Monthly Archives: January 2018

The Home Guard at Penpole Lodge

Another foray into the Bristol Archives has uncovered a new photo. The image shows the Home Guard in an official photograph, lined up at Penpole Point close to the end of the Second World War in 1944. These men were part of “C” Company of the 14th Battalion of the Home Guard.

The Home Guard at Penpole Point in 1944. Part of the Ethel Thomas Collection at Bristol Archives. 
The ruinous condition of Penpole Lodge in about 1950

During the war the Home guard used Penpole Woods and the Home Park at Kings Weston, at that time the District Scout Camp, for training purposes. In 1940 they even requisitioned the tower of Penpole Lodge. The Scouts, who still owned the building observed “some concern the activities of the home guard when they took over the tower” and their site warden recalls in his diary of the time that “In the autumn of this year  the Home Guard, or the LDV’s as they were then called, took over the tower as an observation post. They stayed until the Spring. Poor old tower – it bears its scars from friend and foe now. Still we won’t say too much about that; but it’s another job to be attended to after the war.” The journal now also forms part of the Bristol Archives collection.  

It is not clear exactly what damage the Home Guard might have inflicted on the tower, but this, and further vandalism by “Local toughs” in the years following the war, led to the building being ruinous by the 1950s.  

The Home Guard trained in the woodland and camouflage skills were practiced amongst the trees and undergrowth. The warden’s journal for the war years includes some humorous sketches of their activities!  

Humorous sketches abound in MR W Webber’s journal of the Scout’s district campsite (Bristol Archives ref: 45305/1) 

Memorials of Philip Miles

If you are looking for something interesting to liven up your walls and you have a penchant for Bristol then a recent auction lot might take your fancy. A portrait is shortly to be sold by Lawrences in Crewkerne, Somerset that has a strong connection with Kings Weston. The sitter is Philip Miles, who bought the estate in 1833 for the princely sum of £206,000; an extraordinary sum for the time. It will perhaps come as little surprise that Miles was Bristol’s wealthiest person and, when he died, the city’s first recorded millionaire.

Philip John Miles by Sir Thomas Lawrence, currently up for auction on the 19th Jan

When he bought Kings Weston he already owned the palatial Leigh Court on the other side of the Avon in Somerset, and had filled it full of famous Old Master paintings. For his own portrait he commissioned Sir Thomas Lawrence, the most famous portraitist of his time; this may not have just been purely for the prestige, but Lawrence was a Bristol-born artist who had made good in the capital.


The Miles’s founded their fortune as merchants, bankers, and ship owners, and owning plantations in the colonies. As might be expected for the period his business interests were heavily dependent on slavery right up to 1833, the year he bought kings Weston, and the Slavery Abolition Act.  He was also MP for Bristol between 1835 and 1837.

Philip Miles’s memorial in Abbots Leigh church, by E H Baily 

The painting up for sale is likely to have been painted before Miles moved to Kings Weston, and it is not documented as having hung in the house, but it is an important record of a man who played an important role in the history of the city and the estate.

After Philip Miles’s death his family went to the foremost sculptor of the age to have his memorial carved. Again, perhaps not be coincidence, the artist, Edward Hodges Baily, was Bristol-born. It is known that the family were keen benefactors of the Bristol Arts scene and it is likely that their patronage of Bristol artists was intentional. The monument stands today, pale and magnificent, on the north wall of the tower of Abbots Leigh church; a pair of pensive figures stare up towards a draped classical urn bathed in carved stone rays of heavenly light.    

The portrait of Philip Miles sells at Lawrence’s auction rooms on the 19th of January with an estimate of £4000-£6000. For further information, or perhaps even to make a bid, go here.

Urgent Iron Bridge Action!

Important news about the Iron Bridge!

KWAG fully supports a morning event this Sunday to bring about new attention for the plight of the Grade II Listed Iron Bridge on the estate.Frustrated locals in north Bristol are marking 800 days since a vital – and historic – footbridge was closed to pedestrians by Bristol City Council, with a public rally showing how much the bridge is loved.


Kingsweston iron bridge is a Grade II listed cast iron structure, built circa 1820 by legendary roads engineer John Loudon McAdam (who gave his name to tarmac). It forms the only safe pedestrian link between the Blaise and Kings Weston estates in north Bristol. It was used daily by hundreds of dog walkers, families, schoolchildren and ramblers until it was struck by a high-sided lorry on 4 November 2015. The bridge was swiftly scaffolded by Bristol City Council and closed to pedestrians – and has now remained this way for over 2 years and 2 months. This week marks 800 days since the bridge was last open to foot traffic.

The Facebook group Save the iron bridge – Kingsweston has over 400 members, but campaigners are growing frustrated with the Council’s slow pace and poor communication with locals. The closure affects thousands of residents of Sea Mills, Shirehampton, Combe Dingle and Lawrence Weston, as well as many visitors from the wider Bristol area.

We are urging anyone who uses or cares about the future of the bridge to join them this Sunday 14th Jan, 10-11am and attach their messages of support to the bridge. Messages will be pinned to the scaffolding around the bridge and then put on display locally. “Although Bristol Council has said it’s committed to repairing the bridge, so far we have only had words and no action,” say event organisers Ella Davies and Dan Linstead. “We appreciate budgets are tight, but we need the Council to act now rather than later.

With the footbridge closed, locals are forced to cross the notoriously busy Kingsweston road, with traffic coming fast and unexpectedly in both directions. It is only a matter of time before someone is seriously injured or worse.”

Group members and local councillors will meet at the bridge this Sunday 14th January at 10am (press photocall at 11am) to raise awareness ahead of a full council meeting on
Monday.

For more information and to join the Facebook group, visitgreenironbridge.com. contact organisers Ella Davies (ella.davies@yahoo.co.uk, 07707 125227)
or Dan Linstead (danlinstead@yahoo.co.uk, 07866 551632)