Horfield is also the name of a ward for Bristol City Council. The ward includes Monks Park and Southmead Hospital, but does not include the southern part of Horfield, including Horfield Common and Horfield Prison, which is in Bishopston ward.
Horfield was a parish in the hundred of Berkeley in Gloucestershire, which included Bishopston, Golden Hill, Lockleaze and part of Ashley Down.[3]
Historically, the area had a reputation as a lawless place because Horfield Wood was the haunt of thieves and vagrants. The area remained rural until the early 19th century.
Following the 1831 Bristol Riots, during which the local gaol burnt down, Horfield Prison was completed in 1847. A permanent military presence was established in the city with the completion of Horfield Barracks also in 1847.[4]
Horfield was mostly developed from the mid 19th century onwards. In 1859, Bishopston became a separate parish. The remainder of Horfield became a civil parish in 1866, when civil parishes were introduced. In 1894 Horfield Urban District was formed, but in 1904 it was absorbed into Bristol.[5] In 1901 the parish had a population of 1435.[6] On 1 April 1904 the parish was abolished and merged with Bristol.[7]
Amenities
Horfield is home to the Memorial Stadium: a sports stadium built in 1921 for Bristol Rugby Club in memory of the rugby union players of the city who died in World War I, and rededicated to also commemorate the dead of World War II. In 1996, the ground also became home to Bristol Rovers Football Club who now own it. Bristol Rugby Club has since moved out of the ground and is now based at the Bristol City FC stadium in the south of the city.
Near the Memorial Stadium is The Wellington, CAMRA Bristol & District joint winner of Pub of the Year for 2005. The 2006 Pub of the Year is also in Horfield, The Inn on the Green (on the Gloucester Road)
Horfield has a leisure centre that was updated to have a 25-metre swimming pool in 2005. Horfield Leisure Centre has a gym, swimming pool and learners pool, and a sports hall.[8] Outside the complex is a small skateboard park. The leisure centre was built in the 1980s on open ground opposite the old Horfield Barracks, where open and closed-in rifle ranges once stood.
Of Horfield's green spaces, Horfield Common is the largest, having a central enclosure of tennis courts and a bowling club. Horfield Common is one of Bristol's highest points of land above sea level.
The nearest hospital is Southmead Hospital, a large public National Health Service hospital, situated a short distance away in the Southmead ward of Bristol. It is part of the North Bristol NHS Trust.
The nearest Police Station used to be situated just west of Horfield on Southmead Road, however this was closed and replaced by a care home. The nearest Police Station is now a community police station based in the grounds of Southmead Hospital.
Transport
Horfield is served by bus services on Gloucester Road (First West of England routes 24, 25, 70, 71, 72, 73, 75, 76, 78 and 79 and Wessex Connect routes 3A, 3C commuter buses to Aztec West and 11,12, 15 and 19), and Muller Road (Wessex Connect routes 506 and 507).
The main road running through Horfield is the Gloucester Road section of the A38 and is the longest road of independent shops in the UK.
Historically, from the latter part of the 19th century until the first third of the 20th century, Horfield was served by Bristol's tram system, with Horfield having its own tram depot near the junction of Gloucester Road and Church Road. The tram depot site is now a petrol station and a doctor's surgery at the rear. Tram lines which once lead into the depot have been preserved in the surface of the car park of the surgery.
Between 1927 and 1964, the northeast part of the district was served by Horfield railway station.
Notable residents
Famous sons of Horfield include Hollywood actor Cary Grant, who was born (but christened Archibald Leach) at 15 Hughenden Road in 1904, and composer Ray Steadman-Allen was born at 64 Muller Road in 1922. The cartoonist Annie Fish was born at Brynland Avenue in 1890.[9]
Politics
The parish of Horfield includes Horfield ward to the north, part of the Bristol North West parliamentary constituency, represented since 2017 by Darren Jones, Labour. On Bristol City Council, Horfield ward sends two councillors. Currently, these are Cllr Tom Renhard (Labour) and Cllr Philippa Hulme (Labour).
The southern part of the parish is in Bishopston ward, in Bristol West parliamentary constituency. The sitting MP since 2015 is Thangam Debbonaire, Labour. The current councillors are Cllr Emma Edwards (Green) and Cllr Lily Fitzgibbon (Green)
Churches
There are a number of interesting churches in Horfield.
St. Edmunds Church – erected in the lancet style in 1860 by ST Welch erected as a school and then given a tower and side aisles in 1930 by Hartland Thomas. A building with a roof (similar to Horfield Parish), Anglo catholic interior, and a high church tradition. The church closed in 1979 and was a printers but was demolished in 2006 – the local planning authority did not request obligatory photos.
Horfield Barracks chapel – erected 1859 (not 1847 as in Buildings of England). A fine lancet styled chapel with some good handling of dressings and very good bellcote. Closed in the 1920s, the chapel lay dormant for decades until being converted to offices in the 1980s. It is grade II listed.[11]
Horfield Baptist Chapel – a twin towered perpendicular chapel by Milverton Drake with an organ by Hele.
The Roman Catholic Chapel of St Maximillian Kolbe with St Edith Stein and the Holocaust Martyrs – in Alfoxton Road.
Quaker meeting house of 1906 – domestic red brick.
Whitefield Tabernacle Muller Road – Contains the 18th century pulpit removed from Penn Street Tabernacle when that was demolished to make way for the city centre. It also contains the superb 1815 wooden organ case.
Filton is a town and civil parish in South Gloucestershire, England, 6 miles (10 km) north of Bristol. Along with nearby Patchway and Bradley Stoke, Filton forms part of the Bristol urban area and has become an overflow settlement for the city. Filton Church dates back to the 12th century and is designated a Grade II listed building.
Bishopston is a suburb of the city of Bristol in south west England. Bishopston is around Gloucester Road (A38), the main northern arterial road in the city and Bishop Road.
Lockleaze is an area and council ward in the northern suburbs of the city of Bristol, England, 3 miles (5 km) north of the city centre, south of Filton, east of Horfield and west of Frenchay.
Southmead is a northern suburb and council ward of Bristol, in the south west of England, bordered by Filton in South Gloucestershire and Monks Park, Horfield, Henleaze and Westbury on Trym.
Bristol North West is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2017 by Darren Jones of the Labour Party.
Henleaze is a northern suburb of the city of Bristol in South West England.
The Diocese of Bristol is an ecclesiastical jurisdiction or diocese of the Church of England in the Province of Canterbury, England. It is based in the city of Bristol and covers South Gloucestershire and parts of north Wiltshire, as far east as Swindon. The diocese is headed by the Bishop of Bristol and the Episcopal seat is located at the Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, commonly known as Bristol Cathedral.
Bristol Tramways operated in the city of Bristol, England from 1875, when the Bristol Tramways Company was formed by Sir George White, until 1941 when a Luftwaffe bomb destroyed the main power supply cables.
Monks Park is a northern suburb of the city of Bristol, England and is the highest point within the city. Monks Park stretches westward, towards Southmead, from the A38 trunk road. Filton Park lies directly north, on the South Gloucestershire side of the city boundary. Horfield lies to the east of the A38 and also to the south.
The city of Bristol, England, is divided into many areas, which often overlap or have non-fixed borders. These include Parliamentary constituencies, council wards and unofficial neighbourhoods. There are no civil parishes in Bristol.
Gloucester Road is a road in Bristol, England. It runs through the suburbs of St. Andrew's, Bishopston and Horfield and is a part of the A38, a former coaching route north of Bristol to Filton and the M5 Motorway.
The 2009 Bristol City Council elections were held on Thursday 4 June 2009, for 23 seats, that being one-third of the total number of councilors. The Liberal Democrats who had been leading a minority administration, won an overall majority of the council, the first time the party had achieved this on Bristol City Council. The Liberal Democrats were defending 11 seats, the Labour Party 10 and the Conservatives 2.
Horfield railway station was a railway station serving the northern part of Horfield and Lockleaze in the north of Bristol, England. It was located on the main line from Bristol to South Wales. It was served by stopping trains to Severn Beach, Avonmouth and Swindon.
The 2010 Bristol City Council elections were held on Thursday 6 May 2010, for 23 seats, that being one third of the total number of councillors. The Liberal Democrats, who had won overall control of the council in 2009, increased their majority to six seats.
Elections for one third of Bristol City Council were held on 2 May 2013 as part of the 2013 United Kingdom local elections. No party gained overall control of the chamber, although administrative power rested with the Mayor of Bristol, who had been first elected in November 2012
The 2014 Bristol City Council election took place on 22 May 2014 to elect members of Bristol City Council in England, as part of the United Kingdom 2014 Local Elections.
Bishopston and Ashley Down is one of the thirty-four council wards in the city of Bristol in the Southwest of England, United Kingdom.
Horfield Leisure Centre is a leisure centre in Horfield, Bristol, UK. It is one of the three most used leisure facilities in the Bristol City Council area, the other two being Hengrove Park Leisure Centre and Easton Leisure Centre.
References
↑ "Horfield"(PDF). 2011 Census Ward Information Sheet. Retrieved 26 February 2015.
↑ Mark Bryant, ‘Fish, (Harriet) Annie (1890–1964)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2006 accessed 7 April 2017
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
