Features / Things you didn't know
15 things you didn’t know about Brandon Hill
1. Brandon Hill is named after the chapel dedicated to St Brendan which once stood on its summit. Sailors would pray for protection to the saint.
2. In 1174, the hill, then owned by the Earl of Gloucester, was divided into lots. The upper four lots were given to St James’ Priory and later to Tewkesbury Abbey.
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3. The Carmelite friars constructed St John’s Conduit, which still carries water from the springs on the hill to a fountain outside St John the Baptist Church on Quay Street. This was the only source of fresh water for a time during the Blitz.
4. The lower slopes were let to the Bristol Corporation who sub-let the land to farmers for the purpose of sheep grazing, this being the most practical way to maintain the steep grassland.
5. The summit passed to the Crown at the Reformation and in 1625 became the property of the Corporation. At a time when working people lived in cramped and unsanitary conditions it was of great benefit to the people of Bristol.
6. The hill was used for hay-making, drying linen and beating carpets but only at specific times of the day.
7. During the Civil War, Brandon Hill was the site of several battles. Remains of the Water Fort overlooking the river can still be found.
8. In 1840 De Varrentrapp, physician to the King of Prussia, wrote: “Here a glorious prospect bursts upon us. At the left we see a large quarter of the city reclining upon the hill; in front a spacious and far-extending vale, through which the Avon flows at our feet.”
9. Brandon Hill hosted the crowd of 30,000 which came to watch the launch of the ss Great Britain in 1843.
10. Cabot Tower architect William Venn Gough also designed Colston’s Girls’ School, South Street School in Bedminster, the village hall in Yatton and Port of Bristol Authority Docks Office (now Queen Square House) in Queen Square.
11. Brandon Hill has one of the best collection of trees in Bristol with almost 500 trees on the hill covering nearly 100 different species.
12. The winged figure on top of our Cabot Tower’s spires represents Commerce. At night its beacon used to flash the word ‘Bristol’ in Morse Code.
13. Avon Wildlife Trust pioneered urban conservation in Bristol in 1980 by turning an area of Brandon Hill into a nature reserve. The Trust’s headquarters on Jacob’s Wells Road on the edge of the park are in an old police station built in 1836, one of four built after the Bristol Riots of 1831 when a police force was first established in the city.
14. The hillside walls of Brandon Hill are home to an invader from the days when the docks were in the centre of the city. The Mediterranean wall spider Segestria florentina came in with cargoes of fruit and made herself at home in the crumbly mortars of the walls.
15. St George Primary School at the foot of Brandon Hill is the smallest primary school in Bristol. Rated Good by Ofsted last year, pupils often use Brandon Hill for ‘forest school’ sessions.
