News / Sea Mills
Sea Mills celebrates 100 years
On June 4 1919, a tree was planted in Sea Mills square to celebrate the new estate to provide homes for heroes after World War One.
It was planted during a visit by Dr Christopher Addison, who was to become the first minister for health and was instrumental in the passing of the Addison Act, which made publicly funded local authority housing schemes a reality.
Exactly 100 years later, the same tree symbolises the great aspirations for council housing in the heart of Sea Mills, one of the first estates of the kind built in the country.
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The Sea Mills oak tree by Annie Crossman
“It’s quite a special estate. I came to live specifically because it’s different to other parts of Bristol,” says Mary Milton, who is coordinating the Sea Mills Centenary Heritage Project.
“It was built in this great period after World War One, where a lot of work was put into improving housing standards and that was the inspiration for the project.”
Andrew Kelly, director of Festival of the Future City agrees with Mary, saying: It’s important to celebrate council estates as Bristol was a pioneer city and council estates have provided homes for millions of people in the last 100 years.
“Council housing has transformed millions of people’s lives and is an important history which should be marked and celebrated. But it’s also a challenge today to be as visionary and committed to delivery of new housing as we try to deal with the housing crisis today.”
The historic estate, along with Hillfields and Knowle West, are key focus areas of Bristol’s Homes for Heroes 100 celebrations, a project being led by the Festival of Ideas after Bristol Cultural Development Partnership successfully put in a bid for Heritage Lottery Funding.
The citywide programme will take a look back at lives, aspirations and the stories they can tell across 100 years. It will also shine a light on how old long-established working-class communities were lost with slum clearance, while new ones were developed over time.
The project will look at the changing image of council housing over the decades and the role it has played in shaping the city.
“We started this over a year ago – it was really important that we marked the piece of legislation that started council estates after World War One,” says Paul Smith, Bristol City Council’s cabinet member for housing.
“The celebration is about many things, for one; the contribution council housing has made to the city – at one point 30 per cent of homes in Bristol were council-owned.”
A walk of Sea Mills conducted by Peter Insole
Paul Smith revealed that, mirroring the 100-year-old tree in Sea Mills, an oak tree will be planted on the new council estate being built in Ashton.
“It’s also looking ahead to what the future of council housing may be – drawing in what we did well in the past and improve on what we did badly,” adds Paul.
“We are also thinking about what sort of communities we are building.”
Paul Smith adds: “They were supposed to be homes for heroes and we want to renew that idea because a lot of people who live in council houses are heroes.
“We want to celebrate the people who live in council houses now. They play a really important part in the city and they should not be vilified or stigmatised, they should be celebrated.”
Find out more at www.seamills100.co.uk
Main photo by Annie Crossman.
Read more: 7 historical photos of Sea Mills
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