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Prouder than ever of Bristol’s pirating past
Eight wine barrels make up a new Treasure Island Trail in Bristol after a decade of work by the Long John Silver Trust to get the trail in place.
Each 54-gallon barrel from Bordeaux is planted with a palm tree and carries information about the trail: the eight sites are all relevant to the classic novel by Robert Louis Stevenson, with the early part of the book set in Bristol.
The barrels feature illustrations by Mervyn Peake from the 1949 edition of Treasure Island, and each incorporates double cycle stands which also secure them to the ground.
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Who knew that it was in these almshouses on King Street that William Williams – in his 1815 book The Journal of Llewellyn Penrose – introduced the pirate treasure map to literature?
The Llandoger Trow further down King Street dates back to 1664. It is regarded as resembling Stevenson’s Admiral Benbow Inn where young Jim Hawkins lived and where Blind Pew came to give the ‘Black Spot’ to Billy Jones.
Welsh Back, so called for its historic concentration on cargoes from Wales, was a dockside teeming with warehouses and inns, the perfect birthplace for many great voyages. A waterfront cafe is used to portray the planning of the Hispaniola’s voyage.
The historic public house The Hole In The Wall, with its waterfront peepholes, is thought to have been the inspiration for the Spy-Glass Inn, whose landlord was the cunning pirate Long John Silver.
Redcliffe Wharf was where ships were loaded with provisions for their voyage, including barrels of apples to prevent the deficiency disease scurvy from afflicting sailors.
Redcliffe Caves are man made, their red sandstone having been excavated for Bristol’s famous blue glass. They have served many purposes, including as a storage for Benjamin Gunn, the real life trader who inspired Stevenson’s character of the same name.
The Ostrich is also located in Redcliffe, which was the birthplace of Edward Teach, also known as the notoriously vicious pirate Blackbeard. His right-hand man was Israel Hands, which is also the name of one of Long John Silver’s pirates in the novel.
The trail ends at the section of Bristol’s port that was used continuously for shipbuilding right up until Victorian times when Brunel used Whapping Wharf to build the Great Western.
To see the map, visit www.longjohnsilvertrust.co.uk/trailmap.php
A free app of the trail is available – go to the App Store and search for ‘Treasure Island Trail’.