The Marsh Story

The map shows the first industries and roads that were beginning to push out onto the Marsh as Bristol expanded at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.

At the top, is one of the early glass works that stood on Avon Street, picked out in yellow on the map.

The map also indicates who owned some of the land and other uses on the Marsh. For example on the far southern edge of the Marsh, on the banks of the Avon one field (that we've shown in red) is named Fox's Holes and includes small pictures of structures. It is likely that these are brick kilns with the 'holes' referring to the pits that had been dug for the clay to make the bricks.

Throughout the 1700s and early 1800s much of this area was known as the Brick Fields. It was where hundreds of thousands of bricks were made to build the ever expanding city.

The map also shows a dock (coloured blue) that was probably used to bring raw materials to the Marsh and move out the finished bricks.

You can see an indication of lock gates on the dock that will have ensured that water could be kept in so that it was easier to load ships when the tide went out.

These bricks will have been brought to the dock, from brick works like Fox's, along the roads (picked out in orange). These roads are one of the few things shown on this map that can be seen today, the routes surviving as Albert Road and Victoria Road.

For the community, the area is considered to be an island because until recently you always had to cross water to get on to the Marsh.

This island was created when The Feeder was built as part of the works to make the Floating Harbour, completed in 1809.

These works involved the creation of an earth dam across the river. The approximate location of this dam is shown as an oval outline on the map and corresponds to the area of the modern Cattle Market Road and Feeder Road junction.

To the north and east of this dam, a channel was cut across the Marsh creating The Feeder Canal. The approximate route of the canal is shown with the blue lines on the map.

The works to create the Feeder and Floating Harbour included the creation of Totterdown Lock and Basin that allowed boats to enter the harbour.

Below and to the west of the dam, the New Cut was created as a channel for the tidal River Avon.

With the completion of these works the Marsh had become an island accessed from a new bridge on Avon Street that connected the routes on the Marsh.

It wasn't until later in the 1800s that further bridges were added such as the bridge at the bottom of Marsh Lane towards the eastern end of Feeder Road.

Totterdown Bridge was constructed in 1888, replacing an earlier ferry crossing.

By the middle of the 1800s, a small community were living and working on the Marsh.

These first houses are shown in red on this map of 1847. Clicking the colours on the map will show you who owned these properties and who lived there.

The areas that we've marked in green are described on the apportionment that accompanies this map as being gardens, although the map shows buildings in these areas giving some indication about the rapid development that was taking place at this time.

Some of the first industries are shown in black, but just like the earlier period the land was either being used as farm land or the fields were being used as brickyards or brick works. We have coloured all the brick industry land in orange on the map.

Within 40 years the community had grown dramatically.

This Ordnance Survey map published in 1885, shows more streets and houses laid out across the Marsh. The terraced houses being built with the bricks that had been made literally on the door step.

Although by this time the number of brickyards had reduced you can still see a couple at the edge of the Marsh.

Other industrial uses (shown in black) had begun to dominate the area by the 1880s, although there was still lots of open grazing land in the centre of the Marsh.

As well as the houses and the places of work, churches (marked in purple) like St Silas on Feeder Road were built and pubs (marked in yellow) had been built. In the case of the pubs, these were almost on every street corner.

The Dove Inn was built in the 1800s and had a skittle alley from the 1930s. It closed on 14th June 1958 and was demolished in 1962 to enable road widening.

This is now, approximately the site of Kia Motors.

The Coopers Arms is now a residential building, but once stood at the corner of Grafton Street.

The Fox Inn is the last surviving pub on the Marsh, although now also functioning as a cafe.

There is also a growing number of breweries and tap rooms in and around the Marsh and other bars and venues like the Prop Yard on Feeder Road and the Sports Bar on Meriton Street.

The loss of pubs during the 20th century was in part due to the fact that the population of the Marsh was in decline and the area was changing again.

By the mid 1960s, many properties had been demolished through 'slum' clearance schemes and after the war the Marsh had been identified as an employment area.

The remaining houses in the 60s are shown in red overlain on this early 1900s plan of the area to show just how many houses were lost during this time.

Some of the housing that still survived until the 1990s included Bristol's first council dwellings.

This small group of houses were built on Chapel Street at the beginning of the 20th century. These flats were the very first properties that the Bristol Corporation (now the City Council) built for working people.

These dwellings were demolished in the 1990s to make way for more employment spaces.

Houses, pubs, shops and churches were all lost from the Marsh during this time so that by 1971 the place had dramatically changed again.

This photograph from 1971 shows a petrol station on the site of St Silas Church on Feeder Road.

Around the corner on Short Street, where once there were rows of family houses, by 1971 there were warehouses and caravans.

We have collected a series of interviews with former and existing members of the Marsh community.

These audio clips present a rich insight into life on the Marsh and can inform a positive future vision for this area of Bristol.

John and Elaine Shaw and Jada Smalldridge describe some of the shops that used to be on the Marsh streets.

The Jubilee Room on the corner of Chapel Street was opened as a mission hall by Mr Sparke Evans on November 7th, 1887.

At the opening a Mr E G Crew gave an interesting speech about the need for Irish Home Rule as reported in the Bristol Times and Mirror the next day.

We have created our own interpretation of what this speech might have sounded like. It's possible that there was a significant Irish population in Bristol at this time.

The speaker also makes references to the Liberal Party who were led by  William Gladstone  who up until 1886 had been the Prime Minister.

Gemma from the Blind Owl Coffee Company, Heidi from Styles Ahead and John from no.33 describe some of the businesses that have operated along Feeder Road.

The building of the first council dwellings on Chapel Street was reported in the Bristol Times and Mirror in July 1904.

Brian Davies, Jada Smalldridge, Roger Packer and Simon Holmes describe living on the Marsh over the years and hopes for the future.

Roger Packer, Brian Davies and Simon Holmes describe some childhood adventures and the importance of the St Philip's Marsh Nursery School.