I've just hit 'post' on my blog about the new book (which I'm calling Inside Bristol) I'm working on which sets out to chart Bristol's history, but I thought I should explain where my passion for Bristol comes from......
It all started as I was sitting on the top deck of an open top tour as the familiar landmarks of Bristol unravelled in front of me. We passed the regenerated docks, the famous Clifton Suspension Bridge and St Mary Redcliffe church with it awe-inspiring spire (no pun intended!). There was the SS Great Britain, the world’s first great ocean liner – the start of what has become a multimillion cruise industry. We passed through Clifton, a suburb that easily rivals the nearby spa town of Bath, and then across the breezy and airy expanse of greenery that is Clifton and Durdham Downs.
The guide also reliably told us about all the museums, galleries, shopping areas, parks and theatres just a few minutes walk from the various stops.
Many on the tour that sunny summer day back in summer 2008 had travelled half way around the world to visit Bristol, the dialects and languages they spoke confirmed that. I hadn’t travelled so far – only about three miles from the centre of Bristol in fact. I was born in Bristol and lived in the city 18 years of my life, but didn’t feel I knew it intimately. Of course, I knew of John Cabot, the shameful slave trade and Brunel, but I couldn’t see how they all connected together to create the Bristol story. Getting on the open top bus and sitting amongst lots of ‘tourists’ provided the impetus to start a journey of discovery.
Arriving back in Bristol, after getting on for six years away, allowed me to see the place with fresh eyes. And from what I saw on those first days of re-discovering Bristol fascinated me. I wanted to know more so I read a succession of books about the city’s history. From exploring the streets again, I became completely fascinated by how Bristol was changing. Here was a city with new blocks of apartments and offices springing up all over the place while at the same time thriving culturally.
The book I am writing started off as a number of short diary entries chronicling what I had seen, what I had heard and what I had experienced. I have consulted a number of history books, but my biggest inspiration has been to put on good pair of sturdy shoes and head off exploring. I want to write the story of a city that can be recognised today. And, as you will have seen from my previous post, I want to tell that fascinating history through the people that have a special attachment to each of the different period's of Bristol.
I am certainly not intending to write a tourist guide written as a selective history with all the not so happy episodes carefully removed. Just as we should be proud of how Bristol has shaped the way we are in the world, there is much to be shameful, not least the city’s involvement in the slave trade. It’s important that we acknowledge that this has happened and make sure we act differently in the future.
While my intention is to look at Bristol from a 21st century perspective, this is a story that begun more than 1000 years ago when a settlement grew up near the current Bristol Bridge. It was known as Brigstow – the Saxon meaning ‘place by the bridge’. Settlers lived in simple structures made out of wood, thatch and clay. They traded by river with groups in South Wales, North Somerset and Ireland long before the 11th century, and quickly the population grew. In the Middle Ages Bristol was in fact the second city in England after London.
Bristol started as trading post, a place travellers passing between the capitals of Gloucestershire and Somerset could enjoy refreshments before continuing their journey. Over time Bristol’s merchants built up a good reputation exporting and importing goods. First they travelled to France to import wine, but then they became more adventurous and sailed further a field. It was John Cabot that left Bristol to be the first European to re-discover North America since the Vikings.
Success came at a price though. It was the shameful slave trade that made countless merchants rich. The financial district of Bristol was founded on the profits of human cargo and many Bristol houses were financed by the trade.
Then over the years, through industrialisation, the city became dirty and smelly. Bristol went through periods of economic decline and was ruled by merchants who, partly through their selfishness, lost trade to places like Liverpool. But the city was always, and still is, an important business centre.
Unfortunately for many books that’s where the story of Bristol ends leaving people today trying to make sense of the place confused. In cutting it short, the experiences of slums in the city being demolished from after World War One and after World War Two in favour of building new housing estates on the edge of the city are nothing more than passing sentences. To me, it’s a bizarre omission.
Authors should write about how things are, but they also need to discuss what things have become. It’s a way of connecting people with history. For example, in the 1970s the central docks were lying derelict after the waters were closed to commercial trade, but now we should be celebrating the regeneration with new restaurants, bars, cafes, offices and appartments. Today, there is mile upon mile of dockside where pedestrians can walk.
This will be a book about looking at where Bristol has come from, where it is today, and, dare I say it, where the city is going in the future. For so long I walked along the same roads and went in the same buildings. In this book I want to make amends and go beyond the familiar toutists attractions in the glossy brochures. I want to truly get ‘Inside Bristol’. I look forward to taking you on that adventure.
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