New additions to the park’s history

We’re always on the lookout for new historic material relating to the Kings Weston estate. If you have anything you can share with us, photos, memories or artefacts, we’d love to hear from you

This month several items have come to our attention. Above you’ll see an idyllic photograph of Shirehampton Park looking in the direction of Sea Mills in about 1880. The grove of pines was a popular spot for artists at this time, but the trees were probably planted much earlier, by Sir Robert Southwell in the late Seventeenth Century. They are a constant feature of Shirehampton Park through the 1720 and 1772 estate surveys and successive owners must have replenished and maintained the small plantation. This picturesque view shows the wooden fence that was erected to protect the public from the recently opened railway line that had been threaded through the park, along the banks of the Avon, in 1875.

Sadly this viewpoint and most of the pines were lost in in the 1920s when the Portway cut through this exact location.

We hope that someone out there can help with another discovery. We’ve acquired the scout badge illustrated here, but we are having difficulty in tracking down its history. Emblazoned with a crown (possibly symbolic of the “King” in Kings Weston?),  a pole, and the words ‘Penpole District’ we believe it relates to the Bristol District Scout camp that was based in Penpole Woods between 1937 and 1947. During this time Penpole Lodge became the gateway into the camp site and was used by the older Ranger Scouts as their HQ. 

A second image here shows the detail of a wartime photo posed in front of the gates of the now-ruined lodge and shows the plaques the Scouts attached to them. Is this the same logo as the badge we’ve acquired, was there a later Penpole District Scout Group, or is there no connection with the estate at all? We hope that someone out there might know and we hope that any former Scouts that remember their time at the Penpole camp might be able to help us.