June, 2019 - Kings Weston Action Group

In 1868 a fierce political fight broke out between Conservative and Liberal supporters each eagerly supporting their candidates in the city’s by-election. This was an age where electioneering could generate bitter personal attacks and even physical violence and the 1868 election was amongst the most divisive.

Standing as the Conservative Party candidate was John William Miles, brother of Philip William Skinner Miles of Kings Weston House and resident there for much of his life. The Miles family bought Kings Weston in 1834 after Lord de Clifford had died in 1832 without an heir. John Miles’ brother, and his father before him, had both represented the city for an unbroken period between 1835 and 1852. John Miles no doubt wanted to continue the family’s political legacy.

The Great Western Cotton Co, Barton Hill, that Miles helped found

Like the other members of his family John Miles was keenly and actively involved in the industrial development of the city, but also worked tirelessly in modernising the farms at Kings Weston. He was director, at one time vice-chairman, of the Great Western Railway, a director of the Great Western Cotton Company, South Wales Union railway, and director of the Great Western Steamship Co; the SS Great Britain was registered in is co-ownership. He had been a member of the Bristol Docks committee and on the city’s council. He was a well-respected member of the mercantile class of the city, and would have made a popular choice to follow in his family’s political footsteps.

The SS Great Britain Shortly after launch in 1843. The ship was registered jointly in John William Miles’ name.

John William Miles portrait on a handbill for the 1868 by-election

Against Miles the Liberals selected Samuel Morley, who today is best known for his statue in gardens in Lewins Mead. Campaigning was frenetic, with both parties producing handbills and posters both promoting their own candidate and demeaning the opposition. Miles handbills, many now in the collections of Bristol Museum, promoted him as a positive vote for industry and prosperity with images of shipping and the railways with which he was associated being popular motifs.

Several also carried images of the man taken from a contemporary engraving from which we could infer he was a stocky joyless looking gentleman. In reality he was well known for getting involved in family life, participating in theatrical performances, and took pleasure in breeding ferns and orchids; but perhaps the severity of the portrait suggested a man with more gravitas.

Miles’s industrial, railway, and maritime interests illustrated on a handbill along with an anchor: part of the family’s arms.

Liberal handbills criticising Conservative opposition to better representation.

His opponents sought votes from the working classes rather than those mercantile or gentry. They noted that the Conservatives had been against broader political representation and, even at this point in time there were only around 25,000 men in the city eligible to vote.

Polling day was 30^th April 1868 and Miles attracted 5,173 votes to Morley’s 4,977. Almost immediately after the election results were announced there were claims of foul play. Mr Morley claimed his defeat was due to “an undue use of money, beer, and intimidation”. The House of Commons launched an investigation and, although Miles was inducted into the House, it was only so for less than two months before the result was declared void. The committee charged with investigating the election uncovered the hiring of “roughs” to intimidate voters, with wholesale use of treating to entice votes, and paying ineligible men to impersonate voters. Miles was, through his agents’ actions, found guilty of bribery.

Handbill produced after the finding of bribery against the Miles camp, and showing both John William Miles and his elder brother Philip William Skinner Miles, both of Kings Weston house.

The election was not re-run, instead it was held back for the November General election. There was considerable ill feeling in all camps following the incident and, perhaps foolishly, Miles was fielded as the Conservative candidate again. This time the opposition had a cause and were vociferous in their condemnation of Miles. Numerous damning and sensationalist handbills were published, and the bitterness boiled over into violence and vandalism with damage to property. Unsurprisingly Miles’s vote collapsed and both candidates fielded by the Liberal Party came in ahead of him.

John Miles’ face superimposed on the colt of bribery in one of the most undignified of handbills against his election.

It was a sad end to the political ambitions of the Miles family who had previously been popular and well regarded representatives of their city. The actions of the party agents brought shame on the Miles family and on Kings Weston. John’s two months were the last time any resident of Kings Weston house represented Bristol in the House of Commons. John Miles returned to improving the agricultural progress of the Kings Weston estate, and died at Penpole House ten years later. He never married.

Something came to notice just recently that raises a few questions. A map of Bristol, an early production by the Ordnance Survey in 1826, has suggested a previously unknown garden feature in Penpole Wood. Looking closely at the detail it suggests that there may have been a pond in the area called Jubilee Clearing between Penpole Point and the cricket pitch.

Ordnance survey map of 1826 showing the whole of the Kings Weston Parkland Other maps and plans of the estate from similar dates show nothing in the area, lack detail, or are unreliable in what they show. That there is clearly an, albeit tiny, blue dot in the woods of such a highly detailed survey is strongly suggestive that such a water feature existed, though nothing can be seen above ground today.

Detail of the 1826 map showing the possible pond feature hidden in the woods.

Edward Southwell, 21st Baron de Clifford

The area still retains a number of unusual specimen pine trees, unusual species only recently introduced to the country in the Nineteenth Century. Along with a glade with a water feature they might have made an attractive garden. In 1826 Kings Weston was owned by Edward Southwell IV, the 21st Baron de Clifford. One contemporary wrote of him:

“The great enjoyments of Lord de Clifford when at home was planting shrubs and trees. Many thousands were planted under his directions. I can picture him now as I often saw him, a little insignificant man riding on a very quiet horse followed by John Webb, his favourite groom, to superintend operations.”

It is possibly him responsible for laying out whatever garden might have formerly been in this area. We hope to be able to inspect the map, currently in the British library, to look closer at the detail and hopefully come up with some answers in the future.