BRISTOL HISTORY |
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The town of Brycgstow (Old English, "the place at the bridge") was in
existence by the beginning of the 11th Century, and under Norman rule
acquired one of the strongest castles in southern England. The River Avon in
the city centre has slowly evolved into Bristol Harbour, and since the 12th
Century the place has been an important port, handling much of England's
trade with Ireland. In 1247 a new bridge was built and the town was extended
to incorporate neighbouring suburbs, becoming in 1373 a county in its own
right. During this period Bristol also became a centre of shipbuilding and
manufacturing. |
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By the 14th Century Bristol was England's third-largest town (after London
and York), with perhaps 15-20,000 inhabitants on the eve of the Black Death
of 1348-49. The plague inflicted a prolonged demographic setback, however,
with population remaining in the region of at most 10-12,000 through most of
the 15th and 16th Centuries. Bristol was made a city in 1542, with the
former Abbey of St Augustine becoming Bristol Cathedral. During the Civil
War the city suffered (1643-45) through Royalist military occupation and
plague.
In 1497 Bristol was the starting point for John Cabot's voyage of
exploration to North America.
Renewed growth came with the 17th Century rise of England's American
colonies and the rapid 18th Century expansion of England's part in the
Atlantic trade in Africans taken for slavery in the Americas.
Bristol, along with Liverpool, became a significant centre for the slave
trade although few slaves were brought to Britain. During the height of the
slave trade, from 1700 to 1807, more than 2000 slaving ships were fitted out
at Bristol, carrying a (conservatively) estimated half a million people from
Africa to the Americas and slavery.
Competition from Liverpool from c.1760, the disruption of maritime commerce
through war with France (1793) and the abolition of the slave trade (1807)
contributed to the city's failure to keep pace with the newer manufacturing
centres of the north and midlands. The long passage up the heavily tidal
Avon Gorge, which had made the port highly secure during the middle ages,
had become a liability which the construction of a new "Floating Harbour" (designed
by William Jessop) in 1804-9 failed to overcome. Nevertheless, Bristol's
population (66,000 in 1801) quintupled during the 19th Century, supported by
new industries and growing commerce. It was particularly associated with the
leading engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who designed the Great Western
Railway between Bristol and London, two pioneering Bristol-built steamships,
and the Clifton Suspension Bridge.
Bristol's city centre suffered severe damage from bombing during World War
II. The original central area, near the bridge and castle, is still a park
featuring two bombed out churches and some tiny fragments of the castle. (A
third bombed church has a new lease of life as St Nicholas' Church Museum.)
Slightly to the North, the Broadmead shopping centre was built over bomb-damaged
areas.
The removal of the docks to Avonmouth, seven miles (11 km) downstream from
the city centre, relieved congestion in the central zone and allowed
substantial redevelopment of the old central dock area (the "Floating
Harbour") in recent decades, although at one time the continued existence of
the docks was in jeopardy as it was seen merely as derelict industry rather
than a potential asset. |
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