South Gloucestershire is a unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of Gloucestershire, South West England. Towns in the area include Yate, Chipping Sodbury, Thornbury, Filton, Patchway and Bradley Stoke, the latter three forming part of the northern Bristol suburbs. The unitary authority also covers many outlying villages and hamlets. The southern part of its area falls within the Greater Bristol urban area surrounding the city of Bristol.
The Avon Valley Railway (AVR) is a three-mile-long heritage railway based at Bitton station in South Gloucestershire, England, between Bristol and Bath and is operated by a local group: The Avon Valley Railway Company Ltd. The railway follows the Avon Valley south-east from Oldland Common, through Bitton and alongside the River Avon towards Kelston and Bath. The railway shares its route with the Sustrans cycleway and footpath, the Bristol and Bath Railway Path.
Oldland Common is a village in the far south region of South Gloucestershire, England, on the outskirts of Bristol. It is in the civil parish of Bitton, approximately 8 miles between the centres of cities Bristol and Bath.
Warmley is a village in South Gloucestershire, England.
Wick is a village in South Gloucestershire, England. It is the main settlement in the civil parish of Wick and Abson. The population of this civil parish taken at the 2011 census was 1,989.
Bitton Association Football Club is a football club based in the South Gloucestershire suburb of Bitton, in England. Affiliated to the Gloucestershire County Football Association, they play at the Recreation Ground on Bath Road.
North Common is a village just outside Warmley, Bristol, in South Gloucestershire, England. Historically this was a rural hamlet surrounded by farmland. The residents are fortunate enough that to the east of the village is attractive rolling countryside, with views of Lansdown, and the surrounding hills. The village is on the eastern outskirts of Bristol and approximately halfway between Bristol city centre and the neighbouring city of Bath.
The Bristol and Bath Railway Path is a 15-mile (24 km) off-road cycleway, part of National Cycle Network National Cycle Route 4. It has a 3-metre (9.8 ft) wide tarmacked surface, and was used for 2.4 million trips in 2007, increasing by 10% per year.
Newbridge is a largely residential electoral ward on the western edge of Bath, England.
The A431 is an A road running from Bristol to Bath in England. It runs parallel to, and about 3 miles (4.8 km) to the north of, the A4, the principal route between Bristol and Bath on the south side of the River Avon.
Bitton railway station is the main station of the Avon Valley Railway. It is located near the village of Bitton, South Gloucestershire.
The Mangotsfield and Bath branch line was a railway line opened by the Midland Railway Company in 1869 to connect Bath to its network at Mangotsfield, on its line between Bristol and Birmingham. It was usually referred to as "the Bath branch" of the Midland Railway.
Swineford is a hamlet in the South Gloucestershire council area, very close to the boundary with Bath and North East Somerset. It is located around 1 km south-east of Bitton, and lies on the River Avon, on which the Swineford Lock is sited. The A431 road runs through the village.
Siston Brook rises in two separate streams which issue from a ridge just north of the village of Siston, South Gloucestershire, England. The brook is approximately 6 miles (9.7 km) long and is a tributary of the Bristol Avon. Much of its course is through the eastern suburbs of Bristol, although it remains outside the city boundaries. Tributaries include the Warmley Brook and an unnamed tributary from Bridgeyate.
The River Boyd is a river of some 7 miles (11 km) in length which rises near Dodington in South Gloucestershire, England. It is a tributary of the Bristol Avon, running in a southerly direction and joining near Bitton. The flow rate at Bitton is an average 19.8 cubic feet per second (0.56 m3/s). It was immortalised in the 1613 poem by John Dennys of Pucklechurch The Secrets of Angling, the earliest English poetical tract on fishing:
And thou sweet Boyd that with thy watry sway
Dost wash the cliffes of Deington and of Weeke
And through their Rockes with crooked winding way
Thy mother Avon runnest soft to seeke
In whose fayre streames the speckled Trout doth play
The Roche the Dace the Gudgin and the Bleeke
Teach me the skill with slender Line and Hooke
To take each Fish of River Pond and Brooke.
John Dennys, a poet and fisherman, pioneered Angling poetry in England. His only work The Secrets of Angling was the earliest English poetical treatise on fishing. John Dennys may have been an acquaintance of Shakespeare.
Henry Thomas Ellacombe or Ellicombe (1790-1885), was an English divine and antiquary. He was the inventor of an apparatus to allow a single ringer to ring multiple bells.
Ram Hill is a hamlet in South Gloucestershire, England. It is located between Coalpit Heath and Westerleigh and adjoins the hamlet of Henfield immediately to the south. In the Mudge Map 1815, Ram Hill was known as Nutridge Hill, and was linked to Westerleigh by Broad Lane and to Mays Hill by Frog Lane.
The Avon and Gloucestershire Railway also known as The Dramway was an early mineral railway, built to bring coal from pits in the Coalpit Heath area, north-east of Bristol, to the River Avon opposite Keynsham. It was dependent on another line for access to the majority of the pits, and after early success, bad relations and falling traffic potential dogged most of its existence.
Henry Nicholson Ellacombe (1822–1916) was a British plantsman and author on botany and gardening.
