Victorian resources (these were created for St Michael-on-the-Mount Primary School, but contain generic content that can be applied elsewhere).
Eastville Park was one of the earliest and largest of Bristol’s municipal parks; a previously unbuilt on area protected from the relentless urbanisation towards the end of the 1800s. No one then would have believed that it would play such an important role in time of war. During the Second World War, like many parks and green spaces most of Eastville Park became allotments to help keep Bristolians fed as food ran short. Searchlights and a barrage balloon were also set up in the park, along with the big guns on Purdown to help defend the aircraft factories at Filton from enemy bombers.
Gunner, Tom Allen from Cottrell Road, local volunteers managing the searchlight, people tending their allotments to supplement their insufficient rations all featured in plays produced by Year 2 students from Glenfrome Primary School as part of a Local Learning Heritage Schools project. Their research and plays helped to inform an app allowing visitors to the park to better understand the significance of the area in the Second World War.