recursal/Fanatic-Fandom huggingface dataset:
Dr William Budd

Physician who was horrified at the insanitary hovels of Bristol's poorer districts and fought hard for improved health measures, he suceeded in changing public opinion, and as Director of Bristol Waterworks Company, helped to introduce purer water to the city. When the 1866 cholera epidemic reached Bristol, death statistics showed that he had largely won the fight for improved health.
Williams & Anderson

*A selection of Andersons' tools and products are on display in the Wood section of the 'What Makes Bristol, and What Bristol Makes' case in the People Gallery.*

Williams & Anderson were well established wood carvers that started in the ship-carving tradition. They also went under the names J. R. Anderson (1889 - 1900) and Arthur Ernest Anderson (1919) (UoG, 2011)

Arthur Anderson was the son of John Anderson of 3 Commercial Row, Hotwells, finest of the woodcarvers who made figureheads for the sailing ships that once filled Bristol Harbour. The Andersons' uncles, the Williams brothers, had carved figureheads for most of the wooden ships built in Bristol during the 1840s and 50s, including the figurehead for the s.s. Demerara.

By the time Arthur joined the business, the market for ships figureheads was nearly dead so he turned to carving fairground carousel figures instead. He turned out dozens of superb animals for fairs all over Britain until the business closed in 1936, and it is said that English fairground horse also died at this point.

On July 28, 1936 the estate of Arthur Anderson was sold at auction by a local company William Cowlin and Son, Princess Victoria Street, Clifton.

According to the National Fairground Archive:

"Their carved Galloper mounts were known for the burgeoning scrollwork under the animal's belly, complete with Italianate grotesque grins upon its flanks and a flying ribbon frozen onto the neck, lettered with name of a famous horse or friend. Later worked transmogrified even further, with animals heads carved into the body work creating a dream-like, surreal effect similar to the uncomfortable prose and jarring effects written by Lautreamont who twists the rules of nature to create fanciful cross-breeds and representations" (Cameron, 2009).

The photograph shows the final location of the workshop at Rownham Place, which was on the junction of Hotwell Road with the Cumberland Basin.

## Locations

Located at Gas House Road Hotwell Road Bristol
1870

Located at Limekiln Dock Passage Canon's Marsh Bristol
1889

Located at Hotwell Road Bristol
1900

Located at Rownham Place Hotwell Road Bristol
1919
DJ Derek

This person is on display in the Contributing Wrap in the People Gallery

(1941 - )

Born
Derek Morrison, DJ Derek got into music in the 1950s as a washboard player in a
skiffle group before taking up the drums. He didn't like the "wishy-washy
rock 'n' roll" of the fifties, so turned to the R&B sounds coming out
of America.  He was on the brink of
becoming a professional drummer with the Ramrods, a rock ‘n’ roll group, but
instead became an accountant at Cadbury's chocolate factory, until he decided
to become a DJ.

The Bamboo Club was where Derek first heard Desmond Dekker, Toots & The Maytals and early Bob Marley for the first time.

Derek started his music career at the ‘Star and Garter’ in 1977, from where his
reputation steadily grew. In 2013, he was awarded a local OBE, that is, an ‘Outstanding
Bristolian Entertainer’ award at the Harbourside festival. Derek played his
last show on New Year’s Eve 2013 in Notting Hill Arts Club aged 72.

In addition to having an encyclopedic knowledge of
reggae, soul, rocksteady and dancehall, Derek is a notable fan of real ale and has
allegedly visited every single Wetherspoons pub in the UK.

In 2006, He released the album ‘DJ Derek Presents…Sweet
Memory Sounds’, a compilation of some of his favourite songs. He has also
featured in Dizzee Rascal's music video ‘Dirtee Disco’ playing himself as a DJ
in a disco hall.
Henbury

'Henbury' was built in 1937 by Thomas Peckett & Sons in Speedwell, Bristol.

This engine was part of a large fleet of steam locomotives working at the docks at Avonmouth. The port's locomotive crews kept her in good working order until diesel engines took over in the early 1960s.

Henbury is now retired from duty, but has been restored and now gives visitors the chance to ride on Britain's only dockside steam railway. You can see Henbury in the Engine Shed via a viewing window in the West Foyer of M Shed, (near the café) when not in use.
The White City

*‘It aims at being a great object-lesson of Empire and its meaning’ BIE Daily*
 Programme, 1914

Bristol International Exhibition opened in
 May 1914 promising to be ‘.a place of pleasure and delight’, celebrating ‘the
 resourcefulness and progress of Great Britain and her Dominions[KM1] ’.  32 acres in
 Ashton Gate were transformed by palaces and pavilions.  It quickly became known as the ‘White City’
 because of the plaster used on the temporary buildings.

 The ambitious scheme went bankrupt within
 two weeks of opening.  It struggled on
 until the declaration of war.  Soon,
 ‘Shakespeare’s England’ and ‘Bristol Castle’ became barracks for Bristol’s
 ‘Pals Battalion’.
Delivery by Sled

Until the early 1800s, goods were commonly moved around Bristol on horse-drawn sleds, which were used in preference to carts for several reasons. Because sleds were low on the ground, it was easy to roll barrels onto them. In some streets in the centre of the town, wine merchants had cellars just beneath the pavement; the city's authorities felt that heavy-wheeled vehicles might fall through into them or disturb maturing wines with the vibrations of their wheels. In 1651, a local law decreed that if any cart with ironbound wheels was found within the city walls it would have its wheels confiscated. During the 1720s, Daniel Defoe noted that the use of sleds wore down the pavements to such an extent that the surface was potentially lethal. Over time, the sleds became known as "gee-hoes"; the reason for this is unclear, although cart drivers, either to spur on horses or to bring them to a halt, commonly used the words "gee" and "ho". Bristol's sled drivers were notoriously aggressive, frequently running their sleds against the edge of the pavement, injuring pedestrians and street animals as they went. By the early 1800s sleds fell into disuse, unable to match the efficiency of wheeled vehicles and the new four-wheeled carts that were fitted with windlasses to haul up heavy barrels.
Rennison's Baths

Rennison's swimming baths were the first in Bristol.

They were laid out in 1765 by Thomas Rennison near the Stoke's Croft Turnpike (Montpelier) - the site is still called Bath Buildings today.

Rennison was a threadmaker from Birmingham who had come to Bristol with an ambition to set up his own factory although these plans were never realised. As well as a large cold bath and a smaller one for women, there were dressing rooms, a coffee house, a bowling green and tea gardens. Concerts were held there twice a week. The coffee house was later converted in to a tavern called the 'Old England' and still exists. Rennison styled himself as 'Governor of the colony of Newfoundland' and held wild parties knowing that he had nothing to fear from the authorities as the site was outside the city boundary.

After his death in 1792 the property was passed on through a succession of family members until it was sold with the baths themselves eventually being acquired by the Bristol Corporation  for public use in 1892.  The Public Baths and Wash Houses Act of 1846 encouraged local authorities in the UK to provide municipal baths for citizens as part of a drive to improve public health and hygiene. By 1896 they had attracted 33,231 visitors but were closed in 1916 as a cost saving during World War I.

Footnote: The baths are clearly marked on the Know Your Places website, epochs 1855 & 1828 and shown adjacent to the Old E (England) There is now a health centre roughly where the baths used to be. Bath Buildings run down from the Gloucester rd to the area of the Old E.

The famous Gloucestershire and England cricketer WG Grace used to practice in the nets at the Old E. The nets are still in situ ( not the originals obviously). The Doctor as he was known finally made the step up to the national side playing against Australia. Two years later in 1882 WG despite scoring 152 was part of the losing side again against Australia at the Oval. This defeat marked 'The death of English cricket' and the start of the now legendary Ashes test series, this defeat was recorded with a mock obituary in the Sporting Times stating that English cricket had died, and *the body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia*.The mythical ashes immediately became associated with the 1882–83 series played in Australia, before which the English captain Ivo Bligh had vowed to "regain those ashes". The English media therefore dubbed the tour *the quest to regain the Ashes*.

After England had won two of the three Tests on the tour, a small urn was presented to the England Captain Bligh by a group of Melbourne women including Florence Morphy, whom Bligh later married. The contents of the urn are reputed to be the ashes of a wooden bail, and were humorously described as "the ashes of Australian cricket". It is unclear whether that "tiny silver urn" is the same as the small terracotta urn given to the MCC by Bligh's widow after his death in 1927, and held high by the victorious team at the end of each series.
St Peter's sugar house

One of the businesses that Edward Colston inherited from his father in Bristol was a share in the Norton House or St Peter's sugar house.  Robert Aldworth, to whom Colston's father was apprenticed, had established the first sugar refinery in Bristol in 1612.  Aldworth used sugars from Spain and Portugal, but later records suggest the partners in the business were buying sugar from St Kitts in the Caribbean.  Wherever the sugar came from, it was probably produced by enslaved labour.  This was continuing a family business: his father William and brother Thomas had imported sugars for 20 years from 1661.

The building was built in 1401 as a merchants house for Thomas Norton, a Merchant Prince who shipped goods from Bristol to France, Spain and Portugal. The frontage was over 130ft. It was bought in 1612 by Aldworth, who can be credited for transforming the building into the ornate Jacobean architectural showpiece it became.

In order to build his sugar refinery, Aldworth bought the adjoining properties, which he rebuilt in a simpler style than his house. Aldworth also added a fourth bay to the original three gables, and unified them through decoration.The whole building became known as the Sugar House.

In 1696 the building was taken over by the Corporation for use as a mint. But this was short-lived and closed two years later.

The Corporation then used the building as a workhouse, after the establishment of the Bristol Poor Act (1696). During this time adjoining properties were purchased from William Perm in order to extend the premises. This was to be the buildings' use until the blitz, although from 1832 it was no longer needed, as a large new workhouse had been built in Stapleton. By 1890 the buildings' use had been purely administrative. From 1900 the Register Office occupied the ground floor.

Initially known as the Mint Workhouse, it became known as St. Peter's Hospital. The word hospital is here used in the sense of 'place of refuge' rather than in the medical sense.

The building stood in what is now Castle Park, between St. Peter's Church and the River Avon. On 24 November 1940 the whole area was devastated by the German Luftwaffe and the house destroyed completely. This is widely regarded as one of City's greatest architectural losses.

In the galleries we have:

Model of St. Peter's Hospital in the Places Gallery in the Places of Power and Influence display.

Jetty from St. Peter's Hospital (1600s) in the Places Gallery in the Welfare Case.

Margaret Kane describes her experience of the bombing raid of 1940, which destroyed the building, in the Places Gallery in the Places of Conflict display.
Eric Evens and his Bike

This information is on display in the Moving by Bike section of Places Gallery

Amateur geologist and photographer Eric Evens put a lifetime of effort into maintaining and modifying the beloved bike he bought as a boy.

Born in 1893, he explored large swathes of the West country and beyond on his Humber bicycle, taking pictures and collecting dinosaur bones, volcanic rock, fossils and other geological treasures.  Eric extensively modified and lovingly mended the bike throughout its life to meet his needs - reflecting its vital importance as a means of transportation.

His ingenious home-made accessories included canvas protective covers for the lights, a leather mud flap, a wood and canvas satchel and a rack on the handlebars to carry his wet weather gear, which he also made for himself from waxed cotton and canvas - two pairs of leggings, a raincoat and a cape, to keep him dry and warm in the changeable hillside climate.

Eric Evens graduated from University of Bristol with 1st Class honours in Chemistry and was the manager of a colour manufacturer in Keynsham and a lecturer in chemistry at the University. His chief interests were geology, microscopy and photography. The museum has an extensive collection of geological samples he collected and photographs he took as he cycled around Bristol, North Somerset and the Mendips.
Book of Skin

Book of trial notes 1821.  John Horwoods skin was used to bind this book.  The latin inscription on its front cover “Cutis vera Johannis Horwood” which translates as “the actual skin of John Horwood”.

John was convicted of murder when he was 18 years old.  He had thrown a stone at Eliza Balsam when his advances were rejected and she died after an operation on her skull.

This object is on display in Places Gallery in M Shed

FYI: The book is not the only object associated with human skin in Bristol. It is reputed that beneath the layers of paint and varnish on the door to The Hatchet Public House (c1606) on Frogmore Street there is Human skin stretched across the body of the door, and not just one poor souls outer layer! Mike.
Bristol Museum

Bristol Museum and art gallery was built in the early 20th century funded by the Wills family.

The names carved around the upper walls of the Front Hall are of famous artists. Not all of these artists have ever been part of the museums collection but represent the high aspiration of the builders of the museum.

## Anecdotes

-One lady described being outside the museum just after it was hit by an incendiary bomb during the 2nd World War. " I was standing accross the street and I could see the men puling the taxidermied animals out of the museum to save them from the blaze. At one point they pulled a full sized giraffe still smoking form the heat and I started crying because i thought it was a giant toy." I feel that this is an excellent example of how a young child can conceptualize the horrors of war. -JS
"Shipshape and Bristol Fashion "

### Origin

Ship-shape and Bristol fashion' isn't widely used outside the UK and even there less so than in earlier times, so a little background may be in order.

Bristol has been an important English seaport for more than a thousand years. The city is actually several miles from the sea and stands on the estuary of the River Avon. Bristol's habour has one of the most variable tidal flows anywhere in the world and the water level can vary by more than 30 feet between tides. Ships that were moored there were beached at each low tide. Consequently they had to be of sturdy construction and the goods in their holds needed to be securely stowed. The problem was resolved in 1803 with the construction of the Floating Harbour. There's no absolute proof that the term 'Bristol fashion' originates with that geography but the circumstantial evidence seems very strongly in favour of it.

Just as an aside, Bristol has another linguistic claim to fame. In earlier days the town was called Bristowe (or Brigstow). A quirk of the local spoken dialect is to add els to the end of words, hence Bristowe became Bristol. Another nice example of this is the name for the laminate sheeting used on worktops. You might call this Formica; in Bristol it is Formical.

'Ship-shape and Bristol fashion' is actually two phrases merged into one. Ship-shape came first and has been used since the 17th century. It is recorded in Sir Henry Manwayring's *The sea-mans dictionary*, 1644:

"It [the rake] being of no use for the Ship, but only for to make her Ship shapen, as they call it."

Bristol fashion was added later and is first seen in print during Bristol's heyday as a trading port, in the early 19th century; for example, this extract from John Davis' *Travels of four years and a half in the United States of America*, 1803:

"...says I to the girl, "this is neither ship-shape, nor Bristol fashion."

Admiral William Henry Smyth's 1865 *Sailor's Word-book - an alphabetical digest of nautical terms*, which is a treasure trove of nautically inspired phrases, has a definition of the phrase:

"Said when Bristol was in its palmy commercial days - and its shipping was all in proper good order."
Handel Cossham

This person is on display in the Contributing Wrap in the People Gallery

**(1824-1890)**

Mine
owner, lay preacher and Liberal politician

Handel
Cossham was born in Thornbury, Bristol in the same house as his father and
grandfather. His father was a carpenter and builder who named him Handel after
the famous German composer. He was described as a ‘Non-conformist Preacher,
Industrialist, Geologist, Politician, Educationalist and Public Benefactor’ on
a plaque at his birthplace on the High Street in Thornbury.

Cossam
married Elizabeth Wethered in 1848 and opened Parkfield Colliery at
Pucklechurch in 1851. In partnership with Elizabeth’s family, they opened up a
number of coal pits and collieries. As a considerate employer, he built houses
and a school for his colliery workers, making sure they had suitable and safe
working conditions.  Cossam also built
the British School in Thornbury in 1862 and donated Cossam Hall as a gift to
his local area in 1888.

He
represented St Paul's ward on Bristol City Council as a Liberal during the
1860s, and was Mayor of Bath from 1882 to 1885. In the 1885 general election,
he was elected Member of Parliament for Bristol East and retained the seat in

In 1890, an estimated
30,000 people lined the streets on the day of his funeral.  Cossham instructed that his estate be used as
a hospital: the Cossham Memorial Hospital in Kingswood is still used today.
Great Charter of Liberties

King Edward III granted important rights and privileges to Bristol by this royal charter in 1373 that were to have far-reaching consequences for its future self-governance and identity.

The town burgesses had petitioned him for more independence and they asked that Bristol be raised to the status of county completely separate from the counties of Gloucester and Somerset. Until this time Bristol was divided, geographically and administratively, by the River Avon. The parishes to the west and north of the river lay in Gloucestershire, while those to the south were in Somerset. The charter of 1373 gave Bristol and its suburbs jurisdiction independent from those county authorities, making it a county in its own right.

That the said town of Bristol with its suburbs ... shall be separated henceforth from the said counties of Gloucester and Somerset equally and in all things exempt, as well by land as by water, and that it shall be a county by itself and [be] called the County of Bristol forever......

Bristol was the first provincial town to be given this status. The form of local government that this charter allowed for Bristol, as well as the settling of its boundaries, remained unaltered for the next 450 years until the Municipal Reform Act of 1835. Its illuminated first letter also incorporates a shield with the ship and castle of the Bristol coat of arms and is thought to have been the first time it was used.
Tobacconist's shop sign, about 1800

The wooden shop sign is in the shape of a twist of tabacco, like a coiled rope. This is how tobacco was processed and sold at this date, and the buyer chopped it or pulled it apart to smoke in a pipe, or grated it into powder for snuff.

**The name Twist originates from sailors who made the tobacco into balls, soaking it in molasses for a sweeter taste. The Twist tobacco was then chewed not smoked, as the sailors worked on wooden boats and smoking would have been a fire hazard. Chewing the tobacco was also suited to miners due to the obvious fire risks in the mines.**

☀A **tobacco hogshead** was used in British and American colonial times to transport and store tobacco. It was a very large wooden barrel. Fully packed with tobacco, it weighed about 1,000 pounds (454 kg).
W G Grace

This person is depicted in the painting Some Who Made Bristol Famous, which is on display in the People Gallery.

'WG' as he is often
referred to, trained as a medical doctor, and set up his practice on Stapleton
Road, Bristol.  He was well respected as
a local doctor, but it was his sporting achievements that earned him his
fame.  He was already well-known for his
ability to score centuries when, one day in May 1895 at Bristol's County
Ground, W.G. was in bat for Gloucester on the second day of play against
Somerset.  He made his one hundredth
century, becoming the first man ever to achieve 'one hundred hundreds'.  He continued scoring and when he made 200,
champagne was brought onto the pitch and W.G. toasted himself at the
wicket.  He was finally caught out for

Grace was the maternal grandson of the Bristol inventor, educator and preacher George Pocock.

Grace was educated for a time at a day school called Ridgeway House in Fishponds, run by a Mr. Malpas. Ridgeway House was originally a 14th - 15th century estate, the grounds of which covered what is now Eastville Park. It had housed a lunatic asylum before becoming a school, and was demolished in 1936. 13-29 and 31-41 Redhill Drive are (approx) on the site.
Bristol at War exhibit 1

**Anecdote**

The baby gas ask next to the Anderson shelter was " spotted by a visitor prompting him to comment : " I know someone who was in one of them - me ! my mother told me " ! he also reported that he had come to Bristol to see his newly born one-day-old grandchild placing his own wartime experience into context . Looking at the gas mask I often wondered who it was more distressing for : the baby inside or the mother attending to the child .

In the 'Places' gallery we do quite regularly encounter visitors who have had a direct experience of bomb shelters or gas protection equipment and may show different responses to re-visiting this experience. they always speak with aucenticity and as a visitor assistant I am called to be sensitive to them.
Pocock's Charvolants

*Information about Pocock's Charvolants, and an image of a painting showing a romanticised view of travelling by them, can be found in the 'Moving by Alternative Vehicle' display in the Places Gallery.*

In the early 1800s the cost of keeping horses rose enormously, so people began to look for other ways of propelling private vehicles.

George Pocock (1774 - 1843), a Bristol schoolmaster and inventor, experimented with using kites to pull carriages. He called his kite-propelled carriages 'charvolants'. He came up with the idea while demonstrating the power of kites to his pupils on Durdham Downs. Two linked kites were strong enough to pull his son on a sledge over the ground, 'On letting go the string, the sledge was instantly hurried away so unexpectedly, and with a velocity so great, that all attempts to overtake it were quite fruitless.'

Pocock then experimented with attaching them to a small vehicle. The first road test was on 8 January 1822 when Pocock and his wife and children travelled from Bristol to Marlborough. He tried hard to interest the public in their benefits, not least that they pass free at turnpike toll gates because there was no existing charge for a kite-pulled car. He even wrote a book about it but although many people asked for a demonstration, few chose to buy one. In 1828 Pocock showed his vehicles at Ascot where George IV inspected them, as a result of which they became briefly popular with sporting young men.

Pocock and his family continued to use a charvolant for day trips until the late 1840s but they never caught on with the public. A likely explanation for this is that although the large wheels allowed the power from the kite to be utilised effectively, they were difficult to control. The driver had to simultaneously control four control lines to the kite, a T bar to steer the front wheels, and the brake, an iron bar which dug into the road.

Pocock can be considered one of Bristol's great eccentrics - in addition to his interest in kite traction, he ran his own city academy in Prospect Place, St. Michaels, and was an itinerant evangelical preacher that waged a private war with the official Methodist authorities for his proselytization to the local mining community.

Pocock's daughter Martha was the future mother of the cricketer W. G. Grace, who is depicted in Some Who Have Made Bristol Famous, in the People Gallery.

anecdote

And her daughter died in the 1080`s
Inuit clothing

Sealskin parka 1801-1900

Hide boots (kamik) for a woman or child 1801-1900

Harpoon 1801-1900

Snow goggles about 1900

Captain Martin Frobisher took 3 Inuits, a man a woman and a baby boy hostage in response to some of his men being captured, during a voyage to Canada in 1577.

He never had his men returned, so decided to bring them to Bristol.

Sadly all three died. The man and the woman died in Bristol and were buried here. The boy was taken to London, with the intention to be seen by Queen Elizabeth I. He died before that could happen, and was buried in St. Olaf's chuchyard.
Life Gallery Object List

## Joining and leaving

Inuit clothing

Chronicle of Bristol

Harpoon, 1801-1900

Child's gas mask

Marie Policella's outfit

Stanley Charles Booker: telegram, letter, ,regimental cap badge, penknife.

Lillieth Morrison's suitcase, 1955

Crown, 1733

Muzzamil Lakhani: cane, student card

Reuben St Claire's trilby hat

Jabez Hill's convict token, 1820

Witness statement for Jabez Hill, 1820

## Our house

Bird artwork

Prayer beads

Boy's Salween kameez

Prayer mat

Trinket box and jewellery

Quill pen, discovered in Bedminster parish rate book, 1753

Marriage portrait of Thomas and Florence Smyth, about 1627

Letter to Thomas Smyth from his mother, 1626

Letter to Thomas Smyth from his wife, 1626
Bristol's Underground Victorian Street

Taken from a Bristol Newspaper - July 2007:

Hidden away beneath Lawrence Hill lies a secret world - an underground Victorian street stretching from Ducie Road to the Packhouse pub. Local historian Dave Stephenson finds out more.

For many years I had heard tales of a Victorian street abandoned beneath busy Lawrence Hill. To add substance to the legend there were people who claimed to have seen it when they were young.
They told me that this underground street stretched from Ducie Road, near the now closed Earl Russel pub, to the Packhorse pub, in tunnels under the road.

All had Victorian shop fronts, some still with their glass intact, and several street lamps still hung on the walls.
Two hundred years ago the well-known Herapath family owned the brewery connected to the Packhorse. It stretched down to Duck Road (then called Pack Horse Lane) and as far back as Lincoln Street.

In 1832, a horse-drawn railway went through Lawrence Hill, next to the pub, with a wooden bridge over the top.
When the Bristol and Gloucester Railway arrived on the scene William Herapath sold most of his estate to them for £3,000.

By 1879 this wooden bridge needed replacing, so the authorities decided they would heighten the road.
In the process the Packhorse Inn - and the neighbouring shops - disappeared as the new road was supported on a series of arched tunnels.

The Street was later boarded up to stop the repeated theft d fittings fro the homes.
Open for Business

***Open for Business* is the story of contemporary
British manufacturing and industry told through the lens of nine
internationally renowned documentary photographers.**

In 2013, Jonas Bendiksen, Stuart Franklin, Bruce Gilden, David Hurn,
Peter Marlow, Martin Parr, Mark Power, Chris Steele-Perkins and
Alessandra Sanguinetti photographed over 100 workplaces across the UK,
from one-man businesses to FTSE 100 companies.

Through eye-opening photography and film footage, *Open for Business*
 celebrates the resilience of British industry and reveals the daily
struggle at a human level as businesses attempt to cut costs, streamline
 processes and level up to international competition. The project
captures British manufacturing’s effect on regional culture and
community life, and celebrates the work, activities and lives of its
employees.

Bristol based photographer Martin Parr has captured the
innovative industries in the city from Cameron Balloons’ 40 year
history as the largest manufacture of hot air balloons in the world, to
the cutting edge engineering at BAE Systems and the more painstaking
meticulous work of Aardman Animations.

See a diverse collection of over 100 documentary photographs presented in this national touring exhibition.

*Open for Business* has been commissioned and produced by Multistory in collaboration with Magnum Photos and made possible with funding from Arts Council England and the National Lottery, through the Strategic Funds Touring Programme, and the cultural partners.

For more information about this national touring exhibition visit the *Open for Business* website. See behind the scenes images of the photographers’ shoots on the *Open for Business*Tumblr.
Access pillar

This object is displayed in the Places Gallery.

The pillar provided access to the storm gates of the the River Frome (historically *Froom*) between 1895 and 1998. Downstream, the Frome has been carried under the city in culverts Since the late 19th and early 20th Centuries.

In 1998, the Environment Agency carried out work in on the Fosse and Stone gates of the Frome culverts, outside the former Electricity House (SWEB) on the corner of Rupert Street and Quay Street, and the green "pillar box" was removed.

In the middle photo, the pillar can be seen in its location to the bottom left. The last photo shows the former Electricity House at the same location today.

*N.B. the middle photograph also shows the Demerara Figurehead.*
G B Britton

boot-maker

One of Bristol’s biggest employers in the early 1900s
was the footwear industry, making heavy working boots. After World War II,
local company G B Britton introduced the moulded work boot, a design that was
easier and cheaper to make. Their Tuf boot and Everyday shoe came to dominate
the market and Britton’s became one of the six biggest footwear-makers in the
UK. However their factories closed in 2001 after cheaper imports had gradually
taken over the market.
Somerdale

Fry’s bought a 228 acre
greenfield site at Keynsham in 1921 and named it Somerdale through a national
competition in 1923.  The state of the art factory was open
to the public, who could see the whole process and travel home with souvenir
chocolate.

The move to Somerdale was also
about quality of life for employees.  The
country location offered a healthy environment with plenty of room for
recreational facilities and decent homes in the proposed Somerdale
village.

Early in October 2007 Cadbury announced plans to
close the Keynsham factory, moving production to factories in Poland and Bournville.

When Kraft Foods launched their takeover of Cadbury
Schweppes they initially stated that they would keep the factory open but later
reversed their position, saying that plans for closure were too far
advanced.  The factory closed in March

Current
proposals for re-developing the site would retain the Fry Club and sports
facilities, but lead to the demolition of the historic factories.
The Bristol F.2B Fighter

The F.2 was Frank Barnwell's first major success, becoming a firm favourite with British pilots during the latter half of World War I. It was renowned for its strength, reliability, speed and versatility. As an indication of its success, over 5000 were built in total, and the last to be withdrawn from service was in 1938.
Quakers in Bristol

This information is in the Life Gallery in M Shed

The Religious Society of Friends, or Quakers, first appeared in Bristol in 1654. Their beliefs strongly encouraged equal treatment of all people and many of them were tireless in their fight against injustices like slavery. Despite persecution, the movement grew and eventually the Quakers were embraced as valued members of the community. Many became influential industrialists and merchants, such as the Fry family who made chocolate and the Darbys who moved from Bristol to the Midlands to set up ironworks.
Hotwells Spa

*Bottled water from the Spa, about 1900, is on display in the 'Places to Live and Enjoy' case in the Places Gallery. Information also on ICT.*

**Before the Spa - the Hot Well**

The Hot Well was not easily accessible. The water sprang from the Avon riverbed and became one with the river at high tide. There was no easy approach by land as it was cut off by the face of St. Vincent's Rocks. A rocky and steep-winding and craggy way - near 200 slippery steps" was cut into the Rocks. In 1662 a carriage road was cut out of the rock along the riverside (1)

'Hotwells' is plural because a second spring - The New Hotwell - was discovered further down the river by the 18th Century. It now feeds a drinking fountain on the Portway (1)

“ The water contains nothing but a little salt, and calcarious earth… as can have very little, if any, effect.”

Squire Bramble in Tobias Smollett’s Humphry Clinker, 1771

**The Hotwells Spa**

The warm-water springs at Hotwells was developed into a fashionable resort from 1695, by the Bristol Society of Merchant Venturers. The water was enclosed and pumped up into 'Hotwell House'.

The spa’s pump house, lodges, ballrooms, pleasure garden and shops, remained a place for
the rich and famous until the 1790s, when interest declined and war with France halted the development of Clifton. By the time peace came, spa's had fallen out of fashion.
The Hotwell House was demolished in 1822 to make way for a new road. A new pump room was built with a suite of a baths, but the spa never regained popularity. The spring was eventually demolished in 1867 for a widening of the River Avon to improve navigation (1)

**Belief in the springs healing qualities**

 By the 17th Century we know that the Hot Well attracting 'invalids'. The Spa was claimed to cure many diseases, including Tuberculosis (then known as consumption), which was deadly before antibiotics.

John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, contracted consumption, and he visited the Hot Well in 1754.

"Wesley drank from both springs, but favoured the New Hotwell, where he could be free from noise and hurry. Indeed it was so isolated that it never had much success as a spa. But here it was that Wesley made a remarkable recovery. We may wonder whether the fresh air of Clifton gave more relief to his labouring lungs than the water. But such cures drew many other sufferers, who were generally not so fortunate."

By the close of the century belief in the waters' healing properties was on the wane (1)
Bristol Channel Pilots

Pilotage is local knowledge. When you come to getting into a port or a shallow area with strong currents you have to have someone local on board who understand the situation whether you like it or not.

John Rich, 2009.

John Rich, born in 1933, came from a long line of Bristol Channel Pilots, stretching back to the 1700s. In 1948 at the age of 15 he joined the pilot service as an apprentice. Licensed in 1959, by 28 he was driving the largest tankers in the world to Avonmouth.

The ever-changing tides, currents, mud banks, rocks and sandbanks in the Bristol Channel make it necessary for arriving and departing ships to use local pilots to guide them through safely - without their expertise Bristol's success as an international trading port would have been limited.  Many other British ports have river pilots, and their skills and knowledge is central to Britain's success as a maritime trading nation.

Bristol Channel Pilots have played a formative role in the history of Bristol, from preventing Irish Catholic troops from landing during the Civil War, to rescuing shipwreck victims.  The pilots often came from Pill, where being a pilot was a family tradition.  They developed their own specialist boats, called cutters, which were rugged, fast and manoeuvrable, enabling them to race for jobs piloting arriving ships.  It was a hazardous but lucrative job.
Frank Barnwell

F rank Barnwell (1880–1938)

Frank Barnwell was the Chief Designer for the Bristol Aeroplane Company from 1911 until his death in 1938. He designed 150 aircraft culminating in the Bristol Blenheim. The multi-role Bristol Blenheim of 1936 was a tremendous leap forward in aircraft technology, and became the backbone of the Royal Air Force early in World War II.
Steam Launch Explodes

Wherryman John Leonard witnessed a tragedy on the river in 1850, '... she had not been there five minutes when she exploded ... her boiler and part of the wooden houses ... went into the air in fragments ... passengers were thrown into the water...' Bristol Mercury, 27 July 1850.

The steam launch Red Rover had suffered a catastrophic boiler explosion at Cumberland Basin. Fifteen people were killed and many others badly injured. The explosion increased public concern over the safety of steam launches, which had begun transporting passengers in Bristol harbour during the 1840s. They ran in competition with 'wherries', small boats that were either rowed or sailed. Despite the tragedy of the Red Rover, steam launches soon became the main method of travelling around Bristol harbour because of their speed and size.
Bristol's Underground River

*An Access Pillar which stood at Stone Bridge is displayed in the Places Gallery.*

*A painting of Broad Quay, not the image to the right, (showing the now culverted river), about 1760, by the British School (K415) is on display in the Places Gallery. This painting has been formerly attributed to Philip Vandyke, Dutch Artist 1729 - about 1808) (BBC Your Paintings & NICE -The National Inventory of Continetal European Paintings)*

It had previously been attributed to the British School and also Peter Monamy (English marine painter 1681-1749) Exhibited below the Princes Wharf sign on the way to the cafe in Places

*The unculverted course of the Frome through the city can be seen in the 'Expanding Bristol' display in the Places Gallery.*

*The watercolour painting 'Entrance to The Pithay from Union Street, 1823, by James Johnson', from the Braikenridge Collection, shows the Frome where Fairfax Street now is, and can be compared with a 2001 view, on the ICT in the Visual Arts section of the People Gallery.*

The River Frome, historically *Froom*, originally joined the River Avon as a tributary near Bristol Bridge, and formed part of the city's defences (following the city wall along the course of what is now Baldwin Street ('Balanco Street' on Hoefnagal's *Brightstowe* map of 1581), but in the 13th Century it was decided, through negotiation with the Abbot, to build a new harbour by diverting the River through marshland belonging to St. Augustines Abbey, to join the River Avon at Canon's Marsh. This section, known as St. Augustine's Reach, was completed in around 1248.

From 1826 onward, underground channels (culverts) were constructed. This was done to divert the Frome and the sewage it carried into the New Cut. In addition, the docks to the north of St. Augustine's reach had become increasingly marginal by the late 19th Century, due to the creation of the Floating Harbour, and newly built docks at Portishead and Avonmouth. New Roads, such as Rupert Street and Colston Avenue, were built upon the River's course, creating the Tramways Centre.

The river runs underneath Broad Weir, Fairfax Street and Rupert Street. The original culverted section ran from Broad Weir (disappearing underground in St. Jude's) and St. Augustine's Reach. However at the site of the former Stone Bridge, near the junction of Rupert Street and Christmas Street, the main flow is now channelled through Mylnes Culvert. This follows the course of Marsh Street, Prince Street and Wapping Road, and joins the New Cut close to Gaol Ferry Bridge. The culverted section (the original course of the river) between Stone Bridge and St Augustine's Reach is now a flood relief channel.
Civil War

The English Civil War had a tremendous physical impact on Bristol.

When war broke out in 1642, Bristol was seen as a potentially attractive stronghold by both sides. Although Bristol tried to stay neutral, Parliamentary troops faced little resistance when they took the city in 1642.

Bristol's medieval defences were both inadequate for its size and unable to withstand cannon fire from the surrounding hills so the Parliamentarians began a massive programme of works to create an outer line of forts, walls, ditches and ramparts. Bristolians paid for most of this work, but those who could not afford to pay had to physically work on the construction.

Sir Bernard de Gomme, a military engineer observed

"The city of Bristol stands in a hole & upon the north side towards Durdham downe, be 3 eminenter knolls or rockye hills, now crowned with so many forts."

The works were put to the test in July 1643, when two Royalist armies converged on Bristol. The outer works were from finished (particularly where rocky ground had made digging difficult) but the inner ring remained solid. Nevertheless Bristol was surrendered to the Royalists and its defences were then further strengthened with buildings like the Royal Fort (designed by de Gomme). This was the headquarters of Prince Rupert's army until it was taken by Cromwell in 1645.
1st & 3rd Class Travel

This info is on display in the Moving by rail section in Places Gallery

In the early days of the GWR, travellers were divided according to the price of a ticket, which was tantamount to a class-division. Third-class travel was slow and uncomfortable and not all people agreed with the system. An article in the Bristol Mercury, 1 January 1842 commented:

On our Great Western Railway, for instance, how admirably are the gradations of society preserved! The thirty-shilling aristocrats loll upon luxurious coaches, securely protected from wind and weather; the one-and-twenty shopocrats sit upon uncovered seats, exposed to all the "skyey influences," anticipating that draughts will lead to draughts, and indulging in doleful visions of stiff necks, sore throats, coughs, catarrhs, doctors and doctors' bills; whilst the twelve-shilling mobocracy, coming under the denomination of "the swinish multitude" are appropriately packed off with the pigs in the luggage train! Nor does the distinction end here. The two former classes are whirled the whole distance in four hours, whilst those to whom time is, emphatically, money, are detained on the road for twelve hours! ....we contend...that all the passengers ought to be sent by one train; that all ought to have an equal chance at least of safety on the road; that all ought to be protected...from the weather; and that the distinction of classes ought to be made in luxuries rather than comforts.'"

An Act of Parliament in 1845 required train companies to provide cover for all passengers, but Third Class passenger conditions were hardly improved because the new coaches had no windows.
Harry Bow

W.H Bow, artist, diarist and professional pallbearer.

William Henry Bow, known as Harry to his family, was the eldest of four children to survive infancy. He was born on the 6th March 1865 to an ordinary family that lived within the framework of a working class environment in Victorian Bristol.

He suffered from deafness and had an intense dislike for attending school on Redcliff Hill. Circumstances did not favour him for a good education. At the age of 16 years, he attended art classes and produced numerous watercolour paintings. Later in his youth he turned his hand to pen and ink drawings, depicting local scenes from which he received many commissions.

He kept a remarkable Victorian diary with over 90 fascinating events and happenings in and around Bristol. The diary is now displayed at Mshed museum in Bristol, in the 'Life' gallery.
Council House

Why do people Stand and Groan? And feel both faint and sick? Because amid buildings wrought of stone, The new one's built of brick!

Bristol Evening Post, 19 July 1950.

Bristol's new Council House on College Green was opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1956 but its brick and concrete construction and the changes made to College Green met with public disapproval.

Work had begun on the building in the 1930s but came to a halt during the war. This new modern civic building was one of Bristol's biggest and boldest developments. A grand imposing crescent-shaped building, designed by architect Vincent Harris ,was to replace the old neo-Classical Council house on the corner of Broad Street and Corn Street, which for years had been much too small for such a large and growing city. In 1950, as construction looked close to ending, the Council unveiled plans to spend £10,000 on lowering College Green and removing all its much-loved trees and statues, as the architect wanted an unobstructed view of 'his building'. The use of brick for its exterior had already received criticism but the impact of remodelling the space around the building and the complete transformation of the city's grandest civic open-air space, College Green, caused the most outcry and controversy. In later years new trees were planted and Queen Victoria's statue returned but not so the High Cross.

After the election of George Furgeson, the city's first elected mayor, in 2012 the building was renamed City Hall.
Fire Engine

This information is on display in the moving by emergency vehicles section in Places Gallery

A catastrophic fire in Christmas Street in 1876 spurred the development of Bristol's municipal fire brigade. Four major warehouses had been destroyed and many other businesses damaged with an estimated value of £80,000 - about £16 million in modern terms. Until then, fire protection had been the role of insurance companies like Imperial and its brigade, founded in 1867. Their role was to protect property rather than life; they were staffed by part-time firemen who would leave their 'normal' jobs when the alarm was raised. In Bristol, nearly all the insurance company engines were kept around Nelson Street and most of the firemen worked locally. They received 2s 6d every time they had a call, so there were numerous false alarms! The engines were horse-drawn manual pumps, which needed lots of men to operate them. One of these engines could pump up to 116 gallons per minute, but could only be achieved with 36 men operating the levers. The engines didn't carry ladders for saving life; these were held by the police and wheeled by hand through the streets. In 1877 the City Council set up a municipal brigade and all of the insurance engines, except the Imperial's, were transferred, along with their men. The Imperial retained its engine and crew to attend fires outside the city boundary. However, in 1897 the city's boundaries were extended to include many outlying areas and the municipal brigade took over responsibility for fire fighting throughout.