isn’t history (and technology) wonderful?

When we were living in Southville, I discovered the wonderful ‘Know Your Place Bristol’ website, which gave access to a number of digital heritage maps indicating how places had changed over the years. 
Well yesterday, given that we now live in a very different part of the city, I decided to re-visit the website.
It proved to be absolutely fascinating.  
The website enables you to look at various maps of the city spanning a number of years (1746-2019) but, crucially, allows you to compare areas directly through the use of main maps and comparison maps at the same time via linked ‘overlays’ (I’m not explaining this very well – it’s best just to explore the website itself).
 
With the cathedral as one of our neighbours (just 100m down the road), it wasn’t all that surprising that a trawl through the maps would throw up lots of interesting details:
The cathedral came into being 1542; it was formerly St Augustine’s Abbey (church and monastery, founded in 1140) until its dissolution.
It turns out that our apartment block stands on the site of the Bishop’s Park – located alongside the Bishop’s Palace. The palace was damaged by fire in the Bristol Riots of 1831 (together with Queen Square and three prisons!); it was subsequently again attacked by rioters in 1851 – and this time was burnt to the ground (see 1746-1803 map)(top). Other adjacent buildings include the Abbey House (c1150-60, remodelled C17 and rebuilt in the 1950s); the former Deanery (early C17, altered C18); and Bristol Cathedral School (possibly C12 origin and re-founded in 1542 by Henry VIII).
The 1844-1888 map (bottom) shows Deanery Road (other maps suggest it was created at some time between 1855-1874), together with a tramway link from the floating harbour to Hotwells – running immediately adjacent the north wall of the cathedral. Interesting also to note the extensive loss of houses and changed street patterns (much of College Street disappeared, together with Brandon Street, Bellington Lane and Cross Street, for example).
Lots of other interesting stuff, including (from the 1746-1803 map) the marshland (Cannon’s Marsh) and Rope Walk immediately to the south of the Bishop’s Park; the Frome River with its navigable limits extending to Quay Street (just a little beyond Saint Stephen’s Church); the appearance of Park Street on the 1828 map (in place of Bullock’s Park)… oh, and so much more.
I suspect I’ll be returning to city history records again at various times over the coming months. A wonderful resource.
Photo: As you’re probably well aware, I’m not very good when it comes to technology(!), so the accompanying images are merely my ‘marked up’ photographs taken from my laptop (I didn’t understand the ‘screenshot’ instructions!).
Note: ‘Know Your Place’ heritage websites also extend as far as London, Birmingham, Wales, Cornwall, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset. 
PS: Click on the images to enlarge.