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42°F / 5°C
(Partly Cloudy. Nippy.)
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It's a little known fact that Bristol has a motto—"Virtue et Industria"—meaning virtue and hard work. Now, this might look an odd choice for a city that owes its illustrious past to wine, tobacco and chocolate—things not usually associated with clean-living. And let's not forget that this is also a place not adverse to a spot of rioting and whose wonderful architecture is mainly thanks to the immorality of the slave trade! In fact, walking around the city today, you'd be hard-pressed to find many people exhibiting any kind of frantic workaholism. Quite the opposite—Bristol is above all a mellow place.
But a closer look at the city's history reveals that Bristolians have indeed always been an industrious lot. A quarter of a million years ago, for instance, people were exploiting the abundant wildlife both in and around the River Avon—the waterway that literally as well as metaphorically runs through the city's heart. Famous archaeological remains of these Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers are on view at Cheddar Showcaves. And in Anglo-Saxon times, when the city was known as Brigstow (meaning 'place of a bridge') the residents were busy trading goods, such as wine, olive oil and fruit—by the fourteenth century Bristol was a major player in the import/export business!
Bar the odd outbreak of plague (the Black Death hit the city in 1348, killing around a third of its inhabitants) and rioting, the city prospered and its merchants grew in both wealth and stature. Being such a centre of sea-faring experience and excellence, it was only natural that it was from Bristol that a ship set sail and discovered a "New Founde Lande" i.e. America, thereby sealing the city's place in global history. That ship was The Matthew (a replica is now berthed in the city docks) and its captain was a Bristol-based Venetian called John Cabot—the namesake of the impressive Cabot's Tower, built in 1897 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of his voyage. He had left Venice to seek finances for his long-dreamt-of expedition and it was the merchants of Bristol who put up the money. Sadly, he never returned from his second voyage to the "new" continent and the mystery of what happened to the intrepid explorer has never been solved.
The 1500s saw Bristol honoured with a visit from Queen Elizabeth, sailing in a convoy of three resplendent galleys along the Avon Gorge. She apparently raved about the rather wonderful St Mary Redcliffe Church, calling it the "fairest, goodliest and most famous parish church in England". This was thanks, yet again, to the wealth of the merchants who paid for much of it. The perfectly preserved Elizabethan house, Red Lodge offers a glimpse of what life was like for the lucky few at this time. Later, in the 1600s came civil war, as witnessed by Oliver Cromwell's order to destroy Bristol Castle (built in 1120s) to prevent it being used by rebels and religious dissidents.
The 1700s and the first half of the eighteenth century saw Bristol become a boom town—many grand buildings were erected, the rich flocked to Clifton and Hotwells for fresh air (the city centre, being so close to the busy river, tended to stink) and sumptuous surroundings in newly built, highly impressive terraces and squares—most of which still exist in Clifton Village. Why was Bristol so prosperous? Shamefully, much of this wealth was derived from the city's enthusiastic participation in the slave trade—for full details visit the permanent exhibition on this at Bristol Industrial Museum. Bristol ships sailed to Africa, where they would exchange goods for slaves, then transporting those slaves to the West Indies and America where they would be sold in exchange for tobacco, wine, sugar and chocolate—the three predominant industries in the city, which still survive today.
The city's coal industry also brought in a lot of money, by fuelling quite literally, the brass and glass industries—there is still a working glass factory today at Bristol Blue Glass. The city was also a centre of excellence for ship-building—ships were so well-made here, the phrase "ship-shape and Bristol fashion" is now an English idiom to describe something constructed in a sturdy and correct manner.
Of course, it couldn't last! Bristol's wealth started to subside and Liverpool eclipsed it as England's major port. Slavery was finally abolished in 1807, although to be fair Bristol had ceased involvement in the trade—thanks to much vocal opposition by local Quakers—as early as the 1790s. This had a knock-on effect on the city's industry however, a contributing factor (along with anger at the delay of Parliamentary reform) to the infamous Bristol riots of 1831. Angry mobs trashed various buildings, particularly Queen Square, which lost two whole sides. Many cellars were looted and the wine consumed, leading to a lot of drunkenness—so much for "virtue and hard work"!
It wasn't all bad news though—this was, after all, the time of engineering genius Brunel. Not only did he sort out the city's waterways, he also designed the Clifton Suspension Bridge, although he never lived to see it completed—work began in 1830 but various delays meant it was only finished in 1864, five years after his death. He did get to witness the building of another triumph however, that of the SS Great Britain. When finished, in 1845, this was not only the largest but also the first iron, propeller-driven ship in the world. It made various journeys across the Atlantic, eventually running aground in the Falkland Islands, where it lay neglected until its slow journey back to Bristol. It now sits in the very same dry dock where it was created and has been lovingly restored to its former glory.
Bringing things up to date—although always predominantly a merchant port, the city had built up enough of an industrial base to see it through the worst of the rigours of the 1930s Depression. However, these same industries (particularly the aeroplane works—Concorde was later built here), attracted the attentions of the Luftwaffe in WW2 and, on the night of June 25th, 1940 when the first air raid struck, war came home to Bristol. Many ancient landmarks were swept away in the Blitz, some leaving picturesque ruins such as the fascinating Temple Church.
Today, Bristol has established itself as a thriving city, which looks forward to the future with many new innovations, such as the entire At-Bristol harbourside development. What was once an area crowded with trading ships, is now for leisure. Locals like nothing better on a summer evening than to frequent the bars and cafes all along the docks and it's perhaps in this area most of all that you'll witness the city's rich maritime past casting a warm and impressive shadow over its wonderfully relaxed present.
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