Features / history
On the search for a long-lost pub
It’s a pub whose existence has long faded from the collective memory.
The view remains virtually unchanged since the above photograph was taken in the late 1860s but nothing remains of the New Inn.
The photo (the full version of which is below) was taken by Francis Bedford, just a few years after the Clifton Suspension Bridge opened in 1864, and there is a high probability that it’s his family in the foreground.
is needed now More than ever
I acquired the photo as a postcard on a recent visit to the newly accredited Clifton Suspension Bridge Museum and couldn’t resist finding out what had happened to the pub as I never realised one had existed in this location on the other side of the River Avon from Hotwells.
The ferry in the bottom-right of the photo is also an intriguing addition. Vauxhall Bridge did not open until 1900 and Ashton Avenue Bridge until 1906 so ferries were still the quickest way to get across the river when this photograph was taken.
The original photo by Francis Bedford is believed to have been taken between 1865 and 1870 – photo courtesy of Clifton Suspension Bridge Trust
See what you can spot has changed in 2024 – photo: Martin Booth
Today, there is no sign at all that the New Inn once existed here in the area known as Ashton Meadows.
(If you look closely at the original photograph, it’s possible to spot another pub: the Hotwell Tavern at the foot of Freeland Place.)
There is still a sign, however, of the Rownham ferry that was here until it ceased operations on the very last day of 1932.
At low tide, a slipway is visible where those wanting to catch the ferry could venture down the muddy banks.
What remains of the ramp to the ferry still exists today – photo: Martin Booth
Rownham Ferry had existed here since the 12th century and according to one source, connected the New Inn on the Somerset side of the river with the Rownham Tavern on the Bristol side.
At the lowest tide, the ferry was actually made up of a bridge of boats rather than a ferry trip:
Rownham ferry © Bristol Museums, Galleries and Archives
Rownham Hill is the steep road connecting Leigh Woods with Clanage Road, while Rownham Mead was the name of a salt marsh on which the Cumberland Basin was built and whose name lives on in a 1980s development of housing.
But back to the New Inn, which features in a number of paintings in the collections of Bristol Museums but whose existence one day was no more.
One Bristol24/7 reader thought it likely that the building was demolished to make way for the railway from Ashton to Portishead, with the line opening in 1867 and a section still in place close to where the pub once stood.
But this photo of the former Clifton Bridge station shows the distinctive white building still there, so the arrival of the railway did not herald its immediate demise.
I write ‘building’ rather than pub deliberately because another reader pointed me in the direction of an article by Ruth Poole on the Bristol & Avon Family History Society website, revealing that the Sunlight Laundry operated on the site of the New Inn from some time after 1891 to the 1920s.
This is the earliest painting of the New Inn I have managed to find – a remarkably similar angle to the original photo of the pub which prompted this quest – which Bristol Museums dates from circa 1784 to 1786:
Hotwells and Rownham Ferry painting by William Williams 1784-1786 © Bristol Museums, Galleries and Archives
This undated painting of a busy scene outside the New Inn shows that cattle were once transported across the Rownham Ferry:
Rownham Ferry and the Hotwells painting by Edward Eyre © Bristol Museums, Galleries and Archives
This view of the New Inn looking towards Bristol dates from around 1838:
Engraving entitled Bristol from Rownham Ferry, showing the entrance locks, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, from Leigh Woods, c. 1838
The Suspension Bridge remains unfinished in this photo from around 1850:
The Avon Showing the New Inn, Suspension Bridge Piers and Rownham Ferry unknown photographer c. 1850 © Bristol Museums, Galleries and Archives
So farewell then the New Inn and the Rownham Ferry. Let’s raise a glass to their memory.
Join Martin Booth on a walking tour of the Old City and Castle Park. For more information and to book, visit www.yuup.co/experiences/explore-bristol-s-quirkiest-corners
Main photo courtesy of Clifton Suspension Bridge Trust
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