Stoke Bishop, Bristol’s leafy suburb is a comprehensive, fully illustrated history of a unique part of Bristol by local author Keith Sheather. It tells the area’s story from pre-history to the pandemic.
Drawing on local and national archives, newspaper cuttings and personal memories, it weaves local history with national events.
Stoke Bishop has been blessed with a special landscape, encompassing the Avon Gorge, Downs and the River Trym. Only on its fourth side does it merge with other neighbourhoods. This has given it a special appeal and over the decades it has attracted the mercantile gentry of Bristol, who wanted to build great mansions and live the life of country gentlemen. Even when the professional middle classes arrived, the estate agents’ brochures could still describe ‘the country air and channel breezes’ that would be enjoyed by the newcomer.
Iron-age peoples, Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Tudor lords, business magnates have all left their mark and the book delves into their political machinations and eye-raising scandals. It addresses the myths and legends that have grown up, among them the stories of Pitch and Pay and Cook’s Folly. Great events, such as the dissolution of the monasteries, the suffragette protest and the planning for D-Day, jostle with tales of everyday life.
Keith, a former BBC producer, came to Stoke Bishop in 1973. In 1999, he co-wrote the history of St Mary Magdalene, Stoke Bishop’s church, and three years later produced a video with the BBC’s David Garmston telling the story of Stoke Bishop.
He said: “One of the drawings in the book includes a lovely description of Stoke Bishop in 1854. It was written from memory by Emily Pearman, who was a young girl at the time living with her parents in The Glen in the centre of Stoke Bishop village. The drawing she did is of the same view as the photograph and looks down on The Glen from Druid Hill. The house was demolished to make way for a parade of shops in the 1930s.”
Stoke Bishop, Bristol’s leafy suburb is published price £15 by Stoke Bishop Local History Group and is available from sblocalhistory@gmail.com. It can also be bought fromWe Make Bristol, Westbury-on-Trym; Salvatore’s Barber Shop, Stoke Bishop Village; Max Minerva Books, Henleaze; Create Hair, Shirehampton Road; and Lifestyle Express, Stoke Lane.
