Walk in Bristol
with Richie
BS 21
Clevedon
Clevedon
Clevedon,North Somerset, BS21
Clevedon is a seaside town and civil parish in the unitary authority of North Somerset, England.
It recorded a parish population of 21,281 in the United Kingdom Census 2011, estimated at 21,442 in 2019.
It lies along the Severn Estuary, among small hills that include Church Hill, Wain's Hill (topped by the remains of an Iron Age hill fort), Dial Hill, Strawberry Hill, Castle Hill, Hangstone Hill and Court Hill, a Site of Special Scientific Interest with overlaid Pleistocene deposits.
It features in the Domesday Book of 1086. Clevedon grew in the Victorian period as a seaside resort.
The seafront has ornamental gardens, a Victorian bandstand and other attractions. Salthouse Field has a light railway running round the perimeter and is used for donkey rides in the summer.
The shore consists of pebbled beaches and low rocky cliffs, with an old harbour at the western edge of the town, at the mouth of the Land Yeo.
The rocky beach has been designated as the Clevedon Shore Geological Site of Special Scientific Interest.
Clevedon Pier, which opened in 1869, is one of the earliest surviving examples of a Victorian pier.
On 17 October 1970, two outward spans collapsed when the seventh set of legs from the shore failed during a routine insurance load test.
A trust was eventually formed and the pier and its buildings were restored and reopened on 27 May 1989, when the Waverley paddle steamer berthed and took on passengers.
Other landmarks include Walton Castle, Clevedon Court, the Clock Tower, and the Curzon Cinema.
Clevedon's light industry is located mainly in industrial estates, including Hither Green Trading Estate near the M5 motorway junction. It is a dormitory town for Bristol.
The town is home to educational, religious and cultural buildings and sports clubs.
Richie's opinion :
" Clevedon is one of three seaside towns under Bristol's postal jurisdiction., and if I can be honest, this is my favourite Seaside town from the three.
Its beach is stony and rocky, not suitable for swimming same as Portishead's Beach, but Clevedon's beach is much better - first of all, I think it is larger, it has got four bays ( Salthouse bay, Littleharp Bay and Clevedon Bay, Ladye Bay ) , which is green and flowerful, perfect for a nice walk and the seaside is gravelly , you can go easier to the waterside ( take care, the wet gravelly ground can be very slippery) , it has got enough space to sit or lay there to a blanket, enjoy the sunshine and the wonderful view, relaxing, read a book , but if you wanna swim, or you wanna try the paddle board, it has got a picturesque Marine lake, where you can do it (before you do it , please check the water's quality HERE).
Clevedon Beach has plenty of open spaces, playground for children, skatepark, Cafes, Pubs, Restaurants, the historical and lovely Clevedon Pier and last but not least, several parking spaces (however, due to the touristic nature of the place, these are often full - if you arrive by car, have a plan B or C for the parking space).
There are plenty of opportunities for all members of a family, of all ages, to enjoy themselves on this fantastic beach full of possibilities.
When I visited Clevedon for the first time, if my memories serve me correctly, the Clevedon Pier was free to visit, so it was full of anglers, "unfortunately" this has changed now, you need to pay for the visit the Pier.
I used the word "unfortunately" in quotation mark, because I do not feel this is "unfortunately" - the price of the ticket is not too high, the staff is nice and helpful, they have created a nice, small but modern and interactive museum on the Clevedon Pier, which can be visited after you paid, and a large part of the amount received will be transferred to the maintenance of Clevedon Pier.
There is also a restaurant and cafe on the Clevedon Pier, and the view offers a stunning view of both Clevedon and the Welsh coast.
If you countinue your walk north from the Beach in the little bit steep walkway, you can find the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, which is built in 1851 and attributed to Foster and Wood of Bristol, the St Mary's church on Castle Road, and the Walton Castle next to the Clevedon Golf Club.
Walton Castle is a 17th-century fort located on Castle Hill that overlooks the Walton St Mary area at the northern end of Clevedon, built some time between 1615 and 1620, and it was designed as a hunting lodge for Lord Poulett, a Somerset MP.
These are beautiful places, but I better prefer an another walkway, to the south side of the Beach, which tis name is Poets Walk.
The Poets Walk is start at the Marina Lake' s Pump House, first goes to the Lookout, goin next to the St Andrew's church and cemetery (built in the 13th century although there are thought to be Saxon foundations under the present building. It is the burial place of Arthur Hallam, subject of the poem In Memoriam A. H. H. by his friend Alfred, Lord Tennyson) to the Wain's Hill and ending next to the Clevedon Harbour, and it not accidently calls Poet walk - it is a flower-filled, close to nature, winding, sometimes a little bit steep walk, with a fantastic view to the sea, Clevedon and the Welsh coast.
In some places, the vegetation forms a tunnel above our heads - the vegetation has bent due to the wind, which coming from the sea.
The road itself is amazingly beautiful, but when we get to Wain's Hill, the view is beyond imagination - it's like arriving to another world, to Fairyland.
In summer, when the weather is good, the field is full of tiny yellow flowers, the coast is plays all of the color of green, and the sun's rays paint the water of Clevedon Harbor golden - I think, you don't even need to be a poet - this sight touches and inspires everyone.
If you're wearing waterproof shoes, boots or maybe rubber boots with non-slip soles and you've done the Poets walk, don't miss the walk to the Clevedon Harbour.
The ground is muddy, wet, sometimes alluvial, the water sometimes stands in puddles, and if the wind blows in the semi-open terrain, you can experience both the beauty and the power of nature - a fantastic experience, I can only recommend it.
If you haven't gotten tired yet and you have time, Clevedon is full of other attractions:
Clevedon clock tower in the town center is decorated with "Elton ware". It was completed in 1898 and donated by Sir Edmund Elton to mark Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee.
The Curzon cinema dates from 1912, for Victor Cox, and is one of the world's oldest purpose-built, continuously operated cinemas.
Clevedon Court is on Court Hill, east of the town center and close to the Bristol road. It is one of the few remaining 14th-century manorial halls in England, built by Sir John de Clevedon in about 1320.
The Church of St John was built in 1876–1878, by William Butterfield for Sir Arthur Elton.
The Church of All Saints was built in 1861 by C E Giles.
The tower of Christ Church, on Chapel Hill, is an important landmark in Clevedon, erected in 1838–1839 to designs by Thomas Rickman, in an early 14th-century style.
Clevedon is a must-see town, I can just recommed its visit."
History
The name derives from the Old English, cleve meaning "cleave" or "cleft" and don meaning "hill".
Wain's Hill is an univallate Iron Age hill fort situated approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) south-west of Clevedon. The hill fort is defined by a steep, natural slope from the south and north with two ramparts to the east.
The 1086 Domesday Book mentions Clevedon as a holding of a tenant-in-chief by the name of Mathew of Mortaigne, with eight villagers and ten smallholders.
The parish of Clevedon formed part of the Portbury Hundred.
Two small rivers, the Land Yeo and Middle Yeo, supported at least two mills. The Tuck Mills lay in the fields south of Clevedon Court and were used for fulling cloth. Other mills near Wain's Hill probably date from the early 17th century.
Victorian Clevedon changed from a farming village into a popular seaside town.
The Victorian craze for sea bathing was met in the late 19th century by saltwater baths next to the pier (since demolished, though foundations remain), and bathing machines on the main beach.
Clevedon was the site of St Edith's Children's Home for almost 100 years until it closed in 1974. It was run by nuns of the Community of the Sisters of the Church, an international body in the Anglican Communion living according to the Gospel values of poverty, chastity and obedience.
The building on Dial Hill is listed, so that the outside has changed little, but now contains private flats.
Clevedon was served by a branch line from Yatton opened in 1847, six years after the main line, but closed in 1966.
The station site is now Queen's Square, a shopping precinct.
The town was headquarters also for the Weston, Clevedon and Portishead Light Railway, which connected the three named coastal towns.
It opened to Weston-super-Mare in 1897, was extended to Portishead ten years later, but closed in 1940.
Its trains crossed the road in the town centre, known as The Triangle, preceded by a man with red and green flags.
The first large-scale production of penicillin took place in the town.
In 1938 Howard Florey was working at Lincoln College, Oxford University with Ernst Boris Chain and Norman Heatley when he read Alexander Fleming's paper on the antibacterial effects of Penicillium notatum mould.
He arranged for this to be grown in deep culture tanks at the Medical Research Council's Antibiotic Research Station in Clevedon, enabling mass production of the mould for a medicine injected into forthcoming World War II soldiers suffering from infections.
Public Toilet in Clevedon
Clevedon Marine Lake
(Community Toilet Scheme)
Old Church Rd, Clevedon BS21 7RH
Public Toilet in Clevedon
Pier Copse Toilets
(Operated by Clevedon Pier Trust)
The Beach, Clevedon BS21 7QJ
Writers linked with the town include Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who spent some months in a cottage in Clevedon, after his marriage to Sara Fricker, William Makepeace Thackeray, a frequent guest of the Elton family at Clevedon Court, and George Gissing (The Odd Women novel begins in Clevedon).
The final scene of a 1993 movie, The Remains of the Day, starring Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson and Christopher Reeve, refers to Clevedon, where it was filmed.
The television movie Cider with Rosie (1998) also has scenes filmed there.
Scenes from the 2010 film, Never Let Me Go, starring Keira Knightley were filmed in Clevedon in the summer of 2009.
Clevedon has its comic book superhero, Captain Clevedon.
Clevedon, in particular St Andrew's Church, was one of the settings for the town Broadchurch, a detective drama first aired on ITV on 4 March 2013.