Jen Reid 2020]. Cast in black resin by Marc Quinn. Temporarily erected on plinth formely occupied by statue of Edward Colston, 15 July 2020.
December 1, 2024 at 4:25 PM
Vandelised headstones of Scipio Africanus, a young slave boy who died 21 December 1720, buried in Henbury churchyard. Following the toppling of the Edward Colston's statue, these were damaged 16 June 2020.
December 1, 2024 at 4:22 PM
Edward Colston's statue, The Centre. Toppled and disposed into the harbour, 7th June 2020. Surely one of the most significant images in the history of Bristol? A black man kneels upon the neck of the Slaver. For a few days, the statue lay under Pero's Bridge. The Slaver beneath the Slave.
December 1, 2024 at 4:18 PM
Complimentary to the previous post, this silent footage shows a panorama from the Clifton Suspension Bridge taken two years earlier, in 1900, a mere 36 years after the span was completed. This is possibly the earliest film shot in Bristol/Clifton.

player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/wa...
Watch Clifton Suspension Bridge - BFI Player
A long panning shot taken from the Bristol's famous bridge
player.bfi.org.uk
December 1, 2024 at 4:11 PM
Remarkable silent footage from 1902 of the Avon Gorge and Hotwells, and continuing down river to Portishead.

player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/wa...
Watch Panorama of the River Avon to Portishead (1902) - BFI Player
A fine variety of views of the Avon gorge taken from various positions downstream from the Clifton Suspension Bridge.
player.bfi.org.uk
December 1, 2024 at 4:08 PM
The original town plan page from 'The Maire of Bristowe is Kalendar' (1479), compiled by Robert Ricart, Town Clerk during the reign of Edward IV, and a lay brother of the Fraternity of the Kalendars, an ancient guild attached to the Church of All Saints. [Bristol Record Office]
December 1, 2024 at 4:03 PM
Available for research: records of Arnos Vale cemetery @arnosvalecemetery.bsky.social including registers of almost 300,000 people laid to rest in its grounds:

bristolmuseums.org.uk/blog/arnos-v...
Arnos Vale Cemetery archive now open | Bristol Museums
The records of Arnos Vale Cemetery are available for research at Bristol Archives, how this Victorian cemetery developed and the Bristol people buried here.
bristolmuseums.org.uk
December 1, 2024 at 4:00 PM
Broad Quay, 1840s. Cork Tavern run by John Kinrade, 1841-49, built 1739 following demolition of Veille's Great Tower in 1722. To right, Joshua Le Ray, ship broker, and The Sedan Chair. All demolished 1850. Photograph: Calvert Jones [paper negative in British Library collection]
December 1, 2024 at 3:52 PM
Postcard: 'Steep Street, Bristol - Demolished in 1871. From a Negative taken by the late John Hill Morgan in 1866. Published by Frost & Reed, Bristol, in 1891. Negative destroyed - 100 Copies printed'

Note chimney sweep trade figures. W Bulphin at No 3.
December 1, 2024 at 3:48 PM
Bristol Cathedral [SE view]. An engraving included in John Britton's History & Antiquities of The Abbey, and Cathedral Church [London 1830]. This was just before damage suffered during the Riots of 1831. The book was dedicated to George Weare Braikenridge, who owned my copy.
December 1, 2024 at 3:46 PM
SS Great Britain, Brandon Warf, April 1844. Launched, 19 July 1843. Brandon Hill in the background. This may be the first ever photograph of a ship.

[Attrib Henry Fox Talbot | National Maritime Museum collection | Digital blend by myself of Calotype neg + Salted Paper print]
December 1, 2024 at 3:44 PM
Bristol Bridge c.1849, from a Redcliffe Street window. Georgian bridge built in 1768, and tollbooths seen removed 1861. Andrew Brown at 26/27 Bridge Street. J Player, woollen draper at 25. [Calotype process, salted paper print, attributed to Calvert Richard Jones, V&A Collection]
December 1, 2024 at 3:42 PM
The Bush Inn & Tavern, Corn Street, 1790 when John Weeks was in charge. Demolished, 1864. Charles Dickens visited in 1835, and featured it in The Pickwick Papers (1836).

"At eight o'clock in the evening, Mr. Pickwick himself walked into the coffee-room of the Bush Tavern."
December 1, 2024 at 3:40 PM
Bristol Bridge & High Street, published by C Graf of Castle Street, 1840. Viewed from Bridge Parade, the four former domed Tollbooths are seen positioned at each corner. This print a mere five years before the first photograph of the bridge was taken. [Braikenridge Collection]
December 1, 2024 at 3:38 PM
Bristow, William Smith, 1568 [from Sloane MS 2596], reproduced in The Little Red Book of Bristol, ed Francis Bickley, 1900.

'Measured & laid in Platforme, by me, W. Smith, at my being at Bristow, the 30 & 31 July, anno domini 1568.'
December 1, 2024 at 3:36 PM
William Barrett [History of Bristol, 1789]: 'But no words can give the reader so just an idea of Bristol bridge as a view of the following draught of it, which was made in 1760, at the time it was about to be taken down, which being course represents to the eye more truly the appearance of it.'
December 1, 2024 at 3:34 PM
Old Bristol Bridge c.1759. Pen & wash print in the possession of George Weare Braikenridge:

'I purchased this Drawing off Mr Lansdown, Bookseller, in St John Street in 1803. He found it between the leaves of an old Book, one of a Library which he had then just bought.'
December 1, 2024 at 3:29 PM
Plan representing Bristol Castle precinct at the time of [W]illiam [W]orcester's 1480 Itinerary. The Water Gate (by Counterslip) shown in modern city emblems. Most waterways' extant and navigable, albeit underground. Keep foundations still found in park. [from Seyer Memoirs, 1821]
December 1, 2024 at 3:27 PM
Following the Reform Bill riots of 1831, the floor level of the damaged Cathedral Chapter House was lowered. Twelve coffin lids were uncovered, among them this Romanesque style limestone panel, of late Saxon origin, depicting The Harrowing of Hell.

sketchfab.com/3d-models/sa...
Saxon 'Harrowing of Hell' Panel - 3D model by juleshynam
Bristol Cathedral. At the entrance to the South Choir Aisle can be found a stone panel depicting the apocryphal story of the Harrowing of Hell. Following the Reform Bill riots of 1831, much damage o...
sketchfab.com
December 1, 2024 at 3:25 PM
Bristow during the Early Medieval [Saxon] period (in Seyer Memoirs 1821)

a. High St
b. St Maryport St
c. Wine St
d. Broad St
e. Small St
f. Corn St
g. Pithay Bridge
h. Bridewell Bridge
i. Froome Bridge
k. St Stephen's (site of)
m. Castle
n. St Peter's (site of)
o. Baldwin St
p. Bastion (Newgate)
December 1, 2024 at 3:22 PM