BS 9

The origins of Westbury on Trym predate those of Bristol itself.

At the end of the 8th century, King Offa of Mercia granted land at Westbury to his minister,  Aethelmund.

Later there was a monastery at Westbury, probably initially a secular one, with married clergy.

This changed towards the end of the 10th century when Oswald of Worcester, in whose diocese the monastery lay, sent a party of 12 monks to follow more stringent rules at the Westbury monastery.

The architect Ednoth constructed a new church and other buildings.

The monastery became a college with a  dean  and  canons  at the end of the 13th century.

It was rebuilt in the mid-15th century to resemble a miniature castle with turrets and a gatehouse.

The Royalist Prince Rupert of the Rhine used it as his quarters during the English Civil War.

When he left, in 1643, he ordered it to be set on fire so that the Parliamentarians could not make use of it.

In the 20th century some of the college buildings were restored.

Westbury College Gatehouse passed into the hands of the National Trust and the grounds were adapted for housing elderly people.

The current Church of the Holy Trinity dates from 1194 (although there has been a place of worship on the site since 717), with an early 13th century nave and aisles, and 15th century chancel, chapels and tower. It is a grade I listed building.

The ancient parish of Westbury on Trym was a large one.

It included Stoke Bishop, Redland, a large exclave  comprising Shirehampton and Avonmouth, and several smaller exclaves in the parish of Henbury.

When the civil parish was created in 1866, Shirehampton was separated to form its own civil parish, and in 1894 Redland also became a separate civil parish.

In 1904 the civil parish was abolished and absorbed into Bristol.

Redland remained in the ecclesiastical parish of Westbury until 1942.

Development of the village into a large suburb of Bristol was started in the 20's and was well underway by the 30's. Many detached and semi-detached villas were built in this period.

Apart from during WW2, major house building did not cease until the 60's.

Falcondale Road was constructed during the 30's to act as a bypass to the narrow twisting streets of the old village.

With the opening of the Filton Bypass in the late 30's, Falcondale Road acted as a major conduit for A38 holiday traffic going to and from the South West.

However, when the Filton Bypass was split into two by the construction of the Brabazon Runway in the late 40's, A38 traffic had to be directed to the original route through Filton.

Notable residents

The wealthy Bristol merchant William Canynge was dean of Westbury College from 1469 to 1474.

 

Bishop John Carpenter (1399–1476) was an English Bishop, Provost and University Chancellor who was baptised and buried in St Peter's Church, now called Holy Trinity Church, Westbury on Trym.

 The Westbury Harriers club have adapted Bishop John Carpenter's arms to use as their "crest."

 

John Wedgwood, the horticulturist and eldest son of potter Josiah Wedgwood, lived at the old Cote House on the edge of Durdham Down from 1797 to 1806.

The house, which had Gothic turrets and battlements, was demolished in 1925 to make way for retirement accommodation.

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The poet Robert Southey, who later in his life became one of the Lake poets and the Poet Laureate, lived in the village for a year in 1798–99, during which he wrote his Eclogues and much other poetry.

His social circle at the time included the Wedgwoods of Cote House and chemist Humphry Davy, who was also living in Bristol then. Southey took part in Davy's experiments with laughing gas.

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William Pennefather (1816-1873), the Irish-born clergyman noted for his hymns and sermons, went to school here in the late 1820s.

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Amelia Edwards the traveller, novelist and Egyptologist  lived  in Eastfield, at the eastern end of the village, from c. 1864 to 1892.

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Geoff Gollop OBE, councillor for Westbury on Trym stood to become the first elected Mayor of Bristol in the elections of 15 November 2012 but was unsuccessful.

Catherine B. Gulley an English watercolour portrait  and genre painter lived at various addresses in Clifton and Westbury-on-Trym.

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Alice Roberts Ex-Resident. Surfer, Anatomist, Osteoarchaeologist, and noted Humanist. T.V. include the Channel 4 series Time Team, and Digging for History, and Neanderthal.

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