Schools Learning Zone
TEACHER NOTES
page 1 of 5
Bristol Diversity Trail (Multiethnic)
B.
Redcliffe to Narrow Quay
B. Redcliffe to Narrow Quay
Once over Redcliffe Bridge, turn to the right and walk along with the water on
your right.
Welsh Back
The Welsh have always been the largest minority group in Bristol, with
Welsh workers coming to the city to trade or to work either in the docks and
shipping, or in local industries. Some stayed as seasonal workers and other
settled in Bristol for good. We know that this part of the quayside has been
called Welsh Back since at least the 18th century.
There is no evidence of systematic prejudice against the Welsh in Bristol
over time, in the way that towns like Chester, or the Marcher Towns, set up
special rules to control the Welsh. Indeed may Welsh were members of the
elite Merchant Venturers or the City Corporation seem frequent (if they were
wealthy enough) and several have served as Mayor or as Aldermen.
Welsh Back is the part of the quayside near Bristol Bridge where boats from
along the Wye Valley arrived to drop off or load goods for sale. The City
Record Office has some of the original records from the ‘Welch Market’,
which had its own building designed by the architect Thomas Paty and which
operated until at least the 1820s, with Welsh traders also using the Leather
Market behind Welsh Back.
Welsh Back; viewed from its south end looking towards Bristol Bridge.
www.EnglandsPastForEveryone.org.uk/Schools
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TEACHER NOTES
page 2 of 5
Bristol Diversity Trail (Multiethnic)
B.
Redcliffe to Narrow Quay
The Bristol-Italiate style former grain store on Welsh Back.
The Llandogger Trow (1664) on King Street.
From Welsh Back turn into King Street, on the left you will see...
Further down the street and to the right is...
The Llandogger Trow Public House
The Theatre Royal
This historic pub, built in 1664, is named after the flat-bottomed barges or
trows that originated from as far as Chepstow in South Wales. Llandogo is a
village part way along the valley, and the name reminds us of the strong
trade connections with Wales, and that the whole area was once busy with
Welsh trade, the Welsh language and Welsh products.
Opened in 1766 and designed by architect William Halfpenny, this is the
oldest functioning theatre in England. The anti-slavery plays Oroonoko, the
story of an enslaved African, and The Padlock were performed here at the
Bristol Old Vic and helped raise public awareness about the abolitionist
cause.
www.EnglandsPastForEveryone.org.uk/Schools
© University of London
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TEACHER NOTES
page 3 of 5
Bristol Diversity Trail (Multiethnic)
B.
Redcliffe to Narrow Quay
To discuss with pupils:
The theatre and pubs [and brothels] that were once here were all outside the
city centre – but it’s not so far away. Why were these sort of places
considered a threat, but tolerated, by the city authorities in the past?
Further along the street turn left and walk through King William Street into...
Queen’s Square
Which Queen is remembered here?
The plan for the square was started in 1702 after Queen Anne visited Bristol,
and the buildings were finished in 1727 – although two thirds of the houses
were rebuilt after a riot in 1831 and wartime bombing in 1941.
At number 29, one of the house servants, a black servant called ‘Bristol’,
inherited £10 per year when his master (wealthy Henry Bright, who was a
Mayor of Bristol and a member of the Merchant Venturers) died in 1771.
Further along the square, during the 1831 riots, another black servant is said
to have thrown rioters out of the windows of Christopher Claxton’s home.
Numbers 33 – 35 were once home to Woodes Rogers, who became
Governor of the British Caribbean colony in the Bahamas in 1717. He was a
merchant and ships’ captain who became rich by attacking and capturing
ships belonging to Britain’s enemies and by trading in enslaved Africans.
Number 29 Queen’s Square (1709), once
home to Henry Bright, Merchant Venturer and
slave trader, and his black servant Bristol.
Now the regional office of English Heritage.
At the centre of the square is a...
www.EnglandsPastForEveryone.org.uk/Schools
© University of London
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TEACHER NOTES
page 4 of 5
Bristol Diversity Trail (Multiethnic)
B.
Redcliffe to Narrow Quay
Statue of William III
To discuss with pupils:
Bristol was the centre of a lot of religious strife in the past. Should the city
apologise for the way that it treated some of its citizens?
Stephen Peloquin’s House was also in the square.
Peloquin was one of the wealthiest Huguenots to settle in Bristol; he had
arrived in his twenties, with his extended family, in the mid 1680s as
refugees. The family were part of a large group of French Protestant
Christians or Huguenots who fled from France during the religious violence
of the mid 1680s. The Peloquins became immensely rich, trading in tobacco
and other goods as part of a consortium with family members in New York.
In 1693 Peloquin had become an Alderman of Bristol, but refused to take the
oath to become a member of the Merchant Venturers (despite being offered
a place).
The very wealthy lived here. In his will of 1730 Stephen Peloquin left a
house in Queen Square to his wife, £1,200 to each of his two sons and
£1,000 to each of his two daughters – a very large fortune at the time.
Statue of King William III, in the costume of a victorious Roman Emperor (1732).
Created by Flemish (Belgian) Catholic artist Michael Rysbrack (1694 – 1770).
The statue at the centre of the square is of King William III, shown dressed
like a Roman Emperor. It was paid for in 1732 by city merchants as a
memorial to William’s victory over King James II, at the Battle of the Boyne in
Ireland in 1690. At this time there was a lot of prejudice against Irish
Catholics. The sculpture was made by the Flemish (Belgian) Catholic artist,
Michael Rysbrack.
Stephen’s sister, Mary Ann, also lived in the square and on her death left
much of her fortune to charities which still operate in Bristol.
Other Huguenots also lived in the square, including Daniel Goisin who was a
rich merchant in the New York, West Indian and West African trades.
www.EnglandsPastForEveryone.org.uk/Schools
© University of London
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TEACHER NOTES
page 5 of 5
Bristol Diversity Trail (Multiethnic)
B.
Redcliffe to Narrow Quay
37 Queen’s Square
Elias Vanderhorst, the first United States Consulate in Britain, lived and
worked here from September 1792. This helps show the important trading
connections between the USA and Bristol at the time.
In February 1829 more than 20,000 Bristolians converged on Queen’s
Square for what was reported as England’s first great rally against the
government’s plans for ‘Catholic Emancipation’; a violent scuffle followed.
By law, Roman Catholics were prevented from attending university, serving
as Members of Parliament or Army/Navy officers, and holding other state
posts. The gathering was reported in the newspaper Felix Farley’s Bristol
Journal, as a ‘good thing’ while the radical newspaper, The Bristol Mercury,
complained that the ‘the uneducated and the unenlightened’ flocked to the
event.
Members of several of the city’s Anglican parishes arrived in a procession.
35,000 signatures were gathered in a petition against the Bill. However, it
was later revealed that this number included boys in local church schools
who had been told to sign; other signatures were also disputable.
Number 37 Queen’s Square, the site of the first American Consulate in Britain
(1792).
Despite the protests the Bill was passed in April 1829.
To discuss with pupils:
Reform was slow in the 19th century, but there was gradual change. Do you
think that people were more tolerant in the 19th century than people in
earlier times?
www.EnglandsPastForEveryone.org.uk/Schools
© University of London
You may photocopy this sheet