Walk in Bristol
with Richie
BS 10
Brentry, Henbury, Southmead, part of Westbury on Trym
Brentry
Brentry is a suburb of north Bristol, England, between Henbury and Southmead which is spread along the southern edge of the Avonmouth-London railway line.
The boundaries of Brentry are not well defined.
The settlement grew around the junction of two roads, where a public house, the Old Crow, has long been established.
The north-south road, Passage Road (now the A4018), was a turnpike road from Bristol to South Wales via New Passage or the Old Passage at Aust Ferry.
When the new Filton By-Pass (now part of the M5 motorway) was opened in 1962, the route became an arterial road linking the new road to the centre of Bristol.
The east-west route (B4057) is now of only local importance, but in the 1930s it carried A38 traffic by-passing Bristol.
The through route was cut by the runway for the giant Bristol Brabazon aircraft built in 1949.
The area east of the junction was developed in the 20th century, and Brentry is now sometimes considered to extend as far as the Filton Golf Course, south of Filton Aerodrome, including an area east of Charlton Road known as Charlton Mead, named from the former hamlet of Charlton.
Brentry has a mix of high-quality private housing and good former council housing.
It has a well-respected primary school.
Pen Park Hole is a large cavern, to which access is strictly limited, near Brentry at the edge of Filton Golf Course.
Brentry was once well known for its hospital, founded in 1898 as the Brentry Certified Inebriate Reformatory.
In 1922 it became an institution for the mentally ill, and was renamed Brentry Certified Institution.
It was renamed the Brentry Colony in 1930.
In 1948, under the National Health Service, it became Brentry Hospital.
It closed in 2000.
Brentry House, a grade II listed building built in 1802, was used as the administration building for Brentry Hospital.
This building was designed by James and Humphry Repton.
Now known as Repton Hall, it has been converted into residential apartments.
The hospital site now forms a major component of the Brentry Conservation Area.
The grounds are Grade II listed by English Heritage in the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.
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Henbury
Henbury was first mentioned in 692 as Heanburg.
The name is from the Old English hēan byrig, meaning 'high fortified place'.It was mentioned in the Domesday Book as Henberie.
Henbury was historically a very large parish and the centre of a hundred of the same name.
The parish extended to the River Severn and included King's Weston, Lawrence Weston, Hallen, Charlton, Pilning, Northwick and Aust.
When the civil parish was created in 1866, parts of the ancient parish were separated to form the civil parishes of Redwick and Northwick (later Pilning and Severn Beach) and Aust.
The parish of Compton Greenfield, including the village of Easter Compton, was added to the civil parish of Henbury in 1885.
In 1901, part of the civil parish was absorbed into Bristol, and further parts were absorbed into Bristol between then and 1933.
In 1935, the civil parish was abolished, when the remaining parts were absorbed into the civil parishes of Pilning and Severn Beach, and Almondsbury.
Botany Bay is an old name for the area of Henbury centred on the modern Marmion Crescent believed to derive from the nineteenth century name of a row of cottages.
The Great House, Henbury was the home of the Astry family, and of Scipio Africanus (see below).
Nearby Henbury Court was built by Thomas Stock to replace the Great House.
Henbury Court was demolished in the 1950s.
The parish Church of St Mary the Virgin dates from approximately 1096.
The tower is from the early 13th century.
The north chapel was built, and further restoration work undertaken by Thomas Rickman in 1836, with further restoration by G. E. Street in 1875-7.
It is a grade II* listed building.
The churchyard contains the grave of Scipio Africanus, the west African 18th century manservant of Charles William Howard, 7th Earl of Suffolk.
Emmanuel Chapel Henbury is an independent evangelical church located on Satchfield Crescent.
St Antony's Church is a Catholic church which was built in the 1950s and is also located on Satchfield Crescent.
Henbury Village Hall is a Grade II listed building.
Henbury Leisure Centre is home to a 25-metre swimming pool, fitness suite, full-size all-weather pitch and a variety of fitness programmes and classes.
It is located on the site of Henbury Secondary School.
The Henbury Lodge Hotel is operated by Best Western.
The building itself is believed to have been built around 1600 as two cottages, before being combined into one dwelling in 1712.
Southmead
Southmead was a manor of the parish of Westbury on Trym.
The manor house, mentioned in a document of 1319, was near the south end of what is now Southmead Road.
Most of the estate of 313 acres (1.27 km2) was sold in the late 19th century.
By 1888 Southmead was a small hamlet on Southmead Road.
Southmead Hospital, formerly the Barton Regis Workhouse, was opened there in 1924.
Large-scale development of the area started in 1931, when the Bristol Corporation built 1,500 houses to the north of Southmead Road, partly to house families cleared from the slums of central Bristol, and partly to address the housing shortage at the time.
A further 1,100 houses were built after World War II.
Since then, reference has often been made to the "pre-war estate" of Southmead and the "post-war estate".
The centre of Southmead is along Greystoke Avenue, a wide road with grassy areas some distance to the North of the original hamlet on Southmead Road.
The area to the South and West, falls within Westbury-on-Trym and Henleaze ward since the last boundary review and further to the May 2016 elections.
Parts of Southmead to the South East of Southmead Road, including the hospital, are in Horfield ward.
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Westbury on Trym
The attractions, historical and public informations about Westbury-on-try are in the BS9 area's site.
Attractions of BS 10 Area
Badock's Wood
A nature reserve with woodland, streams and areas of meadow in north Bristol.
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Badock's Wood, Entrance, Lakewood Rd, Bristol BS10 5HW
Official website :
Blaise Castle House Museum & Estate
Blaise Castle House Museum and Estate features a 19th century mansion, set in 400 acres of parkland, and is home to the social history collection. Discover everyday objects from centuries past, including Victorian toilets and baths, kitchen and laundry equipment, model trains, dolls, toys and period costume in the museum.
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Official website :
https://www.bristolmuseums.org.uk/blaise-castle-house-museum/​
Blaise Hamlet
This unique, picturesque early 19th-century housing project is part of Blaise Castle Estate, on a site which dates back to medieval times. It is 4 miles north of central Bristol, near Henbury villlage.
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Official website :
Church of St Mary the Virgin - Churchyard
There may have been a church on the site since the 7th century. Construction of the present building took place during the 13th century. Restoration work was later carried out in the 19th century by the Gothic Revival architects Thomas Rickman and George Edmund Street. The church has been designated by English Heritage as a grade II* listed building.
The slave known as Scipio Africanus is buried in the churchyard in a grave with elaborately painted headstone and footstone, dated 1720. It is grade II* listed.
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Close House, Church Cl, Avon, Bristol BS10 7QF
Official website :
Southmead Round Barrow
The field accessed from the main Doncaster Road entrance into Badock’s Wood (and which contains a 3500 year old Bronze Age Burial Mound at its north-western corner) was known as “Milltut Field” or “Mill Toot Field” since at least the seventeenth century. This suggests that the burial mound, “Southmead Round Barrow”, was once the site of a windmill. However, no actual remains of a windmill have ever been found at the mound to support this suggestion. Anecdotal evidence supports the theory that there were windmills in the Westbury area in the past and which subsequently gave rise to field names such as “Windmill Close” and “Windmill Leaze”.
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123 Doncaster Rd, Bristol BS10 5PY
Official website :
Bristol ZOO Project
Bristol ZOO Project ( earlier Wild Place Project ) is a fun, family attraction that provides outdoor adventure, play and learning. Visitors to Bristol ZOO Project can meet amazing animals from across the world from the mischievous lemurs of Madagascar to the striking grey wolves of Europe.
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Bristol ZOO Project, Blackhorse Hill, Bristol BS10 7TP
Official website :