History of Our Local Area

HISTORY OF OUR LOCAL AREA

BRADLEY STOKE

 

Bradley Stoke is a new town in South Gloucestershire, England, situated on the North side of the city of Bristol.  It was named after the local Bradley Brook and Stoke Brook streams.  The town was planned in the 1970s and building began in 1987.  The town is mainly residential with some retail and commercial areas.

The area that is now Bradley Stoke was once a farmland North of the village of Stoke Gifford.  The area consisted of a number of farms, Bailey’s Court and Watch Elm Farm in the South, Bowsland Farm and Manor Farm in the North and Webb’s Farm in the middle.  Some of the land was used as pasture.  A number of woods also existed, Sherbourne’s Brake, Webb’s Wood and the large Savage’s Wood have all been preserved.  Baileys Court Farmhouse is the only original building that exists and was used as offices by the towns developers before becoming the Bailey’s Court Inn. 

During its development the new settlement faced some problems in the wake of a national recession.  At the time, Bradley Stoke was known as one of Europe’s largest private housing developments.

 

BRISTOL

 

Bristol is a city with a population of nearly half a million people in south west England.  It has been amongst the country’s largest and most economically and culturally important cities for eight centuries.  The Bristol area has been settled since the Stone Age and there is evidence of Roman occupation. 

Connections to Wales, Ireland, Iceland, western France, Spain and Portugal brought a steady increase in trade in wool, fish, wine and grain during the Middle Ages.  Bristol became a city in 1542 and trade across the Atlantic developed.  The city was captured by Royalist troops and then recaptured for Parliament during the English Civil War.  During the 17^th and 18^th Centuries the transatlantic slave trade and the Industrial Revolution brought further prosperity. 

The late 18^th and early 19^th centuries saw the construction of a floating harbour; advances in shipbuilding and further industrialisation with the growth of the glass, paper, soap and chemical industries aided by the establishment of Bristol as the terminus of the Great Western Railway by I.K.Brunel.  In the early 20^th Century, Bristol was in the forefront of aircraft manufacture and the city had become an important financial centre and high technology hub by the beginning of the 21^st Century.