Schools Learning Zone
TEACHER NOTES
page 1 of 5
Bristol Diversity Trail (Multiethnic)
H. Broadmead to Bristol Bridge
Wesley’s New Room, 36 The Horsefair
H. Broadmead to Bristol Bridge
Nearby (across the road and next to the bus station) is Bristol’s oldest
standing building, St James’s Priory.
St James’s Priory Churchyard
St James’s Priory still serves the community in a variety of ways. During the
late 17th century, its service was stretched by an influx of refugees when
400 to 500 French Protestant asylum seekers came to Bristol after the
religious violence in France in 1685. Most were desperately poor. Large
numbers camped out for months in a sort of shanty town in the churchyard.
Bristol’s Mayor complained publicly about instructions from London to raise
money for the refugees, while others, like the local Quakers, worked to help
the refugees. Records show visits were made to the 50 Huguenots, who
were living in an encampment at St James’s Churchyard during 1682, to
offer financial, practical and spiritual support.
To discuss with pupils:
Why was it easier for the Huguenots to be assimilated (to merge or
disappear) into Bristol society than for some other groups?
Cross into The Horsefair, and walk on the right hand side of the road until
you reach number 36 and the small entrance to...
Wesley’s New Room.
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TEACHER NOTES
page 2 of 5
Bristol Diversity Trail (Multiethnic)
H. Broadmead to Bristol Bridge
Entry is free; for opening times and further details visit:
http://www.newroombristol.org.uk/
Friend’s Meeting House, Quaker’s Friars
John Wesley(1703-1791), founder of the (Christian) Methodist Church and
an ordained priest in the Church of England, was moved to preach the word
of God to communities across Britain, and travelled nearly a quarter of a
million miles during his lifetime – choosing to speak to crowds of ordinary
people rather than just to the wealthy. Huge crowds of workers came to
listen; he gave his first open-air sermon near Avon Street at St Phillips
Marsh in Bristol on 2 April 1739, and his last in King Square on 29 August
1790.
Wesley bought the plot of land on 9 May 1739, and started building on the
12 May. The building is now kept as it would have been at the time it was
used by Wesley, his brother Charles (1707-1788) and his family. The
Wesleys were strongly supported locally by the Gloucester-born evangelical
preacher George Whitefield (1714-1770), a prominent figure in the
establishment of the Methodist movement, and had financial support from
Selina Hastings, The Countess of Huntingdon (1707-1791), who gave funds
for the building of Methodist chapels in Bath and Bristol.
Services and meetings are still held here, and the small museum provides
further information about its link to a worldwide movement. Charles Wesley
was a strong public speaker as well as a prolific sermon and hymn writer;
he is well known for ‘Hark! The Herald Angels Sing’.
Go through the building to Broadmead (or if it is closed go slightly further
and walk through The Arcade to Broadmead), before turning left and
walking to the circular centre of the shopping streets. Turn right, then left
into Quaker’s Friars.
Friends Meeting House, Quaker’s Friars.
The group of buildings known as Quaker’s Friars are the remains of a
Dominican Friary founded around 1228 and closed by Henry VIII in 1538.
After this it became The Cutlers' Hall, The New Hall, The Bakers Hall and
then the Religious Society of Friends (Quaker’s) Meeting House. The Bristol
Quaker community was heavily persecuted by some of the Anglican ruling
class during the 17th and 18th centuries. One especially notorious Sheriff of
Bristol, Sir John Knight, carried out a long campaign of arresting and fining
Quakers, and in 1681 had the Meeting House building wrecked and sealed –
imprisoning many adult Quakers in the Bridewell.
The part which was the Friends Meeting House was built in 1747-49,
principally by George Tully and with further work by Thomas Paty.
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TEACHER NOTES
page 3 of 5
Bristol Diversity Trail (Multiethnic)
H. Broadmead to Bristol Bridge
For further information about the history of Quakerism in Bristol visit:
http://www.csm.uwe.ac.uk/~rstephen/livingeaston/local_history/quakers.html
To discuss with pupils:
Should there be interpretation boards describing the different religious
communities in Bristol at the sites of these historically important places of
worship?
From Quaker’s Friars cross onto Castle Green (the site of the medieval
castle).
The castle was ordered to be destroyed by Cromwell after the Civil War of
the 1640s. Quite a lot of the stone ended up being sold off for other
buildings, and then the 1940-41 bombing destroyed them; a lot of the rubble
was used for ships ballast in vessels going to the USA and was dumped to
form a new harbour in the USA.
Castle Park Sugar Houses (now destroyed)
Castle Park covers what was once Bristol’s main shopping area, with small
streets and the remains of the 13th century stone city walls. After the civil
wars of the 1640s Cromwell had ordered the destruction of the castle, but
many old buildings remained until a German bombing raid in 1941 flattened
the city centre. The sugar houses were a link to Bristol’s slave trading and
colonial past, but are now entirely gone.
Nearby stood the offices of...
Felix Farley’s Bristol Journal
Bristol’s early newspapers were printed in the premises of the Farley family
in this area from the 18th century onwards. The Farley brothers had a huge
disagreement in 1751, probably about religion, and split the partnership and
the company. Felix appears to have been a Methodist and Samuel a
Quaker. The feud continued until they both died in 1753, and continued over
the next twenty years between their descendents.
In the centre of the park stands...
St Peter’s Church
This church was founded before the Norman conquest, alongside the
sunken way (road) that led to and from the original Saxon settlement by the
bridge. The remaining main sections of the church date from c.1100 to
c.1400. Standing at the heart of the old city, St Peter’s was burnt out as a
result of bombing during the Second World War, its roofless walls left
standing as a memorial to civilian dead of the Bristol Blitz. The church was
once home to a number of memorials, now destroyed or relocated, which
showed the diversity of Bristol’s past, this included the brass memorial to the
Irish priest and Newgate schoolmaster, Robert Londe dated 1462, who is
recorded as paying the Alien Subsidy (a tax on foreigners), in the 1430s and
in 1440s.
Londe is recorded as paying the fee for a Licence to Remain in 1430, after
the Crown ordered the Irish to leave. In 1440-41 Londe again paid the Alien
Subsidy, a charge on residents from lands outside of the King’s Lordship, a
tax on foreigners. This was somewhat unfair since Ireland was notionally
under the control of the English Crown, and both the Irish and those born in
the English-controlled parts of France were exempt from later versions of the
tax.
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TEACHER NOTES
page 4 of 5
Bristol Diversity Trail (Multiethnic)
H. Broadmead to Bristol Bridge
A building in Temple Street, known as The Stone Kitchen, housed the
synagogue between 1756 and 1786. The Weaver’s Hall in the same street
housed worship until 1842, although a disagreement in the community
between 1825 and 1835 resulted in a second synagogue being used in a
building between Temple Street and Temple Back.
In 1842 worship transferred to a room in the Quaker Meeting House, in a
courtyard off Temple Street. The opening ceremony was attended by local
Church of England, Methodist and Baptist ministers, as well as Quakers.
This showed increasing tolerance and changing attitudes in the city. The
community used this space until transferring to the city’s first purpose built
synagogue in Park Street.
St Peter’s Church, Castle Green.
To discuss with pupils:
The Castle district was blitzed and destroyed during the Second World War.
Is there enough here to help people understand the historic nature of this
area? Should this land, which is worth millions, stay as a park?
Cross the park to Queen Street, walk down Passage Street, cross the water
of the Floating Harbour via St Phillips Bridge. At the start of Counterslip, turn
left into Temple Street where the local Jewish community worshipped in the
19th century.
Temple Street synagogues (this area was destroyed during the Blitz)
During the 19th century the Temple district was a series of small streets, low
quality houses and factories near to the city’s railway station. It was an area
which was home to low paid workers and many immigrant families, including
central and Eastern European Jews, many of whom were escaping
oppression in their homelands. A series of buildings were used in the area
as places of worship for the local Jewish community, all of which have now
gone.
Continue to Temple Church and Gardens.
Temple Church
The Order of the Knights Templar, disbanded by the Pope in 1307, were
given the land in this area in 1145 by Robert De Berkley. They built a small
church and community here, later building a circular church, in the late-12th
century.
The area is known as Temple Meads (Templar Meadows). The current
church on the site was built in the 14th century, but was burnt out along with
about one quarter of the old city during the 1940-1941 bombing.
The Order of the Knights Templar, or to use their full title ‘the Poor Knights of
the Temple of Solomon of Jerusalem’, were established in 1118 based on a
group of nine soldier-monks who had sworn to protect pilgrims travelling to
Jerusalem. The order was disbanded by the Pope in 1307 having created
powerful enemies, including Philip IV of France who was heavily in debt to
the order.
www.EnglandsPastForEveryone.org.uk/Schools
© University of London
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TEACHER NOTES
page 5 of 5
Bristol Diversity Trail (Multiethnic)
H. Broadmead to Bristol Bridge
In Bristol, Robert De Berkley donated land to the order in 1145 and a small
church and community was founded locally.
St Nicholas Church
There has been a church on this site since at least 1154; the current version
was rebuilt between 1762 and 1769 after a road widening and bridge
replacement scheme. It was built to a design by James Bridges, and the
spire was designed by Thomas Paty.
St Nicholas is built over the medieval walls of the city, and has 14th century
features in its crypt with other original fittings. Inside there are wall
memorials to Huguenot settlers and others. For centuries the church was at
the centre of the local community, until war damage and 20th century
fashions for living outside of the city depleted the community. Towards the
end of the 20th century the church was used as a museum by the city
council, but now only opens to the public on special occasions. Look out for
scars from 1941 Blitz damage.
You have now returned to ‘the place of the bridge’.
Temple Church.
Walk the few metres to Victoria Street, and turn right to head back to Bristol
Bridge. Across the bridge you will see...
Bristol Bridge from Castle Green.
www.EnglandsPastForEveryone.org.uk/Schools
© University of London
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