All posts by admin

04 Medieval, 05 Tudor

The Old City

Tudor resources

Bristol has been known as a place by the bridge for over 1000 years. By the beginning of the Tudor period it was one of the largest towns in Britain. Bristol merchants became rich exporting cloth and importing wine as they traded with other European ports.

Visiting the Nails on a Tudor Trail
Visiting the Nails on a Tudor Trail

In 2006, Local Learning secured Heritage Lottery funding to recreate a day in the life of Tudor merchant, John Pryn. Primary schools across the city joined Pryn in an interactive tour as he searched for his ship, the Mary James docked in December 1581 with its cargo of wine. During the trail, Pryn and his primary school associates could be found on Corn Street, bartering with the vintner, at the harbour, whispering with the ship’s captain about the wine that hadn’t been declared, at the gate to the city conversing with the constable.

A virtual Choose your own Tudor Adventure allows visitors to our website to continue to be able to explore the Tudor Bristol, meet the characters that Pryn encountered on his walk and make decisions that could result in either a day of successful financial transactions or being robbed and abandoned on Canon’s Marsh.

01 Bronze Age, 10 Inter-war

Southmead

Meadows to Meaders

One of the oldest monuments of Bristol lies within a council estate in the northern part of the city. Dating from the time of the Egyptian pyramids, the Bronze Age barrow in Badock’s Wood was the final resting place for a local tribal chieftain.

There was very little change to the landscape until the beginning of the 20th century with the building of Barton Regis Workhouse, parts of which were used to treat wounded soldiers in the First World War and then later became Southmead Hospital.

In 1931, in response to a housing crisis in Bristol, Southmead was created.

Southmead in coronation year 1953
Southmead in coronation year 1953

Composing songs about the mysteries concealed within the barrow, capturing sounds from the River Trym running through Badock’s Wood, collecting oral histories on the estate. As part of the Heritage Schools initiative, Local Learning have enjoyed a wide variety of collaborations in this area, uncovering Southmead’s fascinating and varied history with local schools.

08 Victorian

St George

Victorian resources (these were created for St Michael-on-the-Mount Primary School, but contain generic content that can be applied elsewhere).

A birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, home to coalminers and factory workers, St George’s Park was created as a respite from the area’s continuously developing industry and urbanisation.

The coal mining scene in St George's Park, Year 3 Summerhill Primary
The coal mining scene in St George’s Park, Year 3 Summerhill Primary

As part of the Heritage Schools Initiative, Local Learning have worked with a number of primary schools exploring the history of the park. Plays exploring working conditions hundreds of feet below the surface in Whitehall Colliery, the highly flammable chemicals that eventually led to a fire in the soap factory, the competition held to find an appropriate design for this green space have all been performed in the park.

04 Medieval, 07 Georgian, 08 Victorian, 11 WW2, 12 Post WW2

Stokes Croft

www.bearpitheritage.org.uk

Victorian resources (these were created for St Michael-on-the-Mount Primary School, but contain generic content that can be applied elsewhere).

Stokes Croft is one of the oldest routes in to Bristol. It will have originated as a track between fields certainly by about 1000 years ago if not earlier. By the 1100s it was probably being regularly used by travellers coming to markets in Bristol, particularly St James’s Fair.

The route became the boundary of the new parish of St Pauls as the city’s population increased. This invisible line runs right through what is known locally as the Bearpit, indicating the parish boundary between St Pauls and St James.

The Bearpit Heritage launch event, 2015
The Bearpit Heritage launch event, 2015

With funding from Heritage Lottery, Bristol City Council and Historic England, Local Learning have worked with a number of primary and secondary schools, colleges and the wider community on a variety of long term projects. Our activities covered the area’s 1000 year history, ranging from Year 3 students’ graphic novel, piecing together the story of one of the monks buried with a jet amulet at St James’ Priory to City of Bristol Art and Design students’ architectural drawings of Avon House North that bridges Stokes Croft like a concrete gate to the city.

http://www.locallearning.org.uk/stokescroftmenu.html

 

02 Iron Age, 03 Roman, 08 Victorian

The Downs

In 1861, Parliament passed the Clifton and Durdham Down (Bristol) Act securing

“both the same Downs to be open and largely resorted to as Places of Recreation for the Inhabitants of Bristol and its Neighbourhood for time immemorial.”

To celebrate the 150th anniversary of this Act of Parliament, Bristol City Council funded Local Learning together with storyteller, Martin Maudsley to explore the Downs with two schools, Burnbush School in Stockwood and Christ Church School in Clifton. The students produced board games based on the area’s natural and historic environment.

Year 5 from Burnbush Primary School on their Downs Local Learning story trail
Year 5 from Burnbush Primary School on their Downs Local Learning story trail

Media producer, Tot Foster has collected memories and knowledge from over twenty people about Clifton Down and Durdham Down, on a diverse variety of subjects from the discovery of Bristol’s own dinosaur, the maiden flight of the Boxkite to escaping goats and peregrine watching.

www.thedowns150.org.uk

08 Victorian

Totterdown

Victorian resources (these were created for St Michael-on-the-Mount Primary School, but contain generic content that can be applied elsewhere).

Totterdown is home to some of Bristol’s most iconic terraced streets, appropriately named, perched on steep hillsides high above Temple Meads Station. Many of Totterdown’s first residents worked on the railways.

Year 2 at Hillcrest Primary School
Year 2 at Hillcrest Primary School recreating School Road in 1901

A Heritage Schools project involved Local Learning working with Hillcrest Primary School, climbing the hills to find out more about the streets and houses and the people who lived in them at the end of the Victorian period. Year 2 students identified patterns indicating the different styles of the builders and produced their own house designs.

“Thank you so much for the work you did with the Year 2 children. They loved it and learnt so much.”

Kim Lamb, Heritage Schools co-ordinator, Hillcrest Primary