goodbye arts trail at number40…

One of the saddest aspects of moving house is the realisation that we’ve held our last SouthBank Arts Trail at number40. We’ve opened up our studio on every arts trail weekend from 2004-2018 (we ‘missed’ the very first one in May 2003, which took place the day we put in an offer for the house!).
Over the years, Moira and I have welcomed the following 40 exhibiting artists (which somehow feels absolutely appropriate for number40!): Paul Brown, Wendy Calder, Jen Orme, Helen Brayshaw, Sharon Bishop, Dave Morgan-Davies, Chitra Merchant, Philippa Royle, Angela Saxbee, Hannah Hickman, Sarah Duncan, Anna Francis, Kay Morgan, Alexandra Higlett, Georgina Hounsome, Lucy Roberts, Tamsie Beith, Ruth Ander, Fay-Darling Peters, Maggie Smith, Martin Lintern, Damian Daly, Lucie Sheridan, Becky Burling, Melanie Wickham, Tessa McDermott, Shirley Smith, Deb Steele, Sally Medlicott, Ian Adams, Heather Newport, Chris Heaton, Nik Kalinowski, Jeremy Smith, Iain Ferns, the Plate-Painting-Lady (who joined us at the eleventh hour for one of our exhibitions, but we can’t remember her name!) plus, of course, the lovely Ruth Broadway, Hannah Broadway, Stuart Low and Felix Hayes.
It proved to be a very popular arts trail venue – so much so that we ended up welcoming over 700 people into our basement over an Arts Trail weekend!
Huge thanks to all those who contributed or visited over the years.
Lots of special memories.
Lots of very good times with lots of very good friends. x
Photos: These are just a very FEW of the photographs taken over the years… fascinating to see the broad scope of work included and also being reminded that our grandchildren have effectively ‘grown up’ over the course of our arts trail involvement!

window wanderland

The past three nights have seen the “Window Wanderland” event take place in Bedminster, Southville and Ashton for the first time - and we’ve taken part… with the basement, living room and bedroom front windows featuring a drawing of a rather tall harbourside crane!
What on earth is “Window Wanderland” (I hear you ask)?
Well, the website describes it thus: “an inclusive grassroots event which lights up neighbourhoods with playfulness. It provides a common festive focus and encourages ‘hidden creativity’ to emerge. The displays from each event form galleries which celebrate their diversity and showcase the displays to the wider Wanderland Community, leaving a very positive legacy”. For a flavour of the event, I suggest you check out this video from the BS24/7 website.
Created in Bristol last year by Lucy Reeves Khan, the event saw lots of homes in Bishopston adorned in light-up art displays for the enjoyment of their neighbours and encouraged people to walk around their neighbourhood in groups to see the impressive creations of their fellow locals. 
This is the first year that homes within Southville, Ashton+Bedminster have participated in the event and over 150 houses, businesses and schools are taking part this weekend!

At one stage, I thought we might be able to put together something which incorporated contributions from all our Bristol family members… but, as the deadline drew closer, it became obvious that it wasn’t going to happen (busy, busy people!). So, in the end, I’m afraid it’s MY drawing work - with invaluable contributions from Iris and Rosa and their fat colouring pens!! It was all a bit scary: We had no idea how the image would come across to people walking past… Would it be readable? Would the limited colours be visible enough? Would it all disintegrate when we tried to “hang” the images? Would we be able to find enough decent spot-lamps to illuminate the images?

Well, in the end, our window stuff all seemed to work reasonably well (with a few misgivings)… and without too many mishaps!
All that remains to be done now (the morning after the weekend before…) is to take down all the art stuff, remove all the spotlights and cables… and allow normal daylight back into our lives!
The really lovely thing about the weekend was just how many people participated in the event – whether by producing their own window art or simply by roaming the neighbouring streets enjoying the spectacle… and, thankfully, the weather was very kind to us.
Lots of very happy, smiley people… it was very good fun!

Photo: harbourside crane view from our living room.

more local history…

Elizabeth I's "fort", 1574

Just two more notes following my earlier blog post about where we live.
On the historical map of 1828, my eyes were drawn to a rather mysterious note on a patch of land less than 200metres north of our house (where Osborne Street now is): “site of the fort erected for the amusement of Queen Elizabeth when on a visit to Bristol, 1574” (see above extract from 1828 map - "X" is the site of our house!)(double click on image to enlarge).
This is an extract from the “Early Theatre” website by Francis Wardell:
"When Elizabeth I visited Bristol in 1574 she was entertained by an impressive three day mock battle. Such a performance differed from the traditional protocol of using a combination of pageants and petitions… Throughout, the entertainment maintains an allegory of War, represented by the offensive forces, in conflict with Peace, symbolized by the defending fort. The artificial conflict concludes with the queen herself being given the role of adjudicator and administering over negotiations for a peaceful treaty”.

Bizarre! Perhaps, not surprisingly, I’d no knowledge of any such event!

The Bristol Records Office/”knowyourplacebristol” website included the above photograph of the Dean Lane Pit (taken in about 1875, I think) which was open from the 1850s until the first decade of the 1900s. I also came across a note that ten people were killed in an explosion at the Dean Lane Pit on 11 September 1886.

It was a hard, hard life!  

mount pleasant terrace, southville: local history

2015 street map

The above map (dated 2015) shows the location of our house (“X”) in Bristol.
Ever since we first moved to Bristol in 2003, I’ve been meaning to drop into the Bristol Records Office to try to discover a little more about the history of our house. Well, at long last, this week, I finally called in and chatted to the really helpful bloke on reception. I just KNEW that I’d be able to access stuff via the internet… the trouble was that when I tried, I got nowhere!
My new friend at the Bristol Records Office pointed out a few glitches in the system and things to AVOID – as well as things to DO. The key thing was to google the magic words “know your place Bristol” (without trying to access the information via the city council’s website - which is precisely what I’d been trying to do!).


Magically, my new friend was able to demonstrate how I could access historical maps of our area AND to be able to compare maps/street layouts between different dates (via “main maps” and “comparison maps”)(you need to click on “base plans” for the map keys to appear)… absolutely fascinating.

1910s street map



1900s street map

There’s a plaque on a building just down the road from us with a 1848 date on it… so I’ve also assumed that our house was built in roughly 1850 or thereabouts. The historical maps have duly confirmed this: our house certainly appears on the 1855 map of the area (even though the whole of Mount Pleasant Terrace hadn’t been completed by that date). 

1880s street map



1874 street map

I always knew that our house was located fairly close to a colliery (Dean Lane Colliery) and, certainly, the maps confirm this (it’s just 275metres away, as the crow flies!). But it’s only fairly recently that I’d become aware of Northside Colliery (at the corner of South Street/North Street) – which is just 250metres from our house! I love the discovery that, according to the map of 1828, the site of our house was once an orchard – the area of land to the north of North Street being virtually devoid of any buildings (except Merrywood Hall). I’m also intrigued to see how, over the course of the next 50 years, our house was not only built, but also surrounded by terraces of other houses (if only things could be like this today!)… and, by the 1900s, the street layout resembles precisely what we have today.
The “Know Your Place Bristol” website is pretty amazing and the main maps/comparison maps are very impressive… I can’t hope to replicate this, but will endeavour to paste eight maps dating from1828 up to 2015, so you can get a “feel” of where we live (fingers crossed!).

1855 street map

1840s street map

1828 map

Moira’s quite keen to discover a little more about the people who have lived in our house over the past 150 years or so… I’ll post a link if she ends up following this through!
I love history and LOVE the fact that we can gain access to it for FREE!
Absolutely fascinating.
PS: I downloaded the various maps shown above in small sections and then re-configured them to highlight (and record for my own benefit) how our neighbourhood has developed over the past 150 years or so. I know it's not particularly neat and I’m sure there were simpler ways of doing this, but technology was never my strong point!

southbank bristol arts trail 2015

It’s the thirteenth Southbank Bristol Arts Trail on Saturday+Sunday 16+17 May.

We’ve participated every year since moving from Oxfordshire (this year will be our 12^th year). In fact, the very first morning of the very first Arts Trail in 2003 was the day we first viewed our house. There were an awful lot of smiley people roaming the local streets and popping into each others’ houses to view art! It felt like a very vibrant, arty area… and just the sort of place we were looking for. We made an offer for the house the same day!
We ended up converting the two basement bedrooms, so we could use them as studio space… and duly joined the arts trail the following May.
For us, it’s always been a bit of a family affair (two of our three daughters also live in Bristol) and this year Moira, Ruth, Hannah, Stuart (Ruth’s husband) and I will be exhibiting work alongside three of our lovely friends Jen, Sarah and Anna.
These days, we attract over 500 people down into our basement every Arts Trail weekend – so, if you’re in the Bristol area next weekend, please do come and see us!
PS: if you just can’t wait to see all the beautiful art (or if you just fancy a glass of something!), you could even drop round on Friday evening 15 May 7-9.30pm… it would be LOVELY to see you!!