The Kingswood History Society

It never ceases to amaze me as to what fantastic industries we had in our local area. William J Bence was born in Willsbridge close to the former Queens Head pub. He moved to Kingsfield House (still there at junction of Bath Road and Marsham Way) when he married. Started out as a Carrier, Bill started his bus company in 1920, with a route covering Hanham, Kingswood, Staple Hill, Downend and Keynsham. No bus stops and Ford vehicles. The same…

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An hilarious presentation by Tim as he morphed his way during the presentation into a Pantomime Dame. Great audience participation and a good laugh had by all. Tim (from the Warmley Players) started by outlining a few rules that normally govern each pantomime. Not a dame in every pantomime, good v bad, possible enchanted forest, Principal Boy is usually a girl. Includes romance and comedy. The Dame (normally a man) is the mother of the hero, Chris Biggins being Tim’s…

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Mike gave a great presentation about what some would consider, the Bristol buses being the best in the world. A timeline from 1900 was shown and discussed; the key years of interest maybe; 1900 – The first Bristol bus being a Daimler Wagonette. 1908 – First Bristol bus build. 1919 – Bence Motor Services based in Hanham and Longwell Green founded. 1921 – Greyhound Motors formed in Bristol 1945 – Change of colour to Tilling Green from Blue and White….

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A great turnout for the KHS’s first talk of the year at the Park Centre. David introduced his self as someone heavily involved in film production in his career. Hence, he was able to present a collage of film covering the history of Bristol edited by his good hand. His incentive was the 650 year anniversary of the Bristol Charter granted by Edward the Third, as following the much celebrated 600 year anniversary in 1973. The film started with a…

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Chair opened the meeting at 7.30pm welcoming all attending members. Apologies from committee: Tony Redmore Chairs report was a summary of the main events in the year and thanks to the  volunteers. Minutes of the previous AGM were reviewed. Proposed & Seconded by Jim Gilmartin and Keith Nikless. Secretaries Report was read. Mainly following on from chairs report. Members and visitors up on last year. Web site used by about a third of membership. New WhatsApp group approved. Treasurers Report…

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Mike gave an enlightening chronological step through the history of the market from 1568, highlighted with many maps. Initially showing how the market was the main thoroughfare into Bristol Castle from Kingswood and further afield London. A map of 1673 shows Lawfords gate close to the junction with Midland Road, this was used to close the city each evening. By 1828 it had gone. Streets coming off Old Market had such names as Whipping Cat Hill (now Midland Road) and…

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Bristol has more than its fair share of these quirky buildings, some built of probably foolish purpose. The audience took great delight in knowing and not knowing where some of the places were in the Bristol area. Peter showed a variety of such buildings to identify. An easy one to start with, Blaise Castle. Built in 1766 for £3000. Do you know that it is mentioned in the Jane Austen novel Northanger Abbey? We then moved on to cover The…

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  47 members had a great day out at this Museum near Dudley. Fantastic range of different activities from coal mining, brick making to trip on the canal and into the caverns. A great array of different buildings and shops from various periods to rummage around in and bring back past memories. There was even a fairground and a trip on the ghost train was fun. We had a great chat with one of the staff who was a West…

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David started by outlining the sources of the River Avon, Tetbury (Tetbury Avon) and the Frome, Dodington Park (home off Mr Dyson). The Avon had a great tidal range of 12m, which was good for bringing ships into and out of Bristol. However, not so good when offloading. In 1804 William Jessop was asked to redesign the docks area and hence the New Cut and The Floating Harbour were created. The Underfall Yard was the Control Point for the new…

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