History

• Burwalls, Burgh Walls or Bower Walls Iron Age Fort
• Rownham Ferry
• St. Johns Chapel
• Wellington Cottage
• Christy Brothers

Burwalls, Burgh Walls or Bower Walls Iron Age Fort

Burwalls Wood lies between the Police Station on Clanage Road and Leigh Woods, with Burwalls House (below left) very close to the Clifton Suspension Bridge.

Burgh Walls (which may also have been known as Bower Walls) was a 3 hectare (4-5 acre) iron age fort (dated about 150 BC) on the hilltop.

Its one of two on the gorges west side the second just a little further down the gorge is Stoke Leigh. The name Burgh Walls (I assume) has come down to us as Burwalls.

Burgh Walls or Bower Walls were mentioned in the 1996 Wessex Archaeology report for the UWE, sorry but this report is no longer on line.

• Mentions of a second mansion at Lower Court (by the UWE) and roman remains near the Police station (Burwalls) in National Gazetteer (1868) - Long Ashton.
• 'Circumvallations' (fortifications) around a military site in Walks and Rides in North Somerset up the hill from Rownham Ferry.
• Bristol Council: Bristol in the Iron Age and the iron age tribe who lived here the Dobunni.

The orchard mentioned in the second (Long Ashton) link above, is still there. With a public footpath running through it. Its the quickest way to get to Leigh Woods, it also avoids crossing the A369 (twice) on Rownham Hill.

Walk along Clanage Road, go right after passing the Police Station. then immediately left into the woodland, this quickly takes you through the wild orchard.

If you continue upwards you reach Leigh Woods through the National Trust Burwalls Wood. Its a reasonable if steep woodland path with steps and the odd view.

Rownham Ferry

Rownham Ferry is an ancient crossing point near the base of Rownham Hill across the River Avon to Hotwells. The Ferry's history goes back at least to the twelfth century and it is likely to have been a fording point (doubtless a very unpleasant muddy one) before that.

In John Speed's tudor atlas: The Counties of Britain mapped between 1596 and 1610. Rownham Ferry at this time is shown as 'Rounam Pafage' on the Somersetshire map and as 'Rownam pafsage' on the Gloucestershire map.

Its given the same significance as Clifton and Bedminfter (Bedminster) and was plainly an important crossing. Its shown in the Hartcliff and Bedminster hundred. The hundred being an administrative subdivision of Somersetshire.

Muddy remains of Rownham Ferry causeway in the foreground. The photo above was taken from beside the Avon Bridge. The remains in the photos are post 1804.

They actually cross the new cut of the river (finished in 1809). Its position is clearer in this 1901 Map. Before this the river course ran through what is now Bristol Docks, so the old ferry would have been a little further upstream or in what is now Bristol Docks itself.

The Rownham Ferry crossing point is now only visible at low tide in Greville Smyth Park or from the riverside path beside Brunel Lock Road. The causeway continues on the other side but is rarely visible and usually completely covered in mud.

• Swansea Museum have a couple of good photo's of the crossing by John Dillwyn Llewelyn (Swansea: 1810 to 82).
  • Clifton from Rownham Ferry, actually Hotwells and Clifton I think.
  • Rownham Ferry from Princes Terrace, Clifton.
• Rownham Ferry together with Charles II in 1651 hiding in the woods nearby, gets a mention in National Gazetteer (1868) - Abbots Leigh. For more on Charles II escape see The Escape of Charles Stuart After Worcester the Stratford to Bristol section.
• A group for researchers seeking and sharing Family, Social and Local History information, have set-up a Yahoo Groups page on the Hundred of Hartcliff with Bedminster, Somerset England.

St. Johns Chapel

The Victorian map shows the site of St. Johns Chapel in the pasture opposite the Smthye Arms (now the Dovecote). On more recent maps it shows as St. James Chapel.

The Wessex Archaelogy 1996 report (sadly no longer online) estimated that the chapel and the likely village of Bower Ashton it supported was deserted at sometime in the 13th or 14th Century.

My added assumption is that this was caused by the Black Death that reach England in the Mid 13th Century.

Wellington Cottage.

• Wellington Cottage 5 Photo's of Wellington Cottage, a little upstream from Rownham Ferry. This I think was Clifton Bridge Station as late as the 1950's.

Christy Brothers

Bower Ashton was the head office of the North Somerset Electric Supply Company before WW2. With a 33kV generator at nearby Kennel Farm (see 19th C Map top right).

• Christy Brothers in the South West.

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