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In association with

WhorockedtheAnsonRooms

TimesBristol

Celebrating our proud history andkeeping your memories alive

Page 4

TUE

2013

8

Page 5Happy StKeyne’sDay!

En garde!

OCT

� Pete Townshend of The Whoat the Anson Rooms in 1968

Page 6Theforgottenmemorialtovictimsof Naziattacks

A cut aboveyour averagehistory book

EPB-E01-S4

EPB-

E01-

S4

2 Tu e s d a y, October 8, 2013 3Tu e s d a y, October 8, 2013w w w. bristolpost.co.uk w w w. bristolpost.co.uk

In 1965, after years of using thevenerable Victoria ‘Vi c ’ Ro o m sfor its students union, BristolUniversity unveiled its brandnew purpose-built students

union premises on Queens Road,Clifton.

A state-of-the-art building it boas-ted many impressive facilities in-cluding a swimming pool and, at thetop of the stylish spiralling staircasein the lobby, The Anson Rooms, ori-ginally described as a ‘large meetingro o m ’ that, with the adjoining LongBar, was perfectly set up for be-coming a live music venue.

The mid-60s was the time of theBritish Blues Boom, Swinging Lon-don and Beatlemania but live popmusic was still largely relegated toold ‘palais’ dancehalls or sit-downconcert spaces like the Colston Hall.

Famously, Bristol had mods androckers hangout The Glen and theprevious Students Union in the Vic-toria Rooms had featured musicalgigs, but this brand new large scalevenue played a major role in Bristol’smusical life from its very first days.

Official records are few and farbetween but it is generally agreedthat the first live band to play in theAnson Rooms was the Yardbirds, theblues-based rock band that wouldlater spawn Led Zeppelin but at thistime featured Jeff Beck as lead gui-tarist.

They were the first of many greatbands of that era to take to the rooms’low-slung stage and many local mu-sical veterans recall playing therewith them. Al Read (who would latergo on to turn Acker Bilk’s jazz club atThe Granary into another premierrock venue) was guitarist in theFranklyn Big 6, a soul covers bandregularly called on to warm thingsup and remembers supporting TheAnimals in 1965.

“Whilst the gear was being set up

Bristol University’s iconic grey 1960s StudentsUnion building is about to emerge from a majorrefurbishment and update programme. This will, ofcourse, include improvements to the Anson Rooms.Here Tony Benjamin takes a look back in time atsome of the legendary acts which played the AnsonRooms, and at some of the backstage shenanigans.

could come into the gig. There wasonly about 20 or 30 people there so Iwas right at the front and on cameThe Faces. I was in ecstasy – I’d seenRod Stewart before in the Jeff BeckGroup, but he’d just joined them andthey hadn’t released anything yet.They were just stretching out theirsound. They still had that mod thing,like the Small Faces, very stylish, butI remember it was quite cold in theroom so I just kept on my greatcoatt h ro u g h o u t . ”

Tony Byers also recalls that theroom wasn’t just used for music – itwas a ‘large meeting room’ after all –and that many famous people wereinvited to come and speak to thestudents including the Tory leader(and future Prime Minister) TedHeath, the Archbishop of Canter-bury, firebrand lefty Tariq Ali andchildcare guru Dr Benjamin Spock, aprominent anti-Vietnam war speak-er. “That was quite an important partof things – it was a real meetingp l a c e. ”

By the early 70s the Anson Rooms

WHEN Bristol Universitycommissioned the new StudentsUnion building the squared offconcrete starkness of the designwas the height of modernism.

It was of course received withmixed feelings by the Clifton com-munity at the time, with many peopleappalled by its size and sheer grey-ness.

It was a huge project offering aswimming pool, theatre, bakery andeven a barber shop (the latter some-what doomed by the imminent onsetof long haired student hippiedom).

Though some larger gigs contin-ued to be held at the Victoria Rooms,the Students Union’s former home, itwas inevitable that the AnsonRooms would end up as a venue forlive music though few could haveforeseen the impressive list of star

Height of modernism with abuilt-in barbers – what morecould a 60s student want?

had become an integral part of whatbecame known as ‘the college circuit’in musical circles. This was a na-tional network of University gig ven-ues, each usually programmed by anelected student ‘Entertainment Of-ficer’, or ‘Ents’.

With the rise of progressive (‘pro g’)rock and growing sales of albums (asopposed to single records) it hadbecome clear that the student pop-ulation was a receptive audience forthe more esoteric and sometimespretentious acts, who would thentour the country from one highereducation establishment to another.

I arrived as a student in 1971 andremember many great gigs in theAnson Rooms both as a punter forbands like The Kinks (a great sin-galong night), Velvet Underground(after the key personnel had left theband, admittedly) and Fairport Con-vention (when Sandy Denny stillsang with them) and also in variousmenial backstage capacities.

One particularly surreal (in hind-sight) occasion was the 1971 appear-

ance of Dutch instrumental bandFocus who were riding high on theback of the unlikely mainstream suc-cess of their yodelling-bedecked progtune Hocus Pocus. Even more un-likely was their support act –D av i dBowie, no less, whose career hadalready had two false starts with1969’s Space Oddity and 1970’s Th eMan Who Sold The World. He wasnow touring the moody and stylishmaterial for Hunky Dory, a markedcontrast with the Dutch band’sflared-trousered bombastics thatbrought divided responses from theAnson audience on the night.

Venues didn’t have their ownsound equipment in those times soeach band needed to bring their ownPA system and it was a matter ofmacho pride to have a bigger ‘rig’than the competition. When StatusQuo headlined at the 1972 Rag Balltheir massive bass speakers were toobig for the capacious backstage liftand it was down to me and a fewother foolishly helpful young men tocarry the huge black boxes round to

the front of the building and up thespiral staircase.

It was worth it for the powerfulsound, but the Ghanain Afro-rocksupport band Osibisa upstaged theQuo with a full-on performance andbig upbeat grooves.

Keith Warmington, blues musicianand (until recently) a long-servingRadio Bristol DJ, recalls playing inthe Rooms in acoustic duo StrangeFruit in the 70s – usually set up in thebar. One visiting band that made animpression on him was sleazy coun-try-and-western hippy collectiveCommander Cody and his Lost Plan-et Airmen, both for a fine perform-ance and an impressive night’sdrinking afterwards at the Alexan-der Club just up the road.

Keith also recalled the time thatPaul McCartney and Wings literallypulled up outside the building andarranged to play an unannounced gigthat very night – something theex-Beatle was doing at the time –though Keith missed the event him-s e l f.

we went to the pub next to the Unionand were joined by Alan Price whowas rather boring and pretty miser-able, too,” said Al.

“He was fed up with the rest of theband and talked to us about leaving.Fairly soon afterwards he did call it aday with Animals.”

The FB6’s vocalist Mike Tobin alsorecalls that they lent the band theirbass amp only to find the speakersblown afterwards “and they neveroffered to pay for it!”

Al’s memories of an Anson RoomsCream gig in 1967 are similarlyclouded by backstage shenanigans,but this time honour was satisfied: “Iremember Ginger Baker was muchimpressed by Tony Fennel’s drum-ming. At the end of the night theirroadie went off with some of our PAcables so I made off with an Orangemains reel of Eric’s that served mewell for many years after.”

Tony Byers was an economics stu-dent at Bristol University from1967-70 but fairly soon became moreinvolved in taking photos for thestudent magazine Nonesuch. Hevividly recalls many of the gigs heattended with his clunky camera anda borrowed flashgun that used realbu l b s.

“(The Anson Rooms) reallywas a most amazing placein those days, alwayssomething happen-ing. I remember Ar-thur Brown –c o u l d n’t get anygood pictures be-cause of his flam-ing head! –Fleetwood Macand The Nice. Ithink The Who gig[December 1968]stands out becausethey were already bigstars and it was such a

names that would pass through.The large unadorned room was

not ideal for its purpose, being coldin the winter and stuffy in the sum-mer (the large windows couldn’t beopened because of the noise levels),the reflective walls frequentlycaused problems with the soundand many people recall an unsettlingsmell, probably due to the lack ofnatural ventilation.

Access to the Long Bar (sub-sequently renamed the Mandela Barin the 70s in honour of a then ob-scure political prisoner in apartheidSouth Africa) could be tricky during acrowded gig.

Being of its time little, if any,thought was given to things likeenergy consumption so the AnsonRooms enormous expanse of win-dows was all single glazed withinefficient lighting and ventilationsystems running up enormous fuelbills.

After nearly 50 years the entirebuilding is being renewed and re-furbished to “completely transform avery large, tired 1960s building toprepare it for a long future”.

Much of the work will be finishedthis Autumn, including a reworkingof the Anson Rooms that includesopening the performance spacethrough to the bar area, double glaz-ing the windows and improving theuse of natural light and ventilation.

This new shape will permit a largercapacity of 1,200 standing, whileimproved backstage facilities (in-cluding washing machines and wifi)should keep musicians happy. If allgoes to plan the first gigs in the newset-up will be on October 14(folk-rockers Johnny Flynn and theSussex Wit) and October 15 (themysteriously misspelt electropop-pers Chvrches).

� Above,Brian Davison,drummer ofThe Nice, getsa free pintfrom a fan,1969. Left ,Nice organistKeithEmerson infull flow at thesame gig.

As the 70s wore on, however, ram-bling hippy music was steadily dis-placed by the harder-edged revival ofstripped down R’n’B based musicthat would ultimately pave the wayfor punk rock. This was reflected inthe Anson programme with a mem-orable debut by Dr Feelgoodwringing out the capacity crowdwith hard and fast rockers.

Keith Warmington was also therewhen veteran rock and roll stars ThePirates appeared as part of this ‘pubro ck ’ scene. Though their great sing-er Johnny Kidd had long been deadthe band delivered a cracking oldschool set to an audience rammed outwith Bristol Rovers fans, their teamalso known as The Pirates. All waswell until the show ended and amassive fight broke out on the land-ing. “Pint glasses were flying downthe staircase, it was complete may-hem.”

In due course the Anson Roomswould continue to reflect the newwave of punk and beyond, with manygreat stars of the 80s, 90s and on-wards adding to the impressiveroster of musical greatness that hasappeared at the top of the spiralstaircase. With the passing of somany of Bristol’s other legendaryvenues – including The Glen, TheGranary, The Dugout, The Bamboo –it’s gratifying that the Anson Roomsare being given a new lease of lifewith every sign of entering their 50thyear as live and kicking as ever.� If you have any memories of theAnson Rooms, whether musical orpersonal, Tony would love to hearfrom you.

Please contact him via:ubu-events@bristol.ac.uk or use theAnson Rooms page on Facebook.

� All pictures inthis article weretaken at theAnson Roomsby Tony Byersfor BristolUniversitymagazine

Nonesuch inthe late 1960s

and early 70s.Here he is taking a

‘selfie’ in 1967.

� C h i l d c a reguru and anti-Vietnam Warcampaigner DrBenjaminSpock at theAnson Roomsto speak, 1970

spectacular show with Pete Town-shend jumping about and KeithMoon kicking over his drum kit.”

To ny ’s excellent archive providedmost of the pictures printed with thisarticle and he thinks the image of astudent handing over a pint to TheNice drummer Brian Davison gives asense of the kind of easiness betweenstars and audience in those days.That intimacy was helped by the factthe removable stage was only aboutsix inches high, of course.

Close examination of the photoalso reveals a ceremonial daggerplunged into the speaker cabinet – agift to Keith Emerson from the band’sroadie Lemmy (later of Motorheadfame) with which the keyboard mav-erick regularly used to stab his Ham-mond organ while playing.

As vocalist of emerging Bristolianrock band Stackridge Mike ‘Mutter’Slater recalls taking a job decoratingthe Anson Rooms for a gig in 1969. “Iwas putting this reflective stuff –Mylar – all down the spiral staircase.They used to shine coloured lights onit. I had no money but they said I

� Left, singer Roger Daltrey and drummer Keith Moon at the Rooms in 1968;above, Keith kicks over his drums as bassist John Entwhistle looks on

LIVE ANDKICKING

PETER CAROLThe Prestige Coaching CompanyASCENDERE OMNIS COLLIS

.... OutstandingValueOutstandingValue01275 839 839 • www.petercarol.co.uk

EPB-E01-S4

EPB-

E01-

S4

2 Tu e s d a y, October 8, 2013 3Tu e s d a y, October 8, 2013w w w. bristolpost.co.uk w w w. bristolpost.co.uk

In 1965, after years of using thevenerable Victoria ‘Vi c ’ Ro o m sfor its students union, BristolUniversity unveiled its brandnew purpose-built students

union premises on Queens Road,Clifton.

A state-of-the-art building it boas-ted many impressive facilities in-cluding a swimming pool and, at thetop of the stylish spiralling staircasein the lobby, The Anson Rooms, ori-ginally described as a ‘large meetingro o m ’ that, with the adjoining LongBar, was perfectly set up for be-coming a live music venue.

The mid-60s was the time of theBritish Blues Boom, Swinging Lon-don and Beatlemania but live popmusic was still largely relegated toold ‘palais’ dancehalls or sit-downconcert spaces like the Colston Hall.

Famously, Bristol had mods androckers hangout The Glen and theprevious Students Union in the Vic-toria Rooms had featured musicalgigs, but this brand new large scalevenue played a major role in Bristol’smusical life from its very first days.

Official records are few and farbetween but it is generally agreedthat the first live band to play in theAnson Rooms was the Yardbirds, theblues-based rock band that wouldlater spawn Led Zeppelin but at thistime featured Jeff Beck as lead gui-tarist.

They were the first of many greatbands of that era to take to the rooms’low-slung stage and many local mu-sical veterans recall playing therewith them. Al Read (who would latergo on to turn Acker Bilk’s jazz club atThe Granary into another premierrock venue) was guitarist in theFranklyn Big 6, a soul covers bandregularly called on to warm thingsup and remembers supporting TheAnimals in 1965.

“Whilst the gear was being set up

Bristol University’s iconic grey 1960s StudentsUnion building is about to emerge from a majorrefurbishment and update programme. This will, ofcourse, include improvements to the Anson Rooms.Here Tony Benjamin takes a look back in time atsome of the legendary acts which played the AnsonRooms, and at some of the backstage shenanigans.

could come into the gig. There wasonly about 20 or 30 people there so Iwas right at the front and on cameThe Faces. I was in ecstasy – I’d seenRod Stewart before in the Jeff BeckGroup, but he’d just joined them andthey hadn’t released anything yet.They were just stretching out theirsound. They still had that mod thing,like the Small Faces, very stylish, butI remember it was quite cold in theroom so I just kept on my greatcoatt h ro u g h o u t . ”

Tony Byers also recalls that theroom wasn’t just used for music – itwas a ‘large meeting room’ after all –and that many famous people wereinvited to come and speak to thestudents including the Tory leader(and future Prime Minister) TedHeath, the Archbishop of Canter-bury, firebrand lefty Tariq Ali andchildcare guru Dr Benjamin Spock, aprominent anti-Vietnam war speak-er. “That was quite an important partof things – it was a real meetingp l a c e. ”

By the early 70s the Anson Rooms

WHEN Bristol Universitycommissioned the new StudentsUnion building the squared offconcrete starkness of the designwas the height of modernism.

It was of course received withmixed feelings by the Clifton com-munity at the time, with many peopleappalled by its size and sheer grey-ness.

It was a huge project offering aswimming pool, theatre, bakery andeven a barber shop (the latter some-what doomed by the imminent onsetof long haired student hippiedom).

Though some larger gigs contin-ued to be held at the Victoria Rooms,the Students Union’s former home, itwas inevitable that the AnsonRooms would end up as a venue forlive music though few could haveforeseen the impressive list of star

Height of modernism with abuilt-in barbers – what morecould a 60s student want?

had become an integral part of whatbecame known as ‘the college circuit’in musical circles. This was a na-tional network of University gig ven-ues, each usually programmed by anelected student ‘Entertainment Of-ficer’, or ‘Ents’.

With the rise of progressive (‘pro g’)rock and growing sales of albums (asopposed to single records) it hadbecome clear that the student pop-ulation was a receptive audience forthe more esoteric and sometimespretentious acts, who would thentour the country from one highereducation establishment to another.

I arrived as a student in 1971 andremember many great gigs in theAnson Rooms both as a punter forbands like The Kinks (a great sin-galong night), Velvet Underground(after the key personnel had left theband, admittedly) and Fairport Con-vention (when Sandy Denny stillsang with them) and also in variousmenial backstage capacities.

One particularly surreal (in hind-sight) occasion was the 1971 appear-

ance of Dutch instrumental bandFocus who were riding high on theback of the unlikely mainstream suc-cess of their yodelling-bedecked progtune Hocus Pocus. Even more un-likely was their support act –D av i dBowie, no less, whose career hadalready had two false starts with1969’s Space Oddity and 1970’s Th eMan Who Sold The World. He wasnow touring the moody and stylishmaterial for Hunky Dory, a markedcontrast with the Dutch band’sflared-trousered bombastics thatbrought divided responses from theAnson audience on the night.

Venues didn’t have their ownsound equipment in those times soeach band needed to bring their ownPA system and it was a matter ofmacho pride to have a bigger ‘rig’than the competition. When StatusQuo headlined at the 1972 Rag Balltheir massive bass speakers were toobig for the capacious backstage liftand it was down to me and a fewother foolishly helpful young men tocarry the huge black boxes round to

the front of the building and up thespiral staircase.

It was worth it for the powerfulsound, but the Ghanain Afro-rocksupport band Osibisa upstaged theQuo with a full-on performance andbig upbeat grooves.

Keith Warmington, blues musicianand (until recently) a long-servingRadio Bristol DJ, recalls playing inthe Rooms in acoustic duo StrangeFruit in the 70s – usually set up in thebar. One visiting band that made animpression on him was sleazy coun-try-and-western hippy collectiveCommander Cody and his Lost Plan-et Airmen, both for a fine perform-ance and an impressive night’sdrinking afterwards at the Alexan-der Club just up the road.

Keith also recalled the time thatPaul McCartney and Wings literallypulled up outside the building andarranged to play an unannounced gigthat very night – something theex-Beatle was doing at the time –though Keith missed the event him-s e l f.

we went to the pub next to the Unionand were joined by Alan Price whowas rather boring and pretty miser-able, too,” said Al.

“He was fed up with the rest of theband and talked to us about leaving.Fairly soon afterwards he did call it aday with Animals.”

The FB6’s vocalist Mike Tobin alsorecalls that they lent the band theirbass amp only to find the speakersblown afterwards “and they neveroffered to pay for it!”

Al’s memories of an Anson RoomsCream gig in 1967 are similarlyclouded by backstage shenanigans,but this time honour was satisfied: “Iremember Ginger Baker was muchimpressed by Tony Fennel’s drum-ming. At the end of the night theirroadie went off with some of our PAcables so I made off with an Orangemains reel of Eric’s that served mewell for many years after.”

Tony Byers was an economics stu-dent at Bristol University from1967-70 but fairly soon became moreinvolved in taking photos for thestudent magazine Nonesuch. Hevividly recalls many of the gigs heattended with his clunky camera anda borrowed flashgun that used realbu l b s.

“(The Anson Rooms) reallywas a most amazing placein those days, alwayssomething happen-ing. I remember Ar-thur Brown –c o u l d n’t get anygood pictures be-cause of his flam-ing head! –Fleetwood Macand The Nice. Ithink The Who gig[December 1968]stands out becausethey were already bigstars and it was such a

names that would pass through.The large unadorned room was

not ideal for its purpose, being coldin the winter and stuffy in the sum-mer (the large windows couldn’t beopened because of the noise levels),the reflective walls frequentlycaused problems with the soundand many people recall an unsettlingsmell, probably due to the lack ofnatural ventilation.

Access to the Long Bar (sub-sequently renamed the Mandela Barin the 70s in honour of a then ob-scure political prisoner in apartheidSouth Africa) could be tricky during acrowded gig.

Being of its time little, if any,thought was given to things likeenergy consumption so the AnsonRooms enormous expanse of win-dows was all single glazed withinefficient lighting and ventilationsystems running up enormous fuelbills.

After nearly 50 years the entirebuilding is being renewed and re-furbished to “completely transform avery large, tired 1960s building toprepare it for a long future”.

Much of the work will be finishedthis Autumn, including a reworkingof the Anson Rooms that includesopening the performance spacethrough to the bar area, double glaz-ing the windows and improving theuse of natural light and ventilation.

This new shape will permit a largercapacity of 1,200 standing, whileimproved backstage facilities (in-cluding washing machines and wifi)should keep musicians happy. If allgoes to plan the first gigs in the newset-up will be on October 14(folk-rockers Johnny Flynn and theSussex Wit) and October 15 (themysteriously misspelt electropop-pers Chvrches).

� Above,Brian Davison,drummer ofThe Nice, getsa free pintfrom a fan,1969. Left ,Nice organistKeithEmerson infull flow at thesame gig.

As the 70s wore on, however, ram-bling hippy music was steadily dis-placed by the harder-edged revival ofstripped down R’n’B based musicthat would ultimately pave the wayfor punk rock. This was reflected inthe Anson programme with a mem-orable debut by Dr Feelgoodwringing out the capacity crowdwith hard and fast rockers.

Keith Warmington was also therewhen veteran rock and roll stars ThePirates appeared as part of this ‘pubro ck ’ scene. Though their great sing-er Johnny Kidd had long been deadthe band delivered a cracking oldschool set to an audience rammed outwith Bristol Rovers fans, their teamalso known as The Pirates. All waswell until the show ended and amassive fight broke out on the land-ing. “Pint glasses were flying downthe staircase, it was complete may-hem.”

In due course the Anson Roomswould continue to reflect the newwave of punk and beyond, with manygreat stars of the 80s, 90s and on-wards adding to the impressiveroster of musical greatness that hasappeared at the top of the spiralstaircase. With the passing of somany of Bristol’s other legendaryvenues – including The Glen, TheGranary, The Dugout, The Bamboo –it’s gratifying that the Anson Roomsare being given a new lease of lifewith every sign of entering their 50thyear as live and kicking as ever.� If you have any memories of theAnson Rooms, whether musical orpersonal, Tony would love to hearfrom you.

Please contact him via:ubu-events@bristol.ac.uk or use theAnson Rooms page on Facebook.

� All pictures inthis article weretaken at theAnson Roomsby Tony Byersfor BristolUniversitymagazine

Nonesuch inthe late 1960s

and early 70s.Here he is taking a

‘selfie’ in 1967.

� C h i l d c a reguru and anti-Vietnam Warcampaigner DrBenjaminSpock at theAnson Roomsto speak, 1970

spectacular show with Pete Town-shend jumping about and KeithMoon kicking over his drum kit.”

To ny ’s excellent archive providedmost of the pictures printed with thisarticle and he thinks the image of astudent handing over a pint to TheNice drummer Brian Davison gives asense of the kind of easiness betweenstars and audience in those days.That intimacy was helped by the factthe removable stage was only aboutsix inches high, of course.

Close examination of the photoalso reveals a ceremonial daggerplunged into the speaker cabinet – agift to Keith Emerson from the band’sroadie Lemmy (later of Motorheadfame) with which the keyboard mav-erick regularly used to stab his Ham-mond organ while playing.

As vocalist of emerging Bristolianrock band Stackridge Mike ‘Mutter’Slater recalls taking a job decoratingthe Anson Rooms for a gig in 1969. “Iwas putting this reflective stuff –Mylar – all down the spiral staircase.They used to shine coloured lights onit. I had no money but they said I

� Left, singer Roger Daltrey and drummer Keith Moon at the Rooms in 1968;above, Keith kicks over his drums as bassist John Entwhistle looks on

LIVE ANDKICKING

PETER CAROLThe Prestige Coaching CompanyASCENDERE OMNIS COLLIS

.... OutstandingValueOutstandingValue01275 839 839 • www.petercarol.co.uk

EPB-E01-S4

EPB-

E01-

S4

4 Tu e s d a y, October 8, 2013 5Tu e s d a y, October 8, 2013w w w. bristolpost.co.uk w w w. bristolpost.co.uk

SURPRISINGHISTORY OFCITY SUBURB

BOOKS of old photos of vari-ous of Britain’s cities, towns,villages and suburbs havebeen big business for a longtime. Everyone likes to see

what their neighbourhood used tolook like before they lived there.

So the publication of yet anotherbook of old pictures, this time ofWestbury-on-Trym, Coombe Dingle,King’s Weston, Lawrence Weston,Shirehampton and Avonmouth is notreally big news in itself.

However, Anthony Beeson’s We s t -bury-on-Trym to Avonmouth ThroughTime is better than most.

It’s not just a cut’n’paste job bysomeone who’s just dug out a bunchof old prints. Beeson actually lives inthe area, and has the sort of expertknowledge of local history which en-ables him to add the sort of stories tohis picture captions which make it afascinating read.

The images come from varioussources. “T here’s my own collectionbut there’s also a lot from the CentralLibrary. What a lot of people probablyd o n’t realise is that the Central Lib-rary has a larger collection of pic-tures than the Bristol Record Office,both in photo and print form,” s ay sA n t h o ny.

Mr Beeson, it will not surprise youto know, is one of the leading figuresin the campaign to halt the contro-versial plans to house a primaryschool among the Library’s bookstacks. For one thing, he says, itwould make public access to thispriceless local heritage more diffi-cult.

“This ill-considered scheme, thatwill exile much of the book stock to aremote store, will make everyday en-quiry work and research almost im-possible for both library staff andpublic .”

When collecting pictures, serendip-ity also comes into it. “I found a

couple of things on eBay, and I wasalso put in touch with a lady whosefamily had lived in Coombe Lane formany years. She now lives in SeaMills, but the Sargents (her ancest-ors) had lived in Coombe Dingle.

“They lived very well; the fatherwas a retired banker and bought anew house there in what was in thosedays the countryside. Fortunately hetook photographs around the newh o u s e. ”

The book traces the suburbanisa-tion of this stretch of North Bristol,often contrasting old photos of thearea with views of the same places inthe present day. It’s organised intofive walks which the reader can fol-low. “I find it’s the easiest way ofdoing these books.

“It cuts through the chronologicalproblem, it gives people a better senseof where they’re placed.”

His own favourite is, he says, prob-ably the area around Coombe Dingle,a neighbourhood often overlooked inhistory/photo books which prefer toconcentrate on Shirehampton orHenbury. “It’s nice to publicise thehistory of a non-area. I find that evena lot of people who live here knowlittle about it.”

It turns out that the Dingle hasquite a surprising history. In the late19th century and well into the 20thone of the biggest local industries wastea gardens. It must have employedquite a lot of people in everythingfrom serving through to baking andeven laundering the tablecloths. Atone time there were a dozen tea shopsand gardens in this immediate area.

“There was a time when literallythousands of people would come outhere on public holidays from Bristol.They would walk here along Parry’sLane and Coombe Lane.

“Once the trams were running toWestbury, some would take them asan easy option as well. People would

A new book of photos of Westbury-on-Trym,Coombe Dingle, Shirehampton and Avonmouth byone of Bristol’s leading historians is a cut above theusual feast of nostalgic images. It contains a lot ofsurprising history as well. Eugene Byrne re p o r t s .

HI GANG! Happy St Keyne’sDay! Today, October 8, is thefeast of St Keyne. I sent youa Happy St Keyne’s Daycard, but I don’t seem to

have had one from you. I expect it gotlost in the post.

Keyne is, of course, the patron saintof Keynsham, that fair town situatedbetwixt Bristol and that gentleman’sgraveyard further along the A4.

Keyne is a legendary figure. If sheexisted at all, it was sometime in thelate 400s AD, after the Romans hadleft and Britain was a set of smallk i n g d o m s.

She was supposedly the daughter ofa Welsh king, and very beautiful.Many noblemen wanted her hand inmarriage, but she was determined toremain a virgin and dedicate her lifeto God.

So she left Wales and eventuallywandered to a spot on the banks of theAvon in Somerset. She sought thepermission of the local chieftain tolive there. The gist of his reply was‘stay here if you like, but the area isfull of snakes’.

Keyne sought the assistance of theAlmighty, who coiled all the serpentsup and turned them to stone, whichcan still be seen in abundance thereto this day. Or so the legend has it. Theless romantically or religiously in-clined will tell you they’re the fossilsof prehistoric ammonites.

And that is how Keynsham wasfo u n d e d .

Keyne also travelled to Cornwall

and founded St Keyne, near St Neots.This place has a much more famouslegend. At St Keyne is a famousspring; people once believed thatwhen a couple get married, the first ofthe pair to drink from its waters willwear the trousers in the marriage.

The Bristol-born poet RobertSouthey, who always told a good yarn,wrote a humorous poem about it. Inthis, a traveller – the stranger – stopsby the well for a drink, and a local – acountryman – comes and tells himabout its magical properties:“If the husband of this gifted wellShall drink before his wife,A happy man thenceforth is he,For he shall be master for life.“But if the wife should drink of it

f i rs t ,God help the husband then!”The stranger stoop’d to the Well of St.Ke yne,And drank of the waters again.“You drank of the well, I warrant,betimes?”He to the countryman said;But the countryman smiled as thestranger spake,And sheepishly shook his head.“I hastened as soon as the weddingwas done,And left my wife in the porch,But i’ faith she had been wiser thanme,For she took a bottle to church.”

Which (for anyone who’s not sogood at old-fashioned English) is tosay the crafty young lady turned up atthe church with a bottle, ready-filledwith water from the well.

Location, Location (etc)It’s probably the most recognisable

building in Henleaze, and it’s on themarket (or was as we went to press).You can be the proud owner of thisrather splendid little thatched cot-tage (actually one of the former gate-house lodges for Henleaze ParkHouse). It was built around 1811, ataround the same time as the famousBlaise Hamlet cottages. It might evenbe that it was designed by John Nash,who also did the Blaise houses,though that’s not proven. It mightjust be that the Henleaze buildercopied them. Anyway, two bedrooms,two receptions, compact and bijou,bags of character. I’d buy it myself if Ihad £450,000 to spare. If you’re in-terested contact CJ Hole’s Henleazeoffice on 0117 205 0185

Holden? Pleased?Don’t make I laugh!

I have no intention of abusing theprivilege of a local newspapercolumn to push my personal views ona certain burning local issue.

However (dot, dot, dot)Certain individuals in the letters

pages of this newspaper have statedthat Charles Holden, the architectwho designed Bristol’s Central Lib-

rary, would have approved of part of itbeing converted into a primarys ch o o l .

Charles Holden was asked to designa library, and that’s what he did, andin the process he designed the in-terior fittings and facilities, many ofwhich are still in place. He did notdesign a half a library with a view toa school eventually being opened in abasement that he devised for the stor-age of books and other printed ma-terial.

To claim that he would have beenall in favour of this scheme is likesaying Brunel would be delighted ifhalf the Great Western Railway wasturned into motorway, or that Le-onardo would have approved ofsomeone painting a more modernhairstyle on the Mona Lisa. Or thatC a s abl a n c a should be digitised intocolour and given a happier ending.

Igor! You can take my soap-boxaway now. I have finished with it fort o d ay.

Information needed!Finally, an appeal. Do you remem-

ber back in the 1970s there was achart hit called Convoy by a blokecalled CW McCall (his real name wasthe altogether less glamorous BillFries). Oh, you know the one: it wasan American thing about truckersusing Citizens’ Band radio to jointogether to avoid paying road tolls.

It was full of CB-radio speak thathardly any Brits understood abouttearing up swindle sheets and letthem truckers roll, ten-four, and soon.

Now my pal Dave swears blind thataround this time, or perhaps a fewyears afterwards, someone produceda Bristolian/west country song alongsimilar lines. Not a rip-off or a spoof,but a song about lorry drivers roundthese parts talking to one another byCB. Citizen-band radio enjoyed abrief popularity in Britain in theearly 1980s, and like McCall’s hit re-cord, this tune was full of CB terms,including nicknames (“handles” inCB parlance) for local towns.

Is there anyone out there who re-members this record? Is there any-where we can hear it on the internet?Can someone send us the lyrics, andmaybe even a picture of the artisteswho wrote and recorded it? And is ittrue that back in the days when it hada cellophane factory, the CB handlefor Bridgwater was “S m e l ly t ow n ”?Questions, questions …

Cheers then!

� Get in touch: EmailBristol.Times@b-nm.co.uk, or writeto Bristol Times, Bristol Post,Temple Way, Bristol BS99 7HD

Latimer’sDiary

Snake-charmingand henpecking– a great saint

1 Partridge’s Rustic Tea Gardens,pictured in the early 20th century, oneof the many tea gardens which thrivedin Coombe Dingle before Bristol’screeping suburbanisation encroached.2 The Savoy cinema, Station Road,Shirehampton. Opened in 1933, it hadseating for 900. According to AnthonyBeeson, it was known locally as “TheCabbage” (Savoy cabbage – get it?)Like many cinemas put out ofbusiness by TV in the 1960s, itenjoyed a new lease of life as a bingohall. Demolished in 2003.3 Avonmouth Road VE Day streetparty, 1945. The children are in fancydress, and the comment on currentaffairs is the lad in the back rowcentre, who’s dressed as a ‘Bevin Boy’coal miner.4. Bananas had been coming intoAvonmouth from the Caribbean since1901. Here, the Fyffes group shipTucurinca arrives in Avonmouth onFebruary 15, 1976, to mark 75 yearsof the trade.5 En garde! Red Maids schoolgirls atfencing practice in 1913. The schoolhad only just moved to Burfield Housein Westbury-on-Trym a couple of yearspreviously. Until then it had been inDenmark Street.6 It hasn’t changed at all! Mogford’s,We s t b u r y ’s legendary hardware store,pictured in 1960. The firm can trace itshistory back to the 1850s.7 This one’s bound to stir a fewmemories. Anthony Beeson’s bookfeatures pictures of Westbury WildlifePark then and now. Established as awildlife education centre for children, itwas officially opened by ornithologistand conservationist Sir Peter Scott in1967. It closed 20 years later.

� P re h i s t o r i cshellfish orone of thesnakes inKeynsham inthe fifthcentury ADturned tostone by StKeyne? Youdecide.

� The most distinctive house inHenleaze, possibly modelled on theones at Blaise. Yours for £450k.

come on bicycles, of course. Somewould even run. There werecross-country running clubs whosemembers would run out here, havetea, and then run home again.”

The reason for Coombe Dingle’spopularity was simple; it was thenearest countryside for many Bris-tolians, attracted by the simple pleas-ures of a sunny day and the promiseof tea and cake (or that great Vic-torian/Edwardian treat, bread andbu t t e r ) .

“It all ended really when it stoppedbeing countryside with the expan-sion of Bristol and the growing num-ber of people who wanted to livet h e re, ” says Anthony. “If too manypeople want to live somewhere youinevitably lose the beauty that at-tracted them to it in the first place.”

Westbury-on-Trym to AvonmouthThrough Time is published by Am-berley Publishing at £14.99

2

3

1 4

5

6 7

PETER CAROLThe Prestige Coaching CompanyASCENDERE OMNIS COLLIS

.... Unrivalled OualityUnrivalled Ouality01275 839 839 • www.petercarol.co.uk

EPB-E01-S4

EPB-

E01-

S4

4 Tu e s d a y, October 8, 2013 5Tu e s d a y, October 8, 2013w w w. bristolpost.co.uk w w w. bristolpost.co.uk

SURPRISINGHISTORY OFCITY SUBURB

BOOKS of old photos of vari-ous of Britain’s cities, towns,villages and suburbs havebeen big business for a longtime. Everyone likes to see

what their neighbourhood used tolook like before they lived there.

So the publication of yet anotherbook of old pictures, this time ofWestbury-on-Trym, Coombe Dingle,King’s Weston, Lawrence Weston,Shirehampton and Avonmouth is notreally big news in itself.

However, Anthony Beeson’s We s t -bury-on-Trym to Avonmouth ThroughTime is better than most.

It’s not just a cut’n’paste job bysomeone who’s just dug out a bunchof old prints. Beeson actually lives inthe area, and has the sort of expertknowledge of local history which en-ables him to add the sort of stories tohis picture captions which make it afascinating read.

The images come from varioussources. “T here’s my own collectionbut there’s also a lot from the CentralLibrary. What a lot of people probablyd o n’t realise is that the Central Lib-rary has a larger collection of pic-tures than the Bristol Record Office,both in photo and print form,” s ay sA n t h o ny.

Mr Beeson, it will not surprise youto know, is one of the leading figuresin the campaign to halt the contro-versial plans to house a primaryschool among the Library’s bookstacks. For one thing, he says, itwould make public access to thispriceless local heritage more diffi-cult.

“This ill-considered scheme, thatwill exile much of the book stock to aremote store, will make everyday en-quiry work and research almost im-possible for both library staff andpublic .”

When collecting pictures, serendip-ity also comes into it. “I found a

couple of things on eBay, and I wasalso put in touch with a lady whosefamily had lived in Coombe Lane formany years. She now lives in SeaMills, but the Sargents (her ancest-ors) had lived in Coombe Dingle.

“They lived very well; the fatherwas a retired banker and bought anew house there in what was in thosedays the countryside. Fortunately hetook photographs around the newh o u s e. ”

The book traces the suburbanisa-tion of this stretch of North Bristol,often contrasting old photos of thearea with views of the same places inthe present day. It’s organised intofive walks which the reader can fol-low. “I find it’s the easiest way ofdoing these books.

“It cuts through the chronologicalproblem, it gives people a better senseof where they’re placed.”

His own favourite is, he says, prob-ably the area around Coombe Dingle,a neighbourhood often overlooked inhistory/photo books which prefer toconcentrate on Shirehampton orHenbury. “It’s nice to publicise thehistory of a non-area. I find that evena lot of people who live here knowlittle about it.”

It turns out that the Dingle hasquite a surprising history. In the late19th century and well into the 20thone of the biggest local industries wastea gardens. It must have employedquite a lot of people in everythingfrom serving through to baking andeven laundering the tablecloths. Atone time there were a dozen tea shopsand gardens in this immediate area.

“There was a time when literallythousands of people would come outhere on public holidays from Bristol.They would walk here along Parry’sLane and Coombe Lane.

“Once the trams were running toWestbury, some would take them asan easy option as well. People would

A new book of photos of Westbury-on-Trym,Coombe Dingle, Shirehampton and Avonmouth byone of Bristol’s leading historians is a cut above theusual feast of nostalgic images. It contains a lot ofsurprising history as well. Eugene Byrne re p o r t s .

HI GANG! Happy St Keyne’sDay! Today, October 8, is thefeast of St Keyne. I sent youa Happy St Keyne’s Daycard, but I don’t seem to

have had one from you. I expect it gotlost in the post.

Keyne is, of course, the patron saintof Keynsham, that fair town situatedbetwixt Bristol and that gentleman’sgraveyard further along the A4.

Keyne is a legendary figure. If sheexisted at all, it was sometime in thelate 400s AD, after the Romans hadleft and Britain was a set of smallk i n g d o m s.

She was supposedly the daughter ofa Welsh king, and very beautiful.Many noblemen wanted her hand inmarriage, but she was determined toremain a virgin and dedicate her lifeto God.

So she left Wales and eventuallywandered to a spot on the banks of theAvon in Somerset. She sought thepermission of the local chieftain tolive there. The gist of his reply was‘stay here if you like, but the area isfull of snakes’.

Keyne sought the assistance of theAlmighty, who coiled all the serpentsup and turned them to stone, whichcan still be seen in abundance thereto this day. Or so the legend has it. Theless romantically or religiously in-clined will tell you they’re the fossilsof prehistoric ammonites.

And that is how Keynsham wasfo u n d e d .

Keyne also travelled to Cornwall

and founded St Keyne, near St Neots.This place has a much more famouslegend. At St Keyne is a famousspring; people once believed thatwhen a couple get married, the first ofthe pair to drink from its waters willwear the trousers in the marriage.

The Bristol-born poet RobertSouthey, who always told a good yarn,wrote a humorous poem about it. Inthis, a traveller – the stranger – stopsby the well for a drink, and a local – acountryman – comes and tells himabout its magical properties:“If the husband of this gifted wellShall drink before his wife,A happy man thenceforth is he,For he shall be master for life.“But if the wife should drink of it

f i rs t ,God help the husband then!”The stranger stoop’d to the Well of St.Ke yne,And drank of the waters again.“You drank of the well, I warrant,betimes?”He to the countryman said;But the countryman smiled as thestranger spake,And sheepishly shook his head.“I hastened as soon as the weddingwas done,And left my wife in the porch,But i’ faith she had been wiser thanme,For she took a bottle to church.”

Which (for anyone who’s not sogood at old-fashioned English) is tosay the crafty young lady turned up atthe church with a bottle, ready-filledwith water from the well.

Location, Location (etc)It’s probably the most recognisable

building in Henleaze, and it’s on themarket (or was as we went to press).You can be the proud owner of thisrather splendid little thatched cot-tage (actually one of the former gate-house lodges for Henleaze ParkHouse). It was built around 1811, ataround the same time as the famousBlaise Hamlet cottages. It might evenbe that it was designed by John Nash,who also did the Blaise houses,though that’s not proven. It mightjust be that the Henleaze buildercopied them. Anyway, two bedrooms,two receptions, compact and bijou,bags of character. I’d buy it myself if Ihad £450,000 to spare. If you’re in-terested contact CJ Hole’s Henleazeoffice on 0117 205 0185

Holden? Pleased?Don’t make I laugh!

I have no intention of abusing theprivilege of a local newspapercolumn to push my personal views ona certain burning local issue.

However (dot, dot, dot)Certain individuals in the letters

pages of this newspaper have statedthat Charles Holden, the architectwho designed Bristol’s Central Lib-

rary, would have approved of part of itbeing converted into a primarys ch o o l .

Charles Holden was asked to designa library, and that’s what he did, andin the process he designed the in-terior fittings and facilities, many ofwhich are still in place. He did notdesign a half a library with a view toa school eventually being opened in abasement that he devised for the stor-age of books and other printed ma-terial.

To claim that he would have beenall in favour of this scheme is likesaying Brunel would be delighted ifhalf the Great Western Railway wasturned into motorway, or that Le-onardo would have approved ofsomeone painting a more modernhairstyle on the Mona Lisa. Or thatC a s abl a n c a should be digitised intocolour and given a happier ending.

Igor! You can take my soap-boxaway now. I have finished with it fort o d ay.

Information needed!Finally, an appeal. Do you remem-

ber back in the 1970s there was achart hit called Convoy by a blokecalled CW McCall (his real name wasthe altogether less glamorous BillFries). Oh, you know the one: it wasan American thing about truckersusing Citizens’ Band radio to jointogether to avoid paying road tolls.

It was full of CB-radio speak thathardly any Brits understood abouttearing up swindle sheets and letthem truckers roll, ten-four, and soon.

Now my pal Dave swears blind thataround this time, or perhaps a fewyears afterwards, someone produceda Bristolian/west country song alongsimilar lines. Not a rip-off or a spoof,but a song about lorry drivers roundthese parts talking to one another byCB. Citizen-band radio enjoyed abrief popularity in Britain in theearly 1980s, and like McCall’s hit re-cord, this tune was full of CB terms,including nicknames (“handles” inCB parlance) for local towns.

Is there anyone out there who re-members this record? Is there any-where we can hear it on the internet?Can someone send us the lyrics, andmaybe even a picture of the artisteswho wrote and recorded it? And is ittrue that back in the days when it hada cellophane factory, the CB handlefor Bridgwater was “S m e l ly t ow n ”?Questions, questions …

Cheers then!

� Get in touch: EmailBristol.Times@b-nm.co.uk, or writeto Bristol Times, Bristol Post,Temple Way, Bristol BS99 7HD

Latimer’sDiary

Snake-charmingand henpecking– a great saint

1 Partridge’s Rustic Tea Gardens,pictured in the early 20th century, oneof the many tea gardens which thrivedin Coombe Dingle before Bristol’screeping suburbanisation encroached.2 The Savoy cinema, Station Road,Shirehampton. Opened in 1933, it hadseating for 900. According to AnthonyBeeson, it was known locally as “TheCabbage” (Savoy cabbage – get it?)Like many cinemas put out ofbusiness by TV in the 1960s, itenjoyed a new lease of life as a bingohall. Demolished in 2003.3 Avonmouth Road VE Day streetparty, 1945. The children are in fancydress, and the comment on currentaffairs is the lad in the back rowcentre, who’s dressed as a ‘Bevin Boy’coal miner.4. Bananas had been coming intoAvonmouth from the Caribbean since1901. Here, the Fyffes group shipTucurinca arrives in Avonmouth onFebruary 15, 1976, to mark 75 yearsof the trade.5 En garde! Red Maids schoolgirls atfencing practice in 1913. The schoolhad only just moved to Burfield Housein Westbury-on-Trym a couple of yearspreviously. Until then it had been inDenmark Street.6 It hasn’t changed at all! Mogford’s,We s t b u r y ’s legendary hardware store,pictured in 1960. The firm can trace itshistory back to the 1850s.7 This one’s bound to stir a fewmemories. Anthony Beeson’s bookfeatures pictures of Westbury WildlifePark then and now. Established as awildlife education centre for children, itwas officially opened by ornithologistand conservationist Sir Peter Scott in1967. It closed 20 years later.

� P re h i s t o r i cshellfish orone of thesnakes inKeynsham inthe fifthcentury ADturned tostone by StKeyne? Youdecide.

� The most distinctive house inHenleaze, possibly modelled on theones at Blaise. Yours for £450k.

come on bicycles, of course. Somewould even run. There werecross-country running clubs whosemembers would run out here, havetea, and then run home again.”

The reason for Coombe Dingle’spopularity was simple; it was thenearest countryside for many Bris-tolians, attracted by the simple pleas-ures of a sunny day and the promiseof tea and cake (or that great Vic-torian/Edwardian treat, bread andbu t t e r ) .

“It all ended really when it stoppedbeing countryside with the expan-sion of Bristol and the growing num-ber of people who wanted to livet h e re, ” says Anthony. “If too manypeople want to live somewhere youinevitably lose the beauty that at-tracted them to it in the first place.”

Westbury-on-Trym to AvonmouthThrough Time is published by Am-berley Publishing at £14.99

2

3

1 4

5

6 7

PETER CAROLThe Prestige Coaching CompanyASCENDERE OMNIS COLLIS

.... Unrivalled OualityUnrivalled Ouality01275 839 839 • www.petercarol.co.uk

EPB-E01-S4

EPB-

E01-

S4

6 Tu e s d a y, October 8, 2013 7Tu e s d a y, October 8, 2013w w w. bristolpost.co.uk w w w. bristolpost.co.uk

Bristol’sfirst churchwas victimof the Blitz

Picture of the Week

WHATEVER your opin-ions of proposals tobuild on the StMary-Le-Port site on theedge of Castle Park, we

can probably all agree that what’sthere at the moment – a couple of greyoffice buildings, one derelict, and therubbish-strewn remains of a church –are an embarrassing eyesore.

As every true blue Bristolianknows, the area, and what is now Cas-tle Park, used to be the heart of the cityuntil the Blitz.

Much of the damage was done by thefirst major German air raid on Bristolin November 1941. This hit CastleStreet and surrounding areas hard.

The remains of three churches – StPe t e r ’s in Castle Park, Temple Churchoff Victoria Street, and the somewhatless visible St Mary-Le-Port near thebridge – were left standing after thewar as memorials to those who werekilled in the Nazi attacks.

All three have a wealth of fascin-ating back stories, but StMary-Le-Port is the least appreciatedbecause it’s the least visible.

It always was. Before the Blitz it washemmed in on all sides by buildings.One visitor said: “a stranger mighteasily pass under the shadow of itswalls without being aware of its ex-istence”.

Once known as St Mary-de-Foro, orSt Mary of the Market, the church wasbuilt in the 15th century, but this wason the foundations of what was almostcertainly Bristol’s first ever church.

The blitzed building was once be-lieved to date back to Norman times –about 1170 AD – but archaeological ex-cavations in the early 1960s uncoveredevidence that there was a church here

in the late Anglo-Saxon period.It is thought that the building was

dedicated to the Virgin Mary and itwas certainly used by sailors whowould go here to pray for a safe jour-ney and give thanks on their return.

Ships would be moored on what wasthen a tidal riverbank near BristolBridge and the church, in full view ofthe Avon, would be most convenientfor them.

There is an old story that OliverCromwell, after capturing the city in1645, moored his barge to a post in StMary-Le-Port churchyard. The ori-gins of this strange tale are obscure,but it seems highly unlikely; fromhere to the riverbank was quite a dis-tance and there would surely havebeen plenty of more convenient – andcloser – things to tie your boat to.

(It was doubtless on the same oc-casion that Cromwell took one look atBristol’s mighty castle, promptinghim to later decide that it would haveto be demolished as a potential strong-hold to anyone opposing his rule).

The church that survived until 1940was a mish-mash of different bitsadded at different times.

The most recent element is thetower, built in the 15th century.

When the church was “re s t o re d ” by

the Victorians in 1877, it was given anew font, with the old alabaster onefinding a new home at Stapleton Work-h o u s e.

A handsome brass eagle lectern –standing 7ft tall and once belonging toBristol Cathedral – was badly dam-aged in the Blitz.

Dating from 1683 and rescued fromthe melting pot in 1803, it was, per-haps, the church’s greatest treasure.

A mystery surrounding a burial inthe church will now probably never beresolved. It concerns Robert Yeamans,a Royalist sympathiser who washanged by the Parliamentarians in1643. This was after he took part in aplot to seize the city from the Round-heads and let in Prince Rupert’s army,which was waiting on the Downs.

Ye a m a n s ’corpse was handed over tohis father and, the story goes, buriedin St Mary-Le-Port church. In 1814 thebody, still exhibiting marks of thehanging and dressed in clothing ofcivil war date, was unearthered in aremarkable state of preservation. Be-fore being reinterred in the church’ssouth aisle, the heart was removed tohis museum by surgeon RichardSmith and “s o u ve n i r s ”, a handker-chief and parts of a shirt, were takenby the rector and an attorney.

But, according to an 1816 history ofBristol, Yeamans was buried, not in StMary-Le-Port, but Christ Church. Sowho was the man whose heart theytook out? We may never know.

The strangest St Mary-Le-Port storyof all, though, goes back to before theReformation, when England was stilla Roman Catholic country.

Some Catholics believe that prayingto certain saints to intercede on theirbehalf can sometimes yield results,and at St Mary-Le-Port there was achapel dedicated to Saint Wilgefortis,also known as Saint Uncumber.

Her cult was widespread in late me-dieval Europe, because she was thepatron saint of unhappily marriedwo m e n .

Wilgefortis is one of those saintswho probably never existed, but herlegend was very popular.

She was the daughter of a powerfulpagan king, and had converted toChristianity. She wanted to devote herlife to God, and so had taken a vow ofch a s t i t y.

This didn’t fit in with her father’splans at all. He wanted to give her awayin a political marriage to another hea-then monarch.

Wilgefortis prayed to the Almighty

Plans to redevelop thederelict site close to theBristol Bridge havecaused a huge politicalrow in the last couple ofweeks, with concerns thatnew building will encroachon part of Castle Park.But at the centre of thesite are the remains of achurch with a fascinatinghistory. It even had aspecial chapel forunhappily married women.Eugene Byrne re p o r t s .

Singing praises of Magpie

IWAS fascinated by your articleon the changing scene of theBristol newspapers, but was dis-appointed not to have read anyreference to the Bristol Magpie.

My reason is that as archivist to theBristol Amateur Operatic Society Ihave a copy of a cartoon in the BristolMa gpie dated 1896, the original ofwhich has been deposited in the Bris-tol Record Office.

It depicts a medical charity concertat the Princes Theatre, where theyperformed extracts from the previousshow in 1895 of The Mikado. Thesociety was formed in 1894 and is theoldest amateur stage group in Bris-tol.

Peter LambVice-President, Bristol Amateur

Operatic Society

Editor’s Reply: Thanks for that, Peter.Obviously there are many, manythings which we could have includedin the timeline, but decided to stick tonewspapers and not mentionmag azines.

The Bristol Magpie, though, is afascinating publication, a localmagazine which published from thelate 19th to early 20th century, cov-ering local affairs and sport, and withplenty of humour.

It was our own little local version ofP u n ch , if you like. And if anyone outthere has a complete set of BristolMa gpies – the Central Library doesn’thave them all – we would be very, veryinterested in hearing from you.

�L AT I M E R ’S Diary (Bristol Times,sept 24) is quite correct when it saysthat many people still know Morsecode. Like Mr Latimer’s aunties, mysister and I both worked for the PostOffice, and both of us had beentaught Morse by our father beforet h at .

During the 1960s I alsolived in France for afew years, and I mustsay that my recallof Morse is much,much better thanmy knowledge ofFrench, which atone time was asgood as fluent butwhich now issadly very rusty.

Any of your read-ers who know Morsemight be interested ina little game you can playwith it. It kept my sister’sgrandchildren amused and aston-ished for quite some time.

Some years ago, I was staying withher when her grandchildren cameover to visit. It was a rainy afternoonand they were left with us while theirMum and Dad went shopping. They

� The cartoon which appeared in the Bristol Magpie in 1896, depicting acharity concert by the Bristol Amateur Operatic Society

were seven and nine years old (Ithink) and had never heard of Morsec o d e.

My sister told them we have asecret way of communicatingwithout speaking or writing. And totest it they should ask her to ask me

to do some simple action. Sothey whispered an idea

to her and she thenrapped on the table

“Pick up the cup”in morse. I pickedup the cup.

They thenwhispered to methat I was to tellher to point tothe ceiling, or

something likethat. I tapped

“point to ceiling”with my finger on the

table and their Grandmapointed upwards. They were

amaz ed!As I recollect, this kept them

happy for some time. I can only sayit’s a jolly good job they didn’t askeither of us to dance the Charle-ston!

Mary Bennett, via email.

Mines group talks

�THE South Gloucestershire MinesResearch Group will be having twotalks before Christmas. These are:

Wed, October 23: “Chinese SteamTrains and Coal Mines” – a copiouslyillustrated talk by Steve Grudgingsbased on personal visits.

Wed, December 4: “Coalpit Heath –what lies hidden below” – an illus-trated talk describing explorations often different tunnels, passages, wells,adits and chambers underneath Coal-pit Heath by Steve Grudgings.

The venue for both talks is theMiner’s Institute (aka Coalpit HeathVillage Hall), 214 Badminton Road,Coalpit Heath, BS36 2QB starting at7:30pm for 8pm. Non members wel-come, £2 each. For more informationcall 01454 883607.

Roger GoslingChairman South Gloucestershire

Mines Research Group( w w w. s g m r g . c o . u k )

Have you ever beeninvolved with boxing?

�I AM trying to compile inform-ation for a book on boxing in Bristolfrom the turn of the 20th centuryuntil the present day, both amateurand professional.

I am looking for any informationfrom readers however small on any-thing connected to boxing in Bristol –fighters, trainers, gyms, fight venues,managers etc.

Has a member of your family pastor present ever boxed or been in-volved with the sport in any way? Aneighbour, friend or work colleague?

Do you remember old boxers likeDixie Brown, George Rose, TerryRatcliffe, Gordon Hazell, PeterRichards, Tex Woodward, Gary Chip-pendale, Len Rocky James, NickWilshire, Chris Sanigar, Ross Hale,the Coopers, Dorringtons, Hardings,Pomphreys etc.

Gyms like the Empire, Barton Hill,Dings, Holy Cross, Knowle, Patchway,National Smelting, or fight venueslike the Colston Hall, Bedminster Ar-cade, Old Market Drill Hall, Dock-lands settlement, Whitchurch sportscentre, or local amateur shows andfighters?

Copies of clippings, photos, pro-grammes, recollections and storieswelcome. Any information howeversmall would be very useful!

Lee Woodward703 Filton avenue, Filton, Bristol

BS34 7JZ. Tel: 0782 4811778 Email:L e e w o o d w a rd 1 9 7 4 @ y a h o o . c o . u k

The tower of St Mary-le-Port, pictured, afew years after it andSt Peter’s (in the background) had beengutted by fire in theBlitz

� NO particular reason for this Picture of the Week; it’s just nice andatmospheric. This was taken by a Post photographer late one eveningin Bristol’s city centre in the summer of 1951, and shows theilluminations that were put in place for the Festival of Britain, a bignationwide celebration that was supposed to celebrate the country’sachievements in science, technology and the arts and cheer everyoneup a bit after the war.

Chance to help withour bulb-planting

�KINGS Weston Action Group in-vites everyone along to help out withour Big Bulb Plant on Saturday.

KWAG is looking for volunteers,their family, and friends to help usplant out thousands of native wood-land bulbs on the Estate. We will beplanting bulbs along the Echo Pathbetween Kings Weston House and the‘E ch o ’ folly. Volunteers are invited tobring a spade or trowel and muck in,contributing to a new natural legacyfor the future. We identified a nativespecies of bluebell on the Bioblitzearlier this year and want tostrengthen existing colonies. Thisevent will help create an eye-catchingnew spring carpet for generations toc o m e.

Come rain or shine KWAG willbegin the Big Bulb Plant at 10:30 atthe Echo Path, through until about4pm. We are providing free refresh-ments. Wear suitable clothing, aspade or trowel if you have one, andan enthusiasm for getting your handsa little muddy! We hope you will beable to come along any time duringthe day and plant a few.

Kings Weston Action Group

Morse the merrier for family fun

to spare her from this ghastly pro-spect, and her prayers were indeedanswered. She woke up the followingmorning to find she had grown a co-pious beard. This put her out of themarriage market for good.

In England Wilgefortis becameknown as Uncumber as she had thepower to remove the encumbrance of abad husband.

There were a few chapels to heraround the country, including the oneat St-Mary-Le-Port, and apparently itwas customary for women praying toher to bring an offering of a small bagof oats.

Thomas More, the philosopher andjurist who later lost his head for op-posing Henry VIII’s divorce, wasscathing about the cult of Uncumber,thinking it a silly female superstition.He wrote that nobody knew why theywould bring an offering of oats, “un -less it be to provide a horse for the evilhusband to ride to the devil upon.”

From 1940 until 1960, the future ofthe ruined church, surrounded by a“temporary” car park, was in doubt.Then, when there was talk of demoli-tion to clear the site for redevelop-ment, there was a public outcry.

At this point it was still Church ofEngland property, but the ChurchCommissioners sold the ruin and theland to the council for £25,000.

It’s been more or less neglected eversince, overgrown, covered in graffitiand litter …

Surely the site of Bristol’s first everchurch deserves better than this?

Vi s i t o r ’s comment

A stranger might easilypass under the shadowof its walls without beingaware of its existence”

“

15x3P RO M OAD

PETER CAROLThe Prestige Coaching CompanyASCENDERE OMNIS COLLIS

.... Professional ServiceProfessional Service01275 839 839 • www.petercarol.co.uk

Coffee Shop & Takeaway

0117 927 9810 www.azuza.co.ukThe Almshouse, 19/21 Merchant Street, The Galleries

(worth £1.80)with anymediumor largehot drink!

FREEhomemade muffin

Offer valid until 20/10/2013with this advert

EPB-E01-S4

EPB-

E01-

S4

6 Tu e s d a y, October 8, 2013 7Tu e s d a y, October 8, 2013w w w. bristolpost.co.uk w w w. bristolpost.co.uk

Bristol’sfirst churchwas victimof the Blitz

Picture of the Week

WHATEVER your opin-ions of proposals tobuild on the StMary-Le-Port site on theedge of Castle Park, we

can probably all agree that what’sthere at the moment – a couple of greyoffice buildings, one derelict, and therubbish-strewn remains of a church –are an embarrassing eyesore.

As every true blue Bristolianknows, the area, and what is now Cas-tle Park, used to be the heart of the cityuntil the Blitz.

Much of the damage was done by thefirst major German air raid on Bristolin November 1941. This hit CastleStreet and surrounding areas hard.

The remains of three churches – StPe t e r ’s in Castle Park, Temple Churchoff Victoria Street, and the somewhatless visible St Mary-Le-Port near thebridge – were left standing after thewar as memorials to those who werekilled in the Nazi attacks.

All three have a wealth of fascin-ating back stories, but StMary-Le-Port is the least appreciatedbecause it’s the least visible.

It always was. Before the Blitz it washemmed in on all sides by buildings.One visitor said: “a stranger mighteasily pass under the shadow of itswalls without being aware of its ex-istence”.

Once known as St Mary-de-Foro, orSt Mary of the Market, the church wasbuilt in the 15th century, but this wason the foundations of what was almostcertainly Bristol’s first ever church.

The blitzed building was once be-lieved to date back to Norman times –about 1170 AD – but archaeological ex-cavations in the early 1960s uncoveredevidence that there was a church here

in the late Anglo-Saxon period.It is thought that the building was

dedicated to the Virgin Mary and itwas certainly used by sailors whowould go here to pray for a safe jour-ney and give thanks on their return.

Ships would be moored on what wasthen a tidal riverbank near BristolBridge and the church, in full view ofthe Avon, would be most convenientfor them.

There is an old story that OliverCromwell, after capturing the city in1645, moored his barge to a post in StMary-Le-Port churchyard. The ori-gins of this strange tale are obscure,but it seems highly unlikely; fromhere to the riverbank was quite a dis-tance and there would surely havebeen plenty of more convenient – andcloser – things to tie your boat to.

(It was doubtless on the same oc-casion that Cromwell took one look atBristol’s mighty castle, promptinghim to later decide that it would haveto be demolished as a potential strong-hold to anyone opposing his rule).

The church that survived until 1940was a mish-mash of different bitsadded at different times.

The most recent element is thetower, built in the 15th century.

When the church was “re s t o re d ” by

the Victorians in 1877, it was given anew font, with the old alabaster onefinding a new home at Stapleton Work-h o u s e.

A handsome brass eagle lectern –standing 7ft tall and once belonging toBristol Cathedral – was badly dam-aged in the Blitz.

Dating from 1683 and rescued fromthe melting pot in 1803, it was, per-haps, the church’s greatest treasure.

A mystery surrounding a burial inthe church will now probably never beresolved. It concerns Robert Yeamans,a Royalist sympathiser who washanged by the Parliamentarians in1643. This was after he took part in aplot to seize the city from the Round-heads and let in Prince Rupert’s army,which was waiting on the Downs.

Ye a m a n s ’corpse was handed over tohis father and, the story goes, buriedin St Mary-Le-Port church. In 1814 thebody, still exhibiting marks of thehanging and dressed in clothing ofcivil war date, was unearthered in aremarkable state of preservation. Be-fore being reinterred in the church’ssouth aisle, the heart was removed tohis museum by surgeon RichardSmith and “s o u ve n i r s ”, a handker-chief and parts of a shirt, were takenby the rector and an attorney.

But, according to an 1816 history ofBristol, Yeamans was buried, not in StMary-Le-Port, but Christ Church. Sowho was the man whose heart theytook out? We may never know.

The strangest St Mary-Le-Port storyof all, though, goes back to before theReformation, when England was stilla Roman Catholic country.

Some Catholics believe that prayingto certain saints to intercede on theirbehalf can sometimes yield results,and at St Mary-Le-Port there was achapel dedicated to Saint Wilgefortis,also known as Saint Uncumber.

Her cult was widespread in late me-dieval Europe, because she was thepatron saint of unhappily marriedwo m e n .

Wilgefortis is one of those saintswho probably never existed, but herlegend was very popular.

She was the daughter of a powerfulpagan king, and had converted toChristianity. She wanted to devote herlife to God, and so had taken a vow ofch a s t i t y.

This didn’t fit in with her father’splans at all. He wanted to give her awayin a political marriage to another hea-then monarch.

Wilgefortis prayed to the Almighty

Plans to redevelop thederelict site close to theBristol Bridge havecaused a huge politicalrow in the last couple ofweeks, with concerns thatnew building will encroachon part of Castle Park.But at the centre of thesite are the remains of achurch with a fascinatinghistory. It even had aspecial chapel forunhappily married women.Eugene Byrne re p o r t s .

Singing praises of Magpie

IWAS fascinated by your articleon the changing scene of theBristol newspapers, but was dis-appointed not to have read anyreference to the Bristol Magpie.

My reason is that as archivist to theBristol Amateur Operatic Society Ihave a copy of a cartoon in the BristolMa gpie dated 1896, the original ofwhich has been deposited in the Bris-tol Record Office.

It depicts a medical charity concertat the Princes Theatre, where theyperformed extracts from the previousshow in 1895 of The Mikado. Thesociety was formed in 1894 and is theoldest amateur stage group in Bris-tol.

Peter LambVice-President, Bristol Amateur

Operatic Society

Editor’s Reply: Thanks for that, Peter.Obviously there are many, manythings which we could have includedin the timeline, but decided to stick tonewspapers and not mentionmag azines.

The Bristol Magpie, though, is afascinating publication, a localmagazine which published from thelate 19th to early 20th century, cov-ering local affairs and sport, and withplenty of humour.

It was our own little local version ofP u n ch , if you like. And if anyone outthere has a complete set of BristolMa gpies – the Central Library doesn’thave them all – we would be very, veryinterested in hearing from you.

�L AT I M E R ’S Diary (Bristol Times,sept 24) is quite correct when it saysthat many people still know Morsecode. Like Mr Latimer’s aunties, mysister and I both worked for the PostOffice, and both of us had beentaught Morse by our father beforet h at .

During the 1960s I alsolived in France for afew years, and I mustsay that my recallof Morse is much,much better thanmy knowledge ofFrench, which atone time was asgood as fluent butwhich now issadly very rusty.

Any of your read-ers who know Morsemight be interested ina little game you can playwith it. It kept my sister’sgrandchildren amused and aston-ished for quite some time.

Some years ago, I was staying withher when her grandchildren cameover to visit. It was a rainy afternoonand they were left with us while theirMum and Dad went shopping. They

� The cartoon which appeared in the Bristol Magpie in 1896, depicting acharity concert by the Bristol Amateur Operatic Society

were seven and nine years old (Ithink) and had never heard of Morsec o d e.

My sister told them we have asecret way of communicatingwithout speaking or writing. And totest it they should ask her to ask me

to do some simple action. Sothey whispered an idea

to her and she thenrapped on the table

“Pick up the cup”in morse. I pickedup the cup.

They thenwhispered to methat I was to tellher to point tothe ceiling, or

something likethat. I tapped

“point to ceiling”with my finger on the

table and their Grandmapointed upwards. They were

amaz ed!As I recollect, this kept them

happy for some time. I can only sayit’s a jolly good job they didn’t askeither of us to dance the Charle-ston!

Mary Bennett, via email.

Mines group talks

�THE South Gloucestershire MinesResearch Group will be having twotalks before Christmas. These are:

Wed, October 23: “Chinese SteamTrains and Coal Mines” – a copiouslyillustrated talk by Steve Grudgingsbased on personal visits.

Wed, December 4: “Coalpit Heath –what lies hidden below” – an illus-trated talk describing explorations often different tunnels, passages, wells,adits and chambers underneath Coal-pit Heath by Steve Grudgings.

The venue for both talks is theMiner’s Institute (aka Coalpit HeathVillage Hall), 214 Badminton Road,Coalpit Heath, BS36 2QB starting at7:30pm for 8pm. Non members wel-come, £2 each. For more informationcall 01454 883607.

Roger GoslingChairman South Gloucestershire

Mines Research Group( w w w. s g m r g . c o . u k )

Have you ever beeninvolved with boxing?

�I AM trying to compile inform-ation for a book on boxing in Bristolfrom the turn of the 20th centuryuntil the present day, both amateurand professional.

I am looking for any informationfrom readers however small on any-thing connected to boxing in Bristol –fighters, trainers, gyms, fight venues,managers etc.

Has a member of your family pastor present ever boxed or been in-volved with the sport in any way? Aneighbour, friend or work colleague?

Do you remember old boxers likeDixie Brown, George Rose, TerryRatcliffe, Gordon Hazell, PeterRichards, Tex Woodward, Gary Chip-pendale, Len Rocky James, NickWilshire, Chris Sanigar, Ross Hale,the Coopers, Dorringtons, Hardings,Pomphreys etc.

Gyms like the Empire, Barton Hill,Dings, Holy Cross, Knowle, Patchway,National Smelting, or fight venueslike the Colston Hall, Bedminster Ar-cade, Old Market Drill Hall, Dock-lands settlement, Whitchurch sportscentre, or local amateur shows andfighters?

Copies of clippings, photos, pro-grammes, recollections and storieswelcome. Any information howeversmall would be very useful!

Lee Woodward703 Filton avenue, Filton, Bristol

BS34 7JZ. Tel: 0782 4811778 Email:L e e w o o d w a rd 1 9 7 4 @ y a h o o . c o . u k

The tower of St Mary-le-Port, pictured, afew years after it andSt Peter’s (in the background) had beengutted by fire in theBlitz

� NO particular reason for this Picture of the Week; it’s just nice andatmospheric. This was taken by a Post photographer late one eveningin Bristol’s city centre in the summer of 1951, and shows theilluminations that were put in place for the Festival of Britain, a bignationwide celebration that was supposed to celebrate the country’sachievements in science, technology and the arts and cheer everyoneup a bit after the war.

Chance to help withour bulb-planting

�KINGS Weston Action Group in-vites everyone along to help out withour Big Bulb Plant on Saturday.

KWAG is looking for volunteers,their family, and friends to help usplant out thousands of native wood-land bulbs on the Estate. We will beplanting bulbs along the Echo Pathbetween Kings Weston House and the‘E ch o ’ folly. Volunteers are invited tobring a spade or trowel and muck in,contributing to a new natural legacyfor the future. We identified a nativespecies of bluebell on the Bioblitzearlier this year and want tostrengthen existing colonies. Thisevent will help create an eye-catchingnew spring carpet for generations toc o m e.

Come rain or shine KWAG willbegin the Big Bulb Plant at 10:30 atthe Echo Path, through until about4pm. We are providing free refresh-ments. Wear suitable clothing, aspade or trowel if you have one, andan enthusiasm for getting your handsa little muddy! We hope you will beable to come along any time duringthe day and plant a few.

Kings Weston Action Group

Morse the merrier for family fun

to spare her from this ghastly pro-spect, and her prayers were indeedanswered. She woke up the followingmorning to find she had grown a co-pious beard. This put her out of themarriage market for good.

In England Wilgefortis becameknown as Uncumber as she had thepower to remove the encumbrance of abad husband.

There were a few chapels to heraround the country, including the oneat St-Mary-Le-Port, and apparently itwas customary for women praying toher to bring an offering of a small bagof oats.

Thomas More, the philosopher andjurist who later lost his head for op-posing Henry VIII’s divorce, wasscathing about the cult of Uncumber,thinking it a silly female superstition.He wrote that nobody knew why theywould bring an offering of oats, “un -less it be to provide a horse for the evilhusband to ride to the devil upon.”

From 1940 until 1960, the future ofthe ruined church, surrounded by a“temporary” car park, was in doubt.Then, when there was talk of demoli-tion to clear the site for redevelop-ment, there was a public outcry.

At this point it was still Church ofEngland property, but the ChurchCommissioners sold the ruin and theland to the council for £25,000.

It’s been more or less neglected eversince, overgrown, covered in graffitiand litter …

Surely the site of Bristol’s first everchurch deserves better than this?

Vi s i t o r ’s comment

A stranger might easilypass under the shadowof its walls without beingaware of its existence”

“

15x3P RO M OAD

PETER CAROLThe Prestige Coaching CompanyASCENDERE OMNIS COLLIS

.... Professional ServiceProfessional Service01275 839 839 • www.petercarol.co.uk

Coffee Shop & Takeaway

0117 927 9810 www.azuza.co.ukThe Almshouse, 19/21 Merchant Street, The Galleries

(worth £1.80)with anymediumor largehot drink!

FREEhomemade muffin

Offer valid until 20/10/2013with this advert

EPB-

E01-

S4

8

NEXT year the Brownies willbe 100 years old – and Iremember so well when Ibecame one. I was sevenyears old when I first asked

my mum if I could join a Browniep a ck .

The Second World War had starteda month before, so my request prob-ably did not seem too important inthe scheme of things. But you cannotbeat a child’s persistence when he orshe really wants something. And howI longed to be a Brownie. One day Icame home from school and my dearmum said: “When you have finishedyour drink, Marie, there is somethingon your bed for you.” There, to mydelight, was a Brownie uniform.

I was so proud the first time I put iton and my mum took me to be en-rolled. Dressed in my brown tunic, alovely leather belt and a yellow tie,along with the other Brownies I stoodin a circle and made my solemn prom-ise to help others and to keep theBrownie Guide law. In hindsight myuniform was probably second hand –but if it was it did not matter, becauseI was so happy.

Luckily I did not have far to go andthe only times I missed were duringthe blitz.

In time I earned several badgeswhich I sewed on to my sleeves.

As you, my dear readers, know bynow, I was never a great knitter orgood at sewing. But with my gran’s

help I learned to knit, sew and evenc ro ch e t .

When I was ten years old I became aGirl Guide – and that was even better.I learned more about the history ofthe movement. which began when agroup of feisty young ladies bargedinto a Scout rally and demanded ofLord Baden Powell the right to join.

So to me the Girl Guide movementis part of our social history.

In the Guides the discipline wasmuch stricter. We had an inspectionevery week from our captain beforeour evening started.

With my mum’s agreement I wentoff to my first camp for a week in thesummer holidays – and how I loved it.That was my first taste of freedomand of being away from home. It wasalso my first time camping – andsince it was during the war and foodrationing was bleak, our parents hadto contribute several items of food thenight before we were due to go.

We slept six to a tent and at nightthere was lots of giggling.

The air raids had tailed off quite alot by then but we still had to practisegetting to the nearest shelter. Luckilythere was not an air raid.

We tackled our camp chorus withgusto after we had demolished ourbowls of porridge, cooked over aPrimus stove, and then went off fortrail finding and other outdoor pur-suits to increase our badges. On ourreturn we ate our sausages, usually

This week, Marion’sMemories of hertimes as a Brownieand Girl Guide

Wartime camping capers

Footsteps into history

Art deco building wascity’s aerospace hubYOU may have read in the paperrecently that the Duke of Gloucesterwas at Filton a couple of weeks ago toofficially open the newly-restored Pe-gasus House.

Now owned by Airbus, the Grade IIlisted building, constructed in the1930s in the art deco style, is a keypart of Bristol’s proud aviation her-itage, and the restorers seem to havedone a splendid job. Not that long ago,the building was derelict and van-dalised, but now it will be a focalpoint in a new £70m ‘A i r bu sAerospace Park’. Around 300 Airbusstaff will be working at the building.

Architect David Olivares and build-ers Miller Construction, who carriedout the work, spent 18 months renov-ating the building – including restor-ing an historic four-storey stainedglass window and replacing all 430w i n d ow s.

Opened in 1936, Pegasus House,then known as New Filton House,was designed for the Bristol Aero-plane Company by architect AustinHall and was a bold and proud cel-ebration of what by then was alreadya key industry for Bristol.

By then, it was widely suspectedthat Britain would soon once again beat war with Germany, and it played akey role in Britain’s crash pro-gramme of re-armament which tookplace in the late ’3 0 s.

In just a few years, the RAF’s fleetsof fighters and bombers were com-pletely overhauled. Biplanes moreappropriate to the Western Front of1914-18 were replaced with fast, mod-ern monoplanes.

In its heyday, Pegasus Househoused hundreds of personnel,mostly draughtsmen.

Though only the company’s dir-ectors were allowed to use the im-posing front entrance facing the A38,and the ornate black-and-gold irongates designed by Austen Hall.

In the basement were wages andaccounts offices, while the directors’rooms were on the ground floor. Onthe second floor – a very moderntouch, this – was a cinema for screen-ing footage of aircraft trials.

Over the years, Pegasus House sawmany VIPs and famous people comethrough its doors. Winston Churchillvisited, of course, as did Queen Mary,who was staying at Badminton dur-ing the war, along with other mem-bers of the royal family. Cary Grantalso dropped by.

Besides restoring the building, Air-bus have also done lovers of Bristol’saviation heritage another huge fa-vour in putting together a website allabout Pegasus House and its history,including memories of people whoworked there down the years. Seewww.pe gasushousehistory.co.uk.

� PegasusHouse in its1950sheyday

either underdone or too well done,with our baked beans.

Our evenings always ended with asingsong – not around a camp fire,because of the war – before bed. Andon our last night we had a ‘s e c re t ’midnight feast. Looking back, it prob-ably was not midnight, and it cer-tainly was not secret – but how weenjoyed it. How grown up we felt.

My mum had given me a small fruitcake in a tin which went down verywe l l .

I must admit the toilets were a bitraunchy. But we were used to air-raidshelters where the toilet consisted ofa bucket behind a piece of sacking, sowe were not too worried.

Our facilities for washing handswere just a bowl of water, with a smallpiece of soap and a towel. But I do notremember ever having an upsett u m my.

In time my daughter Julie followedin my footsteps and became aB row n i e.

And my son followed in his dad’sfootsteps and became a Scout.

When Julie went on her first campshe had to take an envelope addressedto us, and a sheet of writing paper.

How all we mums laughed when weread our letters. Each one said “DearMum and Dad, I hope you are well. Iam well, love” and an “X” followed bythe child’s name. Happy days.

God bless.Love, Marion

PETER CAROLThe Prestige Coaching Company

NO SURCHARGES FOR CARD PAYMENTS • ALL TOURSWITH HOTEL ACCOMMODATION ARE FULLY BONDED

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The Bodyguard also War Horse(deduct £10)

SATURDAYS - GROUP2Nov 16, Dec 28, Jan 11,

April 19 - £109.95Phantom of the Opera, MatildaJersey Boys, Dirty Dancing,Les Mis - (Soon: Miss Saigon)

LONDONMATINEE SHOWS

COMING SOONGARY BARLOW

NEXT APRIL

NEWDATES