Just released: Our working party dates have now been set for 2016. We will be starting the year with continued work supporting the Council’s Forestry Commission grant works in Penpole Wood. Please get in touch if you, or someone you know would like to get involved. More details can be found here
Many of you will recall there have been a number of occasions over the last two years when travellers have moved into and camped in the park. This has partly been due to the poor condition of the current set of wooden bollards. Although a number of these have been replaced in Shirehampton Road car park the estate is still vulnerable.
Bristol parks have proposed replacing sections of bollards with low earth banks to prevent vehicles gaining access to the park and improve the appearance of this prominent area. The proposals would see the mismatched timber posts and a couple of boulders removed and banks constructed no higher that 3ft and sown with grass seed to blend-in better with their surroundings. Access to the principal paths would be maintained with openings in the banks, and drop-bollards to allow for maintenance vehicles. There may be additional benefit in the removal of the regrowth of scrub on the former tennis court nearby, and the capping of the tarmac court surface with topsoil; also to be resown with grass.
The principles are already supported by the Avon Gardens Trust, but to engage with the council and make sure any of our concerns are addressed, KWAG has drawn a set of plans for discussion and agreement. With the support of Parks we are sharing them here to get your thoughts as well and to try and make sure everyone is comfortable with this development. We hope that these changes will enhance the appearance of this side of the park as well as improving security.
Please let us know your opinions, whether you support the idea or have any concerns, and we can discuss these with council officers. We will collate any feedback we get, but please don’t be alarmed if you see part of a bank being constructed any time soon; this is just a trial section to see how it will look and how it will perform. If you could get in touch before Christmas with any comments, the sooner the better, we can amend plans to discuss with Parks. If the proposals go ahead then they hope to begin work early in 2016.
A full set of plans can be downloaded as PDF here:
https://gallery.mailchimp.com/d6754e0d3b18e9a31be2d62e5/files/earth_bank_proposals.pdf
Follow this link to read a full copy of this month’s newsletter.
On Thursday 5th November we received the bad news that a lorry had hit and badly damaged the Iron Bridge over Kings Weston Road, close to the old inn. We’re grateful to Bob Pitchford for having taken these photos showing the damage, and although it’s less serious than it could have been, it’s now in a serious condition.
As a Grade II Listed structure the bridge is protected from removal. It was built by the engineer John Loudon McAdam (from whom tarmac derives its name) and installed as part of his road improvements for the Bristol Turnpike Trust. The cutting where the road now runs was dug through the hill to avoid the steep gradient, and the bridge installed to ensure that visitors were still able to cross from the historic inn into the landscaped parkland. McAdam wrote of it that he was “Lowering Hill and building walls at Kingsweston Hill” in 1821, and the bridge dates to these works – making it a venerable 194 years old.
Damage appears to be limited to the north side where two arched spandrel sections of cast iron support, but an inspection of the bridge was being made on Friday to ascertain the extent of the damage. Cast iron is not an easy material to repair and new sections are likely to require casting. Bristol City Council quickly committed to repair the structure in a press release stating : “We will do everything we can to restore this historical bridge and to reopen the road as soon as possible.
In the meantime the bridge is closed to pedestrians, though we understand the road below has since reopened. The Council are exploring alternative arrangements for walkers, and hopefully we’ll be able to report more on the situation soon.
A full copy of the Council statement can be read here.
In the meantime we have come up with a short diversion. It’s far from ideal, but will get you between the Home Park and Kingsweston Hill, but PLEASE take extreme care when crossing the road at the location marked.
Saturday saw us return with our Big Bulb Plant and we planted over 7000 bulbs around the estate. 4000 bluebell bulbs were planted around the concrete steps beside the South Walk, with the remainder of daffodils planted between the boulders along Shirehampton Road, and natives along the wood-line above.Hopefully next spring will bring the rewards for our efforts.
Thanks to Bob Pitchford for providing us with photos of the event. 
We’ve had many people coming up to us recalling old horse-drawn carriages stored at Kings Weston shortly after the Second World War. It’s been a bit of a puzzle as to what they were, and what happened to them, but this week the story came into sharp focus. A new on-line interface for the collections of Bristol Museum and Art Gallery Provided the answer.
While searching for Kings Weston related items an entry appeared for one of a collection of carriages in the City’s ownership. This was an early Nineteenth Century carriage used by the Duke of Beaufort of Badminton. During the war it had been on display in the rear atrium of the museum when, in 1941, a bomb detonated on the roof, completely destroying a biplane hung from the ceiling, and badly damaging the carriages. They were speedily removed to Kings Weston estate buildings for safe storage for the remainder of the war, where they must have stayed into the early 1950s when people recall seeing them. They reputedly received more damage from damp through the leaky roofs of the stables than they did in the initial blast!
After the success of last two years Big Bulb Plant we are running it again this year, but with THOUSANDS MORE BULBS! The Big Bulb plant is a free, family-friendly event where you can get involved in one of our easier going working party events. The event is completely free with all the native wild flower bulbs provided!
This year we have a great mix of natives all ready to be slipped in the ground in areas around the Echo and down the South Walk. The event will run on Saturday 10th October, between 10:30am and 3:30pm and we’d love to see you there. Please bring a spade if you have one, but gloves and some tools will be provided.
Kings Weston House will be open to the public for Free on Sunday 13th September 10am-4pm. As part of the Doors Open Day weekend.
People will have an opportunity to visit other venues on the main day, the Saturday, before taking a more leisurely time around Kings Weston House and grounds on the Sunday. As always the cafe will be open, and KWAG will be hosting our regular exhibition and tours. It will be a great chance to learn more about the history of Kings Weston and see how the restoration of the house has progressed. We will also reprise our popular art exhibition and sale after last years success; this will be held jointly to raise funds for KWAG and local Twyford House Art Group. Some of our recent discoveries will be on view too!
If you are able to help out and help supervise the exhibition we would really welcome the assistance from anyone. You needn’t know everything about the park, or KWAG, but it is a great opportunity to meet everyone and get involved. Please email us or phone 07811 666671 if you can spare any time on the 13th to help us.
Catch up with everything that’s happening on the Kings Weston Estate by taking a look at September’s news update
A series of fascinating discoveries have come to light in recent weeks
Surprisingly it’s the more recent history of Kings Weston that we have less historical evidence for than earlier periods. A lack of original material is a particular problem when researching the Second World War at Kings Weston when necessary secrecy meant that fewer records were kept. We know that it played and extremely active role during the war with two army camps; one on the Shirehampton Park Golf Course and one on Penpole Lane. These were “Camp Seamills” A and B respectively and mainly housed regiments of Black US Army soldiers that formed the Port Companies used to unload war supplies and arms arriving in Avonmouth.
We’re less clear about how Kings Weston house and the surrounding area of the Home Park operated during the War. From contemporary aerial photos, and from the remaining concrete bases, we know that there were several dozen barrack huts built along the South Walk and as far as the Echo, but we’ve yet to establish who they were used by.
Our recent work clearing the area below the South Walk has uncovered a lot of the ruins of the former army camp, but last month we uncovered some interesting artefacts from the area. Close to where the newly-revealed concrete steps descend towards the house there is a very large concrete slab base from a building much larger than the other barrack blocks. It was close-by that we found a rubbish dump with a lot of contemporary finds amongst a lot of tipped ash. You can see where we found it using this link to the Know Your Place website.
Most interesting was probably this well-preserved enamel sign. Further research has shown that this came from the inside lid of a wooden crate used to store “A W Bombs”. These ‘bombs’ – actually incendiary grenades – were produced in large numbers from 1940 onwards and were issued to the Home Guard in the event of German invasion – a real threat at that point in the war. Fortunately we didn’t find any of the glass flasks that contained the white phosphorous that would still have been dangerous today!
Also uncovered were the shards of a very large mug with the printed date 1942 on the base – could this have been from a nearby N.A.A.F.I canteen? Amongst other artefacts was a 1940s Brylcreem bottle; an evocative reminder that men lived and slept in the huts scattered about the estate.
This month seems to have had a WWII theme running through it as we also acquired two period photographs that we are hoping people might be able to help with. The setting for both is clearly on the front steps of Kings Weston House. The front windows have been boarded over as protection against bomb damage for the paintings still in place in the Saloon beyond it. In front are posed British servicemen and women from a wide variety of regiments. One photo shows just the officers, and the other, shown below, shows a wider group of staff. The only clue we have to the event, or organisation represented here is the pencil note on the back of the photographs “Capt’ Myles”.
We’d be really interested to know more about this photo and if you can add anything please let us know. Can you find out who Myles was, what does this group of people represent, or do you even recognise anyone? Please let us know if you can help us. A much larger version of the photos can be found on our website here.
