The Parish Church of St. Anne's

 The Parish Church of St. Anne is located at the top of Bloomfield Road at the junction of Langton Road and Salisbury Road. The main Church entrance is in Salisbury Road and and the Hall entrance is in Langton Road.

 Website

Brislington & St. Anne's Conservative Club

The Club was purpose-built in 1907/1908 by the Brislington & St. Anne's Unionist Club Company Limited. The land was purchased from the Clayfield-Ireland family, local landowners, at that time. Prior to this building, the then Unionist Club met in the rooms that are now the Hairdressers next to St. Cuthbert's Church.

Empty Local Shops

 

Here in Sandy Park Road, there are still several shops empty. In the case of this one, it was for many years a newsagents (Sampsons in the 1970's for those that remember) and was taken over by another family years after. This ended up as a Martins shop and after a comparatively short time, it closed with the business being transferred across the road. Here in November 2010, it's still up for rent!

St. Anne's Park

 

Looking at this, it's hard to imagine that Bristol City Council want to sell off the strip of  land to the left of the picture for housing. If it goes ahead, the houses in Newbridge Road will lose the view of the park and instead, have a view of new houses. There are also plans for a Cafe etc. The funding for that would have to come from the sale of some of the park for housing.

 

As a comparison, here's how the Swiss do parks.

This is in Geneva and at the edge of a park is this Cafe where all the tables and seats are left out 24/7. No litter or vandalism. No houses overlooking  for security either, which is one of the excuses being put forward for building on St. Anne's park.

 

A few years ago, some local kids had the idea of creating some BMX obstacles in the park. Not very elaborate, but it appeared to work. Thankfully, the council tidied it up not long afterwards and the hedges have since recovered.

St. Anne's Church

 

This is what happens when someone wants to get into a Church without any regard to the damage and cost afterwards. In this case, there's several hundred pounds of damage to a small section of a stained glass window.

St. Anne's Board Mill Social Club

 

Although its not in St. Anne's, the St. Anne's Board Mill Social Club is still running and is just up the road in Avonvale Road, Redfield. Like many other social clubs, the membership is not what it used to be and with the mill gone (1982) membership is predominantly locals.

Telephone Kiosk in Langton Road

 

Some people wonder why this Telephone Kiosk was removed.

The picture sums it up!

The Hollybush Inn

The Hollybush Inn at Brislington stood at the junction of Bristol Hill and Kenneth Road from 1905 until it was demolished in 2007. The photograph, taken in August 2006, shows one of the contractors locking up the front door after the “boarding-up” was completed. It was by chance, on a day off, that I caught this event whilst having a pint in the Kings Arms across the road!

After the Hollybush was demolished in 2007, an archaeological dig was carried out which revealed some older foundations than the 1905 Pub building. Sadly, soon afterwards, the construction work to build new flats started and the foundations found in the dig were covered with concrete.

It was certainly a missed opportunity to widen the road, as the Hollybush had been the main bottle-neck through Brislington on the main A4 into and out of Bristol.

 Taken on 15th August 2007, the photograph shows what was beneath the 1905 building after it was demolished. Sadly, a few months later, the builders moved in and concreted over all of what can be seen in the photograph.

 

This picture shows what could have resulted in the road being widened. The wall in the foreground is the garage forecourt and this was moved back some years ago with view to make the road wider. As the Hollybush stood in the way, this never happened.

The Good Intent

 

Another of the Georges Brewery red brick pubs. The next nearest to this is the former Happy Landings at Hengrove (now closed)

Years ago, I was told by an old chap nearby that the Good Intent was built in the 1930s in a matter of some 12 weeks. The former skittle alley is now the kitchen, with what was the skittle diamond being the on the floor of the bottle store.

For many years, the Moore family ran the Pub, with the son, Maurice, running the place after his mother and father. Following this, the London Comedian, Mike Reid, was involved in the management of the G.I. as it is known locally. With a large lounge bar/restaurant, this was the only pub in the area that offered proper "sit-down" dining.

It's had a major refurbishment and was closed for several weeks in March/April 2010. The place re-opened in the middle of May and appears to be "on the up" with food, music and other events  There's also a Facebook page showing coming events etc. They also have a website with more information.

Being the only Pub in Broomhill, the nearest competition is in Brislington Village or Sandy Park Road.

The Pilgrim Inn

 

Formerly a Bass house, it re-opened following a mysterious fire and underwent a refurbishment in October 2007 in the hands of Punch Taverns. At that point it offered four real ales and a selection of other beers, lagers & ciders and food. Due to problems, the Pilgrim closed early June 2008 and did not re-open until mid September under new management. It changed hands again in May 2009. Also in May, the Pilgrim, along with the Bloomfield Inn and Sandringham Hotel had windows smashed, which was reported in the Bristol Evening Post

The Pilgrim closed (again) on Monday 5th October 2009. It re-opened 28th of October under new management, this time by an operator that has two successful pubs in Bedminster & Clifton. Real ales inclu ded Butcombe Gold, Wadworth's 6X and Sharp's Doom Bar. Food-wise, there's a good menu too. Good news for this place at last?

Website  (a bit out of date)

The Bloomfield Inn

 

Built in the 1930's, the Bloomfield Inn is located half way down Bloomfield Road near the local shops. There are two bars and a good size enclosed garden, as well as a covered area for the smokers.

Drink-wise, there's Courage Best as well as other guest ales. On keg, there's John Smiths smooth. Fosters, Kronenbourg & Stella lagers as well as Blackthorn cider & Taunton Traditional (Rough).

There is usually a good meat draw on Sunday lunchtimes with a monster meat draw on Bank Holiday Sundays.

If you want to know more, there is also a Facebook Group showing all events etc.

Reginald Molehusband Lives in St. Anne's

 

I'm NOT suggesting a Residents Parking Zone, but I've been saying for ages that we need marked parking bays on the road for the people that cannot park their cars without an 8 foot gap at the rear and 6 foot gap in front. If either of these cars had  been parked a bit closer, there would have been room to get another car in!

Bloomfield Road

Bloomfield Road still has a few shops and a pub, but has suffered trade-wise since the bottom of the road was closed off. There used to be a Bookmakers, Butchers, Hardware Shop, Minimarket, Greegrocers, Hairdressers (now a house) and Video Shop. Sadly these have disappeared and several former shops are now houses or flats.

St. Anne's Church

 

St. Anne's Church sits at the top of Bloomfield Road at the junction of Langton Road and Salisbury Road. The Church wall originally had pillars and railings. No doubt they were taken down to build Spitfires? Ironically, St. Anne's was the first Church to be bombed in WW2! Photo

If you would like to book the Church Hall, please click here: Church Caretaker

General information about St. Annes

Church Crawler Website 

Proper Ice Cream

 

National Champions it says on the sign and here in Brislington!

A street without Cars?

 It's not very often you see a road in the area without any cars at any time of the day, but here's an unusual picture of Arlington Road with just a few cars in front gardens.

Here's the reason!

Hedge Funds

It's a Hedge!

Not exactly a Banksy!

 

My local No. 36 Bust Stop... Smart eh?

A view towards Town

 

With the BRI chimney in the centre, this view is from Langton Court Road

The former White Hart Hotel in Brislington

 

The White Hart was, at one time, the second highest seller of Courage beer in Bristol. The highest being the Enterprise in Parson Street, Bedminster.