The New Year brings with it the tenth anniversary of the Kings Weston Action Group. This is a good moment to look back and reflect on our achievements, especially when there is so little else to be able to report during this bleak month. In 2011 David Martyn and Tim Denning realised a mutual passion for Kings Weston, began researching its history, and realised the perilous state of the important landscaped parkland. Fortunately that passion was soon shaded by hundreds of people across the country who became our supporters and from the local community who wanted to help conserve the estate.   

It’s not until we sat down to review exactly what we had been doing over the last decade that the startling scale of volunteer efforts became clear. Some of the figures speak for themselves. Where in 2011 there were just two benches on the whole 300 acre estate, there are now 17; a single litter bin is now four and have had a big impact on litter and dog waste; working parties have covered literally acres of land. Volunteers have valiantly removed 7.7 acres of invasive cherry laurel, and a colossal 11.3 acres of woodland has been managed through natural spacing. 2.3 acres of scrub and bramble encroachment have been pushed back including around the ancient lime avenue, the slopes around Shirehampton Park, and the Circle where a fields of daffodils is now the crowning achievement of the clearances. This map charts many of our volunteer’s achievements.

Since 2014 all of our work has been governed by a Conservation Management plan published by the City Council with input from the interested parties around the estate. This is our road map for the future preservation of the historic landscape. Over the next few months we’ll take a look at some of our achievements under the umbrella of KWAG’s mission to “conserve, enhance, and celebrate the historic estate.  

Part I: To conserve…

Conservation is core to KWAG’s role, of both the historic and natural environment. Conservation as we think about it here is about managing what we already have , and ensure the future preservation of the estate for everyone to enjoy. This work seeks to reveal the historic value of the estate whilst ensuring the health of its woods, grasslands and other habitats. It was recognised at a very early stage that the condition of the  estate had declined badly since WWII with features lost, and the landscape neglected and overgrown. We established the action group to literally take action to help reverse that decline. When we were setting out a few of us began informally clearing areas around the ancient lime avenue, pushing back brambles and felling self-seeded saplings that had been encroaching on the it. For several Saturdays in 2011 this work attracted a good deal of interest and helped us raise the profile of the embryonic group.

Many of our projects have revolved around woodland management, and in fact it was with natural spacing along the Echo path that we began with our first official volunteer event in January 2012. We’re delighted that some of our volunteers for that first Working Party are still regularly attending today! This work removed hundreds of saplings that threatened to inundate the wood and challenge the more established trees. The event set the model for all subsequent working parties. These have continued every month with little interruption since then until the advent of Coronavirus. Even so we’ve clocked up  around 100 working parties with an estimated four-and-a-half thousand man-hours of work undertaken!

We don’t have space here to detail all of our working party projects over the years, but it’s worth noting some of our major projects. We like to set clear goals for working parties and projects can be planned to last several months at a time. Naturally we love to record everything we do with our popular before-and-after photos. There have become a unique record of the decade’s achievements.

Later in 2012 we set ourselves the task of clearing the Georgian viewing terrace behind the Echo. Before we started work the views from it were blocked be an impenetrable hedge of undergrowth and the terrace wall itself invisible from outside. Over several months we gradually cleared both sides to reveal the spectacular views once again which, we’re glad to say, are still a highlight of the park. We were glad to have been supported by Bristol Parks who came along behind us to clear the larger trees that were threatening the stability of the wall. It was the success of the clearance that led us to seek national Listed building designation for the terrace as an important feature of the landscape design. Work continued nearby to open up the copses below the terrace to reveal the expanses of daffodils that are such a feature of the slopes here.

Conservation work hasn’t been restricted to tree felling and underbrush. In 2013 we attacked the derelict tennis court alongside Shirehampton Road. This had been abandoned for decades before and had become unsightly and dangerous. Again over several months we pulled down the steel fence and trimmed out the undergrowth that had pushed its way through the tarmac. The impact was striking and our efforts were followed up by the Council who have begun re-naturalising the area back into the important grassland around it. The “shop window” for the estate has been much improved by this removal, especially on approaching the estate from Shirehampton.

After much lobbying of the council 2013 was also the year that the brambles engulfing the meadow below Kings Weston house were finally removed.

Our first experience with cherry laurels saw us return to the Echo Walk in 2014. From memory this may have been some of our most challenging work to date, with huge and tangled masses of choking undergrowth that had starved the native woodland of light and nutrients. The ambition here was to both rid the woodland of the invasive plant and to open up the route of the Georgian pleasure walk as a more accessible path between Echo and house. By now we had a good idea of how amazing our working party volunteers were, and quite how much our team could achieve in relatively short time and the whole area was tackled in just four months events. The Council Parks team never fail to be amazed at how much KWAG volunteers can do, and were happy to follow behind us poisoning the stumps we’d left.  

Our next major project christened Lifting the Curtain was the biggest we’d taken on at that point. Our goal was to clear undergrowth along the entire length of the South Walk and to open up views towards Kings Weston house from this important section of the main walking circuit. The walk had in places become a green tunnel through the undergrowth. Seeing the opportunity of visually reconnecting the path and house we felled self-seeded saplings, brambles, and undergrowth, seeking to restore lost prospects. In the process we discovered another planted line of mature trees that had been planted as part of the landscape design and a set of WWII concrete steps which, once restored, form an important and well used part of the walking routes through the park. Work close to the steps also uncovered some historic finds from the same period which are now part of KWAG’s collections.  Most of 2015 was taken up with the South Walk project, but we returned again a couple of years later to open up sections of the southern side of the walk, looking over Shirehampton Park. This work too restored some fine views to the park.

Conservation work has sought to reveal and celebrate some of the better and less well known monuments of the estate. We’ve been particularly keen to save the glasshouse wall in the walled gardens. At 54ft long it was once one of the largest in the country when it was erected in 1763, but is now reduced to a short section of wall behind the old stables. To coincide with the pubic opening of the gardens around Kingsweston School in 2016 we undertook to open up the historic glasshouse structure that had once housed some of the finest exotic specimens in Europe. Undergrowth was removed from the wall, and saplings that threatened its stability and survival pushed back. Whilst our work over two months has improved the condition of the structure this remains a feature in dire need of conservation. A couple of months later we also opened up views to the Grade I Listed Loggia from the parkland below.

Cherry laurel occupied us for months afterwards, and much of our time into 2020. We were working with the Council on Forestry Commission sponsored work to improve the health of the native woodland by removing the invader and opening the forest floor for natives to thrive. The dark overcrowded and impenetrable laurel thickets have been a startling contrast to the open woodland that we’ve managed to reveal. This laborious task took us from The Circle, right through the woodland almost as far as Penpole Point. In the process we revealed the woodland avenues, majestic specimen trees, parts of the Victorian pinetum around Jubilee Clearing, and a long path lined with oaks and yews, probably part of the Nineteenth Century landscaping of the woodland. To learn that almost eight acres of laurel has now been felled is simultaneously surprising for its extent, but unsurprising for the effort it took to fell, but there remains much more to deal with.  The removal of laurel has been controversial for the sudden change in appearance, but has been essential to protect the biodiversity of the ancient woodland and we’ve sought to offset the impact by planting hundreds of natives in their place, but more of that when we celebrate the enhancement of the estate in next month’s newsletter.    

As ever thanks has to go to everyone who has come out to help  our working parties, past and present, and we hope to see everyone again in the not too distant future.   

If you’re eager to hear more about our first ten years you might be interested in watching this recent talk given to Stoke Bishop Local History Group: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vR3u1oDpVf4&feature=youtu.be

The Miles family, who lived at Kings Weston for most of the 19^th Century, were famously private, and the public were kept well away from the house, behind the parkland boundary.  Photos of Kings Weston are, therefore, surprisingly rare for such an important historic building, especially from before the 20^th Century. We’ve recently uncovered what’s considered to be the earliest photograph of the house, which we reproduce here. The scene seems little changed from today, looking across the lawns towards the building, with the evergreen border sheltering the garden front from the excesses of the wind, and as such it’s difficult to date. All we have to go on is the small size of the card, a “carte de visite”, and the name of the photographer, Maurice Batiste.

Batiste was a Frenchman who arrived in Bath in about 1871 where he set up business in Bladud’s Buildings. His career is little documented but for several court records where his temperamental mood appears to have got him into trouble on several occasions. By 1881 he’d moved on again, so we can be fairly certain his Kings Weston photo dates to the 1870s and, but the quality of the card, probably the earlier part of that decade.

The British Library has recently published a vast catalogue of topographical drawings and plans from the collections of George III. It’s probably unsurprising that amongst the collection there’s something of the famous Kings Weston estate represented. Of particular interest is a high quality copy of a notable estate plan of 1720. Bristol Archives also holds copies of this plan, but this is the first time one has been more publically available.

Although not identified by the British Library the tiny signature of W. Hallett appears in reverse in the cartouche, so we can attribute it to this otherwise unknown engraver. The 1720 plan is the first known measured survey of the estate, and shows in detail the house and parkland, immediately before Sir John Vanbrugh began erecting new garden buildings at The Echo, and rebuilt Penpole Lodge. The detail of the gardens, courtyards, radiating avenues, and formal layout of walks through Penpole Wood have been fundamental in understanding the landscaped grounds of the park during the early Georgian era, and the context of Vanbrugh’s Baroque house, before it was de-formalised later the same century.

It seems an age ago now, back in October, when we ran our Big Bulb Plant. Despite the constraints of working within the restrictions of the Global Pandemic we managed to orchestrate an event that gave opportunities for local families and regular volunteers to help plant 6000 daffodil bulbs along the ancient Lime Avenue. We had to be careful in not ordering too many bulbs, and limiting our expectations, but the turnout was good and we were forced to let some of our regular volunteers go by lunchtime, in order that there were enough bulbs left for the remaining booked families. Sorry to anyone who had to head home earlier than planned, but your hard work in the morning was gratefully received!

The area was set up with social distancing measures in place, and fenced areas for small parties to work within, and this worked effectively during the day. With the help of lots of kids and parents we have successfully filled the whole of the area. We also have to thank everyone who kindly, and generously donated to KWAG to support the project, and also to the Co-Op who have matched volunteer donations with a grant.  

Naturally we won’t know how successful we’ve been until next Spring, but we anticipate that the new area will complement that planted in 2019 around the Circle. Keep your eyes peeled for bulbs showing their heads, maybe as early as January!  

A frequent query we receive asks what are the big stones littered along the Lime Avenue and the Circle? Following our recent clearance along parts of the avenue some of these blocks have become far more prominent, and October’s Big Bulb Plant will need to take place amongst them. The blocks are huge, massive lumps of white stone that are so large they have managed to remain largely unmolested for, as far as we can tell, their entire time at Kings Weston.

Their story is unusual, and unanswered questions remain about them, but what we do know is that they are the original parapet stones of the Georgian Bristol Bridge. The once-famous medieval bridge across the Avon was replaced by a smart new one that opened in 1768. Designed by the appropriately named architect James Bridges it followed similar designs for Blackfriars Bridge being built across the Thames at the same time, and shared the same high quality Portland stone quarried from the Isle of Purbeck.

The bridge served Bristol well for just short of a century, but an increase in traffic during the Nineteenth Century required the old bridge to be modified and widened. The old parapets and balustrade were dismantled in 1864 and, for some reason, caught the eye of Philip William Skinner Miles of Kings Weston House. Members of the Miles family were senior partners in a bank on Corn Street, not far from the crossing, so the work may have caught his attention and some plan come to his mind for how to recycle the stonework on his estate.

The stonework was duly dismantled and carefully transported to Kings Weston, where it appears to have been laid out along the length of the Lime Avenue and around the Circle. Miles’s acquisition is recorded in a drawing of the old bridge in Bristol Record Office with a pencil note explaining when it was moved, but, sadly, no explanation at all for what was planned for it.

Many of the stones in the parkland today are still identifiable, with mouldings, and features recognisable from James Bridges original drawings. Some are from the base course of the balustrade, some the piers, and others the copings. Some retain the square mortice holes into which the decorative balusters would have fitted, and others have a carved channels and sockets where wrought iron chain bars were intended to strengthen the structure.

The next mention of the stones doesn’t come for another century, in January 1946, after the last of the Miles family had died, and when a notice is posted in the Western Daily Press advertising “Sundial or birdbath pedestals of historic interest. Limited number of stone balusters from parapet of old Bristol Bridge. £3 3s each – apply foreman, Kingsweston Estate yard, Kingsweston”. The advert must have piqued the interest of a journalist at the paper as, six days later, a short article appeared saying that a phone message had been received from Kings Weston house stating that all of the ornamental carved balusters had since been sold, “The balusters, by the by, came to light when a workman on the Kingsweston Estate was digging for a new place for his runner beans. How thy came to be buried no one can say”. None survives in the former estate yard behind the old stables on Napier Miles Road.

Sadly the balusters and the balustrade will never now be reunited, and only the most immovable masonry survives on the estate as a constant curiosity. Perhaps there’s some local garden still adorned by an errant balustrade stone propping up a birdbath?

A recent local auction brought some artefacts with a Kings Weston connection to our attention. As many people will know the present Kings Weston house was preceded by an older mansion, one swept away in 1711 ahead of reconstruction to the designs of Sir John Vanbrugh starting the following year. This earlier house appears to have been built by Sir William Wyntour.

Queen Elizabeth I appointed Sir William Vice-Admiral of England, the second most powerful position in the Royal Navy, and was succeeded in that position by Sir Francis Drake. Sir William was knighted by the Queen in 1573 and was pivotal in the repelling of the Spanish Armada in 1588. In 1561 William had purchased the manor of Lydney in Gloucestershire, on the north side of the Severn, and rebuilt the house there. He accumulated other Gloucestershire lands, and in 1570 bought the Kings Weston estate; As at Lydney it’s likely that he erected a grand new mansion here shortly afterwards. The recently rediscovered artifacts appear to be fragments of that house.   

Eight decorated stone fragments make up the collection of stonework. Several can be identified as parts of decorative fireplace surrounds, one is a section of a mullion window, and there are a pair of carved stone heads. Two portions of stone have been reconstructed into a tall heraldic lion, though now heavily defaced. The lion retains an odd lead insert that might have been a lance or banner that it’d once clasped in its paws. The heads are badly weather-beaten and have been exposed to the elements longer than the other fragments, though they are still recognisable as that of two men; one with a beard and one clean shaven.

When the collection came to auction it was described as “reputedly” from Kings Weston, though the circumstances of their discovery have since been established more accurately. The fragments were discovered in a boundary wall, on the “west side of Kingsweston Hill” by local amateur antiquarian Antony Scammel. Scammel was a well-known collector of historic artefacts and coins, and recorded the find in writing on the back of a print showing the old house that also formed part of the auction lot. He recovered the stones in 1967, but aside from the rough identification of the find spot we are still unsure of the exact location.

What we can tell from the stones is their rough date, from the style of the designs, and that they were deliberately broken up to use as building stone. Stylistically they accord with having been part of Sir William’s Tudor mansion, and the quality of the design and execution shows that they were from a high status building. Certainly a heraldic lion gate finial or roof ornament would most likely be found on a house of Kings Weston’s size and quality rather than a smaller house in the same vicinity. We must take Mr Scammel’s assessment that the wall in which they were found was Eighteenth Century on face value, but this would tie in well with the documented demolition date of the old building. Mr Scammel’s attribution of the sculpted heads as Sir William Wyntour and his son can be less certain.

A major new addition has been made to our website recently. You can now browse a collection of over 100 historic postcard images from across the Kings Weston estate.

In the early decades of the Twentieth Century postcards could be sent between towns in a matter of hours, with several deliveries a day; they were the text messages of their era. The collection dates mainly to the years before the First World War, before the telephone became the quickest way to communicate. The picturesque Kings Weston estate offered photographers great opportunities for to produce popular views for cards, and they seized on Penpole Point, the Iron Bridge, and the lily pond for their chocolate-box qualities. After the First World War postcards began a slow decline. Amongst the collection are a few representing the inter-war period, but only a couple from after WWII.

Views around Kings Weston house itself are relatively rare. It may have been the retiring character of Philip Napier Miles that saw him reluctant to see his home recorded in popular postcards. But a significant number that do record the house stem from the period it was used as an auxiliary Hospital during the Great War; perhaps the cards were sold in aid of Red Cross charities that Miles keenly supported. These were published by S E Robinson who ran the Post Office in Shirehampton and record many of the wounded servicemen who were sent to Kings Weston to recuperate. 

S E Robinson is again well represented amongst cards of Penpole Point that appear to have been a keen obsession of postcard photographers, with the spectacular views across the Severn of particular note. Sadly these views have gone; along with nearby Penpole Lodge that’s another frequent feature of cards. Spectacular views also attracted photographers to the southern part of the estate, on Shirehampton Park, where the impressive panoramas above horseshoe bend were a popular retreat for locals. As unlikely as it sounds the driving of the Portway through the same pastoral scene didn’t diminish its interest for postcard views. Perhaps it was the marvelous feat engineering that attracted purchasers of these views, many of which feature the new carriageway as much as the views beyond it. 

These postcards are an important visual and social record of the times. Many have been written and sent, and occasionally you will find interesting snippets about the estate. One written from Kings Weston house and sent in 1906 is from an unnamed young lady who wrote “This is just a view of the house, but I am living at my mother’s. I have exactly the same work to do here as I did at the Castle, the housework. Instead of this I wish myself at home. Tell Jack I wish I never saw the place.”

You can look at the whole collection one the website at:  https://www.kwag.org.uk/gallery/historic-images-2/postcards-from-kings-weston/

Last month we shared some photos and memories of David Pickering whose uncle, Fred Whapshare. Since then David has very generously donated a number of historic items with Kings Weston connections to KWAG.

Central to the small collection is a beautiful box veneered in beautiful Coromandel wood, with robust but elegant brass edges and handles. During the reign of Queen Victoria, Coromandel was considered one of the most exotic, luxurious and expensive woods to work with and it was the veneer of choice for some of the finest boxes. It’s of little surprise that such a fine wood was selected for use on a possession of the Miles family who lived at Kings Weston between 1834 and 1935. In the top a rebated brass plaque has the initials HCWM joins the arm-and-anchor arms of the family; from this we can attribute the box’s ownership of Henry Cruger Miles, widely known as Cruger.

He lived with his brother, Philip William Skinner Miles, at Kings Weston for much of his life. He never married, but was a highly regarded in Bristol, being High Sheriff of the City, a Master of the Merchant Ventures, and the principle supporter of the rebuilding of the Cathedral nave. On his death in 1888 he bequeathed all his possessions to the only heir, his nephew Philip Napier Miles, amongst which we assume was this case.

It’s designed as a travelling case, with handles, a robust but elegant exterior, and an interior fitted out with compartments, a silk lining, and a detachable mirror. Some of the original contents are happily still contained. A cut-throat razor and a silver travelling shaving brush are, sadly, the only survivors, but enough to be able to date the box to 1874 from the hallmarks.

Now housed in the box are a partial set of gilt livery buttons carrying the Miles family arms. These, Mr Pickering tells us, were dug from the garden of a cottage on Kings Weston Lane that his Uncle and Aunt lived in until after WWII. Perhaps they were stripped from an old uniform and discarded when new clothes were procured.

Another item with a direct Kings Weston connection is an engraved copper printing plate. On this, written backwards, is an invite to dinner with Mr and Mrs Napier Miles at Kings Weston, with the details of the invitee and time to be filled in by hand when the plate was used to print invitations. It must date to after Napier Miles married in 1899 and his death in 1935, but it’s not possible to narrow down dates further.  

The last item is a more palpable link to My Pickering’s own family connection. A pair of secateurs was owned by his uncle in his role as head gardener at Kings Weston. We shared a photo of Fred Whapshare in our last newsletter and the garden tool was his, and shared with Napier Miles when the latter borrowed them, on occasion taking them to use at his Italian villa at Allassio. 

We’re incredibly grateful to Mr Pickering for the kind gift of these items, that will now form part of our growing collection of books, images, and artefacts with Kings Weston connections.      

We were contacted recently by David Pickering who has a family connecting to Kings Weston and still lives nearby. He’s kindly send us some historic images to publish in our newsletter and we’re grateful to him for adding to our understanding of the estate’s history.

One of the photos is of his uncle Fred Whapshare posed, probably in the 1920s, in front of the stone gate-piers at the back of the house, one of which still stands. Mr Pickering writes that his uncle “ worked on the estate most of his life, as a gardener ,being born in about 1893. His wife worked as a housemaid there, and they were left in charge as custodians when the house was closed up before the old lady (Sybil, Philip Napier Miles’ wife) moved to the House in the Garden. They eventually bought the attached-row of Hawksmoor cottages in the lane, before one day selling up and building the bungalow ‘Wingrove’ in some of their garden.”

He continues “My uncle carried on as gardener when Mrs Miles moved to the House in the Garden, and I have fond memories of being taken round the place as a child, being given my first-ever peach from a hot-house wall. Really I have always felt that the estate was part of my own background. My Aunt and Uncle were devoted to the place, and worked there most of their lives. Some entertaining stories of staff parties, with exuberant footmen!”

When, in 1937, the contents of the house were auctioned, after the death of Philip Napier Miles, Mrs Whapshare bought a few keepsakes. These included some paintings and etchings of Italy done by the Miles’s brother in law, the artist Robert Goff. Goff regularly joined the Miles’s at their villa on the Italian coast and they shared a love of the country. Also amongst Goff’s works Mrs Whapshare bought was this painting of Kings Weston, dated 5th September 1911, and looking across Shirehampton Park. The haystacks in the middle distance are at the bottom of Longcombe, now on the golf course, and the present location of a utilitarian steel shed, but the focus of the painting appears to be the twisted red pine tree, a feature that appears in many of Goff’s other works.