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- Herausgeber: The History Press
- Kategorie: Fachliteratur
- Sprache: Englisch
Discover the rich and colourful history of Bristol with this collection of tales from across the city. Featuring a story for every day of the year, it includes famous historical events, such as the storming of the city during the Civil War, the maiden voyage of the SS Great Britain and the opening of the Clifton Suspension Bridge, alongside quirky and less well known tales, such as the poltergeist of the Lamb Inn, one of the earliest balloon flights and the bizarre death of Revd Newnham. Featuring events from as early as 1312 right up to the present day, this fascinating selection is sure to appeal to everyone interested in the history of one of Britain's oldest cities.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011
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THE
BRISTOL BOOK
OF
DAYS
D.G. AMPHLETT
To Beth, for her love and support.
First published in 2011
The History Press
The Mill, Brimscombe Port
Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL5 2QG
www.thehistorypress.co.uk
This ebook edition first published in 2011
All rights reserved
© D.G. Amphlett, 2011
The right of D.G. Amphlett, to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
EPUB ISBN 978 0 7524 8045 9
MOBI ISBN 978 0 7524 8044 2
Original typesetting by The History Press
Contents
January
January 1st
January 2nd
January 3rd
January 4th
January 5th
January 6th
January 7th
January 8th
January 9th
January 10th
January 11th
January 12th
January 13th
January 14th
January 15th
January 16th
January 17th
January 18th
January 19th
January 20th
January 21st
January 22nd
January 23rd
January 24th
January 25th
January 26th
January 27th
January 28th
January 29th
January 30th
January 31st
February
February 1st
February 2nd
February 3rd
February 4th
February 5th
February 6th
February 7th
February 8th
February 9th
February 10th
February 11th
February 12th
February 13th
February 14th
February 15th
February 16th
February 17th
February 18th
February 19th
February 20th
February 21st
February 22nd
February 23rd
February 24th
February 25th
February 26th
February 27th
February 28th
February 29th
March
March 1st
March 2nd
March 3rd
March 4th
March 5th
March 6th
March 7th
March 8th
March 9th
March 10th
March 11th
March 12th
March 13th
March 14th
March 15th
March 16th
March 17th
March 18th
March 19th
March 20th
March 21st
March 22nd
March 23rd
March 24th
March 25th
March 26th
March 27th
March 28th
March 29th
March 30th
March 31st
April
April 1st
April 2nd
April 3rd
April 4th
April 5th
April 6th
April 7th
April 8th
April 9th
April 10th
April 11th
April 12th
April 13th
April 14th
April 15th
April 16th
April 17th
April 18th
April 19th
April 20th
April 21st
April 22nd
April 23rd
April 24th
April 25th
April 26th
April 27th
April 28th
April 29th
April 30th
May
May 1st
May 2nd
May 3rd
May 4th
May 5th
May 6th
May 7th
May 8th
May 9th
May 10th
May 11th
May 12th
May 13th
May 14th
May 15th
May 16th
May 17th
May 18th
May 19th
May 20th
May 21st
May 22nd
May 23rd
May 24th
May 25th
May 26th
May 27th
May 28th
May 29th
May 30th
May 31st
June
June 1st
June 2nd
June 3rd
June 4th
June 5th
June 6th
June 7th
June 8th
June 9th
June 10th
June 11th
June 12th
June 13th
June 14th
June 15th
June 16th
June 17th
June 18th
June 19th
June 20th
June 21st
June 22nd
June 23rd
June 24th
June 25th
June 26th
June 27th
June 28th
June 29th
June 30th
July
July 1st
July 2nd
July 3rd
July 4th
July 5th
July 6th
July 7th
July 8th
July 9th
July 10th
July 11th
July 12th
July 13th
July 14th
July 15th
July 16th
July 17th
July 18th
July 19th
July 20th
July 21st
July 22nd
July 23rd
July 24th
July 25th
July 26th
July 27th
July 28th
July 29th
July 30th
July 31st
August
August 1st
August 2nd
August 3rd
August 4th
August 5th
August 6th
August 7th
August 8th
August 9th
August 10th
August 11th
August 12th
August 13th
August 14th
August 15th
August 16th
August 17th
August 18th
August 19th
August 20th
August 21st
August 22nd
August 23rd
August 24th
August 25th
August 26th
August 27th
August 28th
August 29th
August 30th
August 31st
September
September 1st
September 2nd
September 3rd
September 4th
September 5th
September 6th
September 7th
September 8th
September 9th
September 10th
September 11th
September 12th
September 13th
September 14th
September 15th
September 16th
September 17th
September 18th
September 19th
September 20th
September 21st
September 22nd
September 23rd
September 24th
September 25th
September 26th
September 27th
September 28th
September 29th
September 30th
October
October 1st
October 2nd
October 3rd
October 4th
October 5th
October 6th
October 7th
October 8th
October 9th
October 10th
October 11th
October 12th
October 13th
October 14th
October 15th
October 16th
October 17th
October 18th
October 19th
October 20th
October 21st
October 22nd
October 23rd
October 24th
October 25th
October 26th
October 27th
October 28th
October 29th
October 30th
October 31st
November
November 1st
November 2nd
November 3rd
November 4th
November 5th
November 6th
November 7th
November 8th
November 9th
November 10th
November 11th
November 12th
November 13th
November 14th
November 15th
November 16th
November 17th
November 18th
November 19th
November 20th
November 21st
November 22nd
November 23rd
November 24th
November 25th
November 26th
November 27th
November 28th
November 29th
November 30th
December
December 1st
December 2nd
December 3rd
December 4th
December 5th
December 6th
December 7th
December 8th
December 9th
December 10th
December 11th
December 12th
December 13th
December 14th
December 15th
December 16th
December 17th
December 18th
December 19th
December 20th
December 21st
December 22nd
December 23rd
December 24th
December 25th
December 26th
December 27th
December 28th
December 29th
December 30th
December 31st
January 1st
1701: In pursuance of an ancient custom, the sheriffs of Bristol presented the Mayor with a new scabbard for the state sword usually borne before him. It was made of silver gilt, costing the sheriffs about £80. On retirement, the Mayor probably retained the ornament as a souvenir. In return, the sheriffs received a pair of gold-fingered gloves costing around £20. (John Latimer, Annals of Bristol, Kingsmead, 1970)
1864: Rail passengers entering down-line of the Patchway Tunnel near Bristol may catch sight of a commemorative plaque reading: ‘BRISTOL & SOUTH WALES UNION RAILWAY OPENED SEPTEMBER EIGHTEEN HUNDRED & SIXTY THREE. CHRISTOPHER JAMES THOMAS CHAIRMAN. RAILWAY PIERS DESIGNED BY ISAMBARD KINGDOM BRUNEL.’ The Union Railway ran from Bristol to New Passage on the River Severn, connecting with a ferry to convey passengers across the river to Portskewett, and connecting with trains to South Wales. This date marked the opening of a short (51 chains) railway branch from Portskewett to the South Wales main line and passengers could purchase a single ticket from Bristol to Cardiff. Previously passengers had to purchase three separate tickets – one for the train from Bristol to New Passage, one for the ferry, and another railway ticket for a train into South Wales. (John Norris, The Bristol & South Wales Union Railway, Railway and Canal Historical Society, 1985)
January 2nd
1894: Christopher James Thomas, a soap manufacturer, was born on August 16th 1807 at Llangadog, Carmarthenshire. He was educated until the age of 12 at Taliesin School, Merthyr Tydfyl, when he had to leave school to help out in his family’s business. In 1830 he moved to Bristol to work in the family’s soap business at the Red Lion Yard in Redcliffe Street. The firm merged with soap manufacturers Fripp & Co. in 1841 and the firm continued to innovate throughout the nineteenth century, for example using silicate of soda to fill soaps and patenting the extraction of glycerine from lyes in 1879. Thomas also played a role in the civic life of Bristol, becoming Liberal Councillor for St Phillip’s ward (1845-1887), serving on the Bristol Docks Committee (1848-1878) and was a member of the Bristol Chamber of Commerce (1853-1877). He died on this date in 1894 and was buried at the Lewins Mead Unitarian Chapel. The epitaph on his grave reads: ‘he bore testimony to the simple truths of Unitarian belief whereon this heart ever stayed.’ (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, OUP)
January 3rd
1920: The following extract is a newspaper report of a robbery that took place on this day: ‘As a poor labouring man was returning home from Bristol to Redland, through Pugley’s field, he was accosted by two fellows, with a demand of money or life. The poor man, having purchased a new jacket with part of his wages, had but 7s remaining, and this he refused to give up. One of the fellows hereupon knocked him down, and rifled his pockets of their whole contents, further insisting upon the surrender of his new jacket, for which one of them gave him his own in exchange. Arriving home, and searching the pockets of the ill-conditioned wrapper of iniquity, the poor man was agreeably astonished to find in it a ten-pound Bank of England note! – doubtless, a recently-made prize, obtained from some less fortunate victim.’ (The Times)
1941: A major bombing raid on Bristol took place, with Temple Meads and the City Docks particularly badly affected. One hundred and forty-nine people died and 133 were seriously injured. The bitter cold meant that water streaming from the fire hoses caused icicles to form on the buildings and created sheets of ice on the roads below, hampering the attempts to quench the fires. (Reece Winstone, Bristol in the 1940s, 1961)
January 4th
1977: The Albion Dockyard closed completely. The construction of the Bristol Floating Harbour in 1809 allowed for the building of the Albion Dockyard, which was then known as the New Dockyard, and it was built for the firm Hillhouse, Sons & Company. In 1827 Charles Hill, who had been an accountant at the company, became a partner in the firm. In 1845 the firm became Charles Hill & Son and the business remained there until the closure of the dockyard. In 1848 the New Dockyard was renamed the Albion Dockyard. The last Bristol ship to be built there was the Miranda Guinness, which was launched on July 9th 1976. The Miranda Guinness was the first bulk beer carrier to be registered with Lloyds and the ship was able to carry two million pints of beer. The ship was launched by Lady Iveagh, the wife of the joint chairman of Arthur Guinness, Son & Co. The closure of the Albion Dockyard became inevitable after Bristol City Council pushed through a Parliamentary Act to close the docks’ commercial shipping in 1970. (The Times / www.bristol-rail.co.uk)
January 5th
1753: An early Bristol newspaper, Felix Farley’s Journal, records that the rural populace celebrated Christmas on this date. Why was this so? During 1752 a series of reforms to the calendar had taken place which aligned it with the Gregorian calendar that was used on the Continent. These changes resulted in the year beginning on January 1st rather than March 25th and the year 1752 was shortened by eleven days during September, so that September 14th followed September 2nd. These reforms seem to ‘have been especially obnoxious to the uneducated classes who held certain fixed festivals, who could not understand why they should be deprived of nearly half a month, and who, many of them, believed that their lives would be shortened to a corresponding extent.’ In many towns farmers were noticeably absent from their stalls on this day as they were celebrating Christmas according to the old calendar. In rural areas Felix Farley’s Journal also records that ‘to gratify the feelings of their parishioners, many rural clergymen preached nativity sermons on the following Sunday.’ (Felix Farley’s Journal, quoted in John Latimer, Annals of Bristol, Kingsmead, 1970)
January 6th
1854: Those reading The Times on this date were treated to an unusual case of theft heard at the Bristol Quarter Session. Richard Harris, who had a reputation for being a ‘cunning man’, stole money from two women servants from a respectable house. They were Miss Boley and Miss Tracey, aged 21 and 23 respectively. Harris claimed to be able to make a charm that ‘would compel towards them the affections of the male sex’ and that they would be able to have whom they wanted as husbands. Harris demanded to be lent a sovereign to make a charm and the women gave all they had, amounting to 13s 6d. Harris drew a heart on some paper and pretended to wrap the coins in it, telling them that they should keep this charm in their pockets for nine days and in their bosoms for three days more. These credulous women pocketed the charm but later took a closer look at it. The half sovereign they had given Harris had been ‘converted’ into a sixpence, a half-crown into a penny and a shilling into a farthing. For these crimes Harris was sentenced to four months’ imprisonment with hard labour. (The Times)
January 7th
1851: At the Bristol Quarter Sessions James Simpson, described as ‘a young man of respectable appearance and connexions’, was sentenced to ten years transportation. Simpson was the head of a gang of thieves which had ‘long infested that portion of the Great Western Railway between Bristol and Bath’, on which Simpson had made repeated trips, always travelling in first class. However, on November 2nd 1850, a lady named Cook, with her servant, travelled from Bath to Bristol. While the servant was busily engaged with her mistress’ luggage, Simpson pushed against her and, shortly afterwards, she noticed that the money from her pocket was gone. Alerting some of the railway officials, Simpson was stopped and a large sum of money found in his pocket, plus twelve gold sovereigns in a purse. Through the exertions of Superintendent Burton of the Railway Police, the purse was identified by a Miss Powell as belonging to her. It had been stolen from her only a day or two previously whilst waiting on a platform to see a friend off. On sentencing, Simpson threw up his hand pretending to faint, but on removal from the dock he was observed to poke his tongue out at his fellow prisoners. (The Times)
January 8th
1930: The 2.40 a.m. express passenger train from Shrewsbury to Penzance ran into a stationary goods train at Lawrence Hill at 5.45 a.m. Fortunately for the thirty to forty people on board the train, no one was injured. A more serious disaster was averted owing to the prompt actions of the driver and fireman of the locomotive. When the driver of the express train, James Burroughs, saw the tail-lights of the goods train in front, he applied the brakes with the assistance of his fireman, A. Paul. Although collision seemed inevitable both men stayed on the footplate of their locomotive. The speed of the impact was estimated to have been 45mph. Frank Boobyer, guard of the goods train, jumped down from his van as he saw the express train approaching. His van was flung down the embankment into a brick-built shed and smashed. In total four goods trucks were derailed and destroyed, with the front of the express train described as being buried in wood and coal. Only the rear driving wheels of the express train were left on the track. The guard of the express train, a man named Saunders, had his van smashed but escaped unhurt. A special train was put on to allow the passengers to complete their journey. (The Times)
January 9th
2001: Prime Minister Tony Blair was hit by a tomato thrown by a protester when he visited Bristol to open the City of Bristol College. As the Prime Minister arrived at the college several protesters surged forwards towards his car but were held back by police, some of whom were on horseback. Several tomatoes were thrown before one hit the Prime Minister. Mr Blair ignored the incident as he went in to officially open the college. Demonstrators held placards with the slogans such as ‘People are more important than oil’ and ‘Cut the war tax’. The protest came amid pressure from EU allies to reconsider the sanctions on Iraq, which critics claimed had led to many civilian deaths. The second Iraq War did not start until March 2003. Alistair Campbell, Communication Secretary to the Prime Minister, also faced a hostile reception at the City of Bristol College in April 2004, when he attended a question and answer session with media and politics students. Four youths pelted his car with eggs. Later, he spotted two of the perpetrators and is reported to have said, ‘You are the people who threw eggs at me earlier ... are you going to find some rashers of bacon?’ (Daily Mail / Daily Telegraph / London Evening Standard)
January 10th
1750: Captain Carbry arrived back in Bristol after his ship, Phænix, was seized by pirates on December 22nd. Phænix was stopped by an Algerine Corsair of thirty guns just off the coast of Lisbon, and under the pretence that one of the European passes was a forgery, the ship was seized and the ship’s crew ordered to make for Algiers under the control of six Turks. Carbry, assisted by three of his crew, recovered his ship after flinging two of the pirates overboard. (John Latimer, Annals of Bristol, Kingsmead, 1970)
2010: An unusual cargo arrived at the Royal Portbury Docks. Two 1940s Stanier 8F steam locomotives that had been sent out to Turkey as part of the war effort were returned to Britain by steam enthusiasts who hope to restore them. The locomotives had been rusting in Turkey before the railway enthusiasts went over to Turkey to free the wheels so the trains could be transported as part of a freight convoy to the port of Izmir – a 500-mile journey. Restoration of locomotives 45166 and 45170 are to be undertaken by two restoration groups at Barry in South Wales and Morepeth in Northumberland. (BBC News website)
January 11th
1877: Six children named Daniel Baker, George Edwards, William Edwards, Henry Moore, William Durdan and George Wilk, each around 10 years old, were discovered at Bristol stowing-away in a goods train. They had been playing in a goods yard at Plymouth when a guard shouted at them and the boys hid in a truck. That truck was placed on a goods train bound for Penzance. When the train reached Truro the boys got out and tried to walk back towards Plymouth. It rained heavily so they went back to Truro station and, unobserved, got into another truck which they thought would take them back to Plymouth. However, the truck was actually part of a train that went straight through to Bristol. By the time they arrived at Bristol, three days and nights had elapsed since they went missing and several of the boys were so weak as to be unable to stand. The next day they were put in front of Bristol Police Court on charges that they did not pay their fare on the Great Western Railway. The magistrates remanded the children for a day to allow for further enquires but were of the opinion that it was hardly a case of defrauding the railway company. (The Times)
January 12th
1815: James West was indicted for stealing bank notes and bills from the Bristol Mail Coach amounting to £1,357 17s 6d. C. King, clerk at the Montgomery Bank, made up the parcel and was directed to Mr Fothergill in London. The parcel was first given to Lee, guard of the Swansea coach, to deliver to the Bristol mail. It was then given to Morris, porter of the Bush Inn at Bristol, who delivered it to Lewis, clerk of the coach-office, who placed it on the back seat of the mailcoach. When the coach reached London, John Painter, clerk of the Swan with Two Necks, in Lad Lane, London, could not find the parcel. West was arrested on December 8th when he tried to use the stolen bank notes at the banking-house and the notes were immediately identified. Another witness, James Ball, porter at the Stock Exchange, claimed that West used him to change the bank notes, which were immediately identified. In giving his defence, West stated that he had got the notes at a gamming-house in the West End. He said that he had lately returned from sea and that the stolen notes could have passed through many hands before they came to him. The jury was unconvinced and found him guilty. (The Times)
January 13th
1881: After an intense frost, snow began to fall heavily and temperatures remained low for a fortnight. Railway services were particularly affected, as this description shows: ‘During the snowstorm, a fast train, which left Bristol for London at half-past five in the evening, did not reach its destination until seven o’clock the following evening, having been snowed up near Didcot. The chairman of the Great Western Railway Company, at the half-yearly meeting held soon afterwards, stated that 111 miles of their lines had been drifted up, and 64 trains were buried in drifts, exclusive of 141 temporary blocks sustained by others. The clearing of snow added many thousands of pounds to the working expenses of the company. Postal communication in some parts of the country was suspended for three days.’ (John Latimer, Annals of Bristol, Kingsmead, 1970)
1888: ‘We had a repetition of the fog in Bristol ... and when the darkness set in traffic on the suburbs was only safely carried on with extreme care. The fog was dense upon the river and greatly interfered with shipping movements. On the hills the fog was thicker than in the more central parts of the town.’ (Bristol Times)
January 14th
1908: The University College of Bristol had been taking students since it first opened on October 10th 1874. It had been founded through the efforts of John Percival, headmaster of Clifton College, who had observed that the provinces of Britain usually lacked a university and produced a pamphlet entitled The Connection of the Great Universities and the Great Towns. This was well received by Benjamin Jowett, master of Balliol College at Oxford, who became a financial backer of the new university. Unusually for the time, when the University College of Bristol opened, it accepted men and women on an equal basis, except in the area of medicine. By the 1900s it had become desirable to seek a charter. However, it was difficult to raise the endowment of the college above £30,000 until H.O. Wills, on January 14th 1908, promised to donate £100,000 provided the charter could be granted in two years. Within twenty-four hours more money had been raised for the university than had been raised in the previous three decades. On May 24th 1909 the charter, approved by King Edward VII, came into effect and the University College of Bristol became Bristol University. (Bristol University website)
January 15th
1928: A fire at St Mary’s Church, Shirehampton left most of the church gutted. At 1.13 a.m. the Central Fire Brigade received a call, and on arriving at the scene they targeted their jets at the belfry louvers as it was feared that if the bell, weighing half a ton and supported on wooden transom, came down it would also bring down the steeple. The fire, which started in the west gallery, found ready fuel as the gallery, the roof supports and the pews were all made of wood. The vicar, with the support of the fire brigade, went in through the vestry in order to remove the safe containing the church’s sacred vessels and oils. (Bristol Times and Mirror)
1930: The consecration of the new St Mary’s Church, Shirehampton by the Bishop of Malmesbury took place on the exact day it was destroyed by fire two years previously. During the ceremony the bishop knocked three times upon the door, saying, ‘Open the gates of righteousness; that I may go in and give thanks’ (Psalm 118: 19). The church was crowded and several people had to stand at the back. The church was designed by P. Hartland Thomas. (Bristol Times and Mirror)
January 16th
1777: An attempt was made to destroy Bristol Harbour. A ship called the Savannah La Mar, which was bound for Jamaica, was daubed during the night with pitch and set on fire, but the fire was quickly quenched and did not spread. This was not the end of the story, however, as on the same night a warehouse owned by Corn Street druggist James Morgan also had a lucky escape after entry had been forced into the building. Here a box of tow moistened with turpentine was used as the accelerant. Fortunately the fire failed to take hold. Three days later, the warehouses in Bell Lane were targeted. These fires were started by torches surrounded by flammable material and several other torches were also found in the city. Patrols were started and rewards for information offered in an attempt to catch the perpetrators. The mystery was not solved for some weeks until suspicion turned to a 25-year-old man named James Aitken, who went by the alias Jack the Painter. When the authorities caught up with him, he confessed to the arson attacks in Bristol and also to the other attacks in Portsmouth. For his crimes he was hanged at Portsmouth on gallows 67ft high. (John Latimer, Annals of Bristol, Kingsmead, 1970)
January 17th
1817: At Leigh Down workmen discovered a large quantity of Roman coins which had apparently been buried 6 inches below the ground. Up to 1,000 coins were found, although half of them disappeared into the labourers’ pockets. The coins ranged in date from the reign of Nero to Constantius II, suggesting that the hoard was buried around AD 350. (John Latimer, Annals of Bristol, Kingsmead, 1970)
1881: The Council decided to experiment with electric light as a replacement for gas lighting and on this day erected seven streetlights on the thoroughfares converging at the Council House. The experiment was not a success, owing to the apparatus used to generate electricity proving faulty. One of the chief objections was the cost of the electric motors used for the production of electricity. A scheme was suggested whereby the tide could be used to generate electricity for the lights, but this came to nothing. Other experiments in Bristol using electricity proved more successful. Electric light was used in Bristol Cathedral a couple of years previously, on November 28th 1878, and, according to contemporary reports, was the first ecclesiastical building to use them. The effect was said to have been ‘exceedingly fine’. (John Latimer, Annals of Bristol, Kingsmead, 1970)
January 18th
1904: Cary Grant, christened Archibald Alec Leach, was born at 15 Hughenden Road in Bristol. Between 1932 and 1966 Cary Grant made seventy-two feature films, becoming one of the best paid and most famous of Hollywood film stars. He did not have the happiest of childhoods in Bristol, for when he was 9 his mother was committed to a sanatorium. Nobody seems to have told Leach and he thought that she had died. His childhood was spent around music halls in Bristol and at 14 he left school to join a company of acrobatics, stilt walkers and slapstick comics. They toured Britain before sailing to America in 1920 to complete a long run of performances at the New York Hippodrome. Leach continued to perform and went to Hollywood in 1931, securing a five-year contract with Paramount. In 1932 he first performed under the name Cary Grant (legally changing his name in December 1941). When his father died in 1935, he found his mother and visited her many times before she died in 1973. Cary Grant is best known for such films as The Awful Truth (1939), which established him as a leading comedy actor, and North by Northwest (1959). He died in Iowa on November 29th 1986. (The Guardian / Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, OUP)
January 19th
Since 1204: This date marks the feast of St Wulfstan, who was canonised by Pope Innocent III in 1203. Wulfstan was a Benedictine monk who became the bishop of Worcester in 1062. He was the first English bishop known to make systematic visitations of his diocese and was responsible for the building of many churches. One of his most notable achievements was the abolition of the slave trade that operated between Bristol and Viking Ireland through his persistent preaching efforts. (Oxford Dictionary of Saints / Henry Sebastian Bowden, Miniature Lives of the Saints, Donald Attwater (ed.), Burns, Oates & Washbourne, 1959)
1913: In 1862 James Williams Arrowsmith (1839-1913) joined his father’s printing business at 11 Quay Street. They worked together publishing railway timetables and occasional books but printing was the mainstay of the business. In 1881 Arrowsmith decided to develop the business by publishing books. The first two books were not successful. However, when Arrowsmith published Call Back in 1883 it was reviewed favourably by Henry Labouchre. It was continuously in print until 1933 and secured the business. Arrowsmith continued to publish a number of successful titles, including Jerome K. Jerome’s Three Men in a Boat and Weedon Grossmith’s Diary of a Nobody. Arrowsmith died at his Clifton residence on this date in 1913. (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, OUP)
January 20th
1607: What has become known as the Great Flood occurred on this day. Low-lying land on each bank of the River Severn downwards was inundated with water, covering at least 200 square miles and killing around 2,000 people. Water travelled up the Severn at speeds of up to 30mph and up to 25ft in height. The cause of the flood was thought to have been high tides combined with a storm surge, although some experts have suggested that a tsunami may have in fact been to blame. One later description of events stated that ‘a greater number of people were saved only by climbing upon trees, haystacks, and roofs of houses. In Bristol the tide being partially dammed back by the bridge, flowed over Redcliff Street, Thomas and Temple Streets to a depth of several feet. St Stephen’s Church and the quays were deeply flooded and the loss of goods in cellars and warehouses was enormous.’ A pamphlet to commemorate the disaster produced at the time was entitled ‘God’s warning to the people of England by the great overflowing of the waters or floods’. (BBC News website / John Latimer, Annals of Bristol, Kingsmead, 1970)
January 21st
1853: The numerous colliery accidents of the period is evidenced by the opening line of the Daily News, which read: ‘Another of those fatal accidents at collieries, which unhappily have become of much too frequent occurrence of late.’ The accident in question took place at Shortwood Colliery, Mangotsfield. Four men were being lowered down a shaft in a wooden cart by means of a drawing engine at 10 a.m. at the beginning of the shift, when a malfunction of the engine caused the cart to lose control and descend rapidly to the bottom of the shaft – a depth of over 230 yards. The cause of the malfunction was a broken wheel owing to defective casting. Three of the men survived the accident. They were Samuel Bryant, 38; Isaac James, 32; and a 16-year-old boy named Gingell. Isaac James was carried home by friends to recover. The others were taken to Bristol Royal Infirmary suffering from fractures. The fourth man, Samuel Bennett, died five to six hours later from internal injuries that he sustained in the fall, leaving a wife and three children. (The Morning Post / Daily News)
January 22nd
1633: ‘Between Thursday the 22 January after noon, and Friday being the 23 of the same, fell such a store of snow all England over, as like hath not been seen in many years before, which was so much greater, not only for that every day after unto the end of the month fell some continually; but more especially in some places it was more deep and dangerous, by reason of great wind forcing the same, which made it very dangerous for traveller; by means whereof many Christians and cattle perished. It hindered the coming of barks to our fair, and trowes could not come down from the Seaverne [Severn] for ice in a month after. After Candlemas Day [2 February] commandment was give to rid away the snow from our streets, which was so hard frozen that it put our city to great charges, and people were forced to break and dig it up with pickaxes, bar of iron and hatches, being so thick and hard like unto great stones digged out of rocks, and may well be called the last great snow for many years after, for all our halliers and carters were hired and compelled many days to carry it and throw it into the river.’ (William Adams, Adams’s Chronicle of Bristol, J.W. Arrowsmith, 1910)
