History of Bristol UK - Bristol close to Box Hedge Farm B&B

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The historic centre of Bristol and the sections of the city north of the River Avon are part of the county of Gloucestershire, while the areas south of the Avon lie within the county of Somerset. Bristol is a ceremonial county in its own right. It lies about 120 miles west of London at the confluence of the Rivers Avon (Bristol Avon) and Frome. Just west of the city, the Avon flows into the estuary of the River Severn, which itself empties into the Bristol Channel of the Atlantic Ocean, about 8 miles to the northwest. Bristol is an seaport and commercial centre.

The medieval town of Bristol was incorporated in 1155. The harbour was improved in 1247 by diverting the Frome to the west and building a stone bridge at the point of its former confluence with the Avon. During the reign of Edward III (1327–77) Bristol imported raw wool from Ireland and manufactured woollen cloth, which it sold to Spain and Portugal in return for sherry and port wine. By the 16th century Bristol had become a major port, a manufacturing town, and a distribution centre for both overseas and inland trade.

The city also played a notable part in maritime history: from its port John Cabot sailed in 1497 on his voyage to North America. In 1552 the Society of Merchant Venturers was incorporated in the city; its hall, along with a number of other historic buildings, was destroyed by World War II bombing.

Bristol was a Royalist stronghold during the English Civil Wars until it was captured by the Parliamentarians in 1645.

During the later 17th and the 18th century Bristol prospered as a processing centre for sugar and tobacco imported from Britain's colonies in the Americas, to whom it supplied textiles, pottery, glass, and other manufactured goods. The import of Jamaican sugar and cocoa from West Africa led to the creation of the “sugar houses” of Bristol and to chocolate manufacture. By the 19th century, however, the rise of the Lancashire cotton industry, together with the limitation on shipping imposed by the Avon Gorge below Clifton, led to the loss of much of Bristol's trade to Liverpool. In 1809 tidal waters of the Avon and the Frome were diverted to create a floating, or tideless, harbour with a constant depth of water.

The engineer John Loudon McAdam improved Bristol's roads (c. 1815) with his technique of laying raised-stone surfaces (macadamizing), and the Bristol roads became a model for road improvements throughout Great Britain. Bristol served as the launching point in 1838 for Isambard Kingdom Brunel's Great Western, the second steamship to cross the Atlantic.

The coming of the railway in 1841, followed by dock extensions at Avonmouth and Portishead, led to a revival of Bristol's trade, and a suspension bridge across the Avon Gorge, designed by Brunel and completed in 1864, further encouraged traffic.

The Royal Portbury Dock has been added to the port complex, whose imports now include refined petroleum products, animal foodstuffs, and forest products. Bristol's exports consist mainly of manufactured goods from the West Midlands, notably automobiles, tractors, and machinery. Local industries include the refining of sugar, cocoa and chocolate making, wine bottling, and the making of fine glass (Bristol “blue”), porcelain, and pottery. The locality's most notable industry today is aircraft design and construction at Filton.

The construction of the Severn bridge on the city's northern outskirts and the completion of the M4 motorway to South Wales greatly enhanced Bristol's position as the principal distributive centre of southwestern England. Bristol is also an education centre, its schools including Bristol Grammar School, the Cathedral School, and Queen Elizabeth's Hospital, all founded in the 1500s; Colston's School (1708); and Clifton College, founded in the residential suburb of Clifton in 1862. The University of Bristol, founded as University College in 1876, was established in 1909.The most striking ecclesiastical building in Bristol is the Church of St. Mary Redcliffe, a 14th-century structure whose grandeur of proportion and majestic Perpendicular Gothic design have made it one of the most celebrated parish churches in England. Bristol's cathedral church, which originated as the abbey church of St. Augustine (founded 1142), is famous for its Norman chapter house and gateway.

Other notable buildings in Bristol that survived World War II air attack are St. Mark's, or the Lord Mayor's Chapel; a Dominican priory associated with William Penn and the early history of the Society of Friends (Quakers); the New Room in Broadmead, the first Methodist chapel in the world and headquarters of that faith's founder, John Wesley, after 1739; Broadmead Baptist Chapel, also associated with the early Nonconformist movement in Bristol; and the Theatre Royal, built in 1766.The destruction of a large part of the city centre by German bombing raids in World War II provided an opportunity for replanning. Postwar reconstruction resulted in the building of the Council House (1956), other modern public structures, and a new shopping centre in Broadmead.

Area of city and unitary authority, 42 square miles (110 square km). Population (1998 est.) - 402,300.