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 young Tony Robinson presenting the early days of Bristol and its wooden castle of 1080. To be eventually replaced by the much stronger castle made of stone. It was interesting to see how resulting road configurations of a Celtic Cross stemmed from the then centre, originally marked with The High Cross (now found at Stourhead). Churches of Christ Church, St Mary Le Port, All Saints, St John, strategically placed.

I believe all well known and perhaps not so well-known historical events relating to Bristol were then covered. The Slave Trade, Civil War (following which the castle was demolished and replaced with a residential area with commercial activities), WW1 and WW2 all had a mention, including SS Great Britain, Concorde and particularly the Floating Harbour. The building of the Workhouses was probably less known; the Bedminster workhouse can still be seen at Flax Bourton. There was more.

To finish the film showed the toppling of the Edward Colston statue, which I believe became a worldwide event for Bristol.