History in a photograph

[whole diary]

[Red Squirrel]

This photograph, from the Bristol Archive, has quite a story to tell:



Top centre is Montpelier Station, complete with sidings, stationmaster's house, signalbox and waiting rooms. Silvey's coal yard, to its right, was accessed via a bridge over the station approach; this later became Billy Ware's scrapyard and is now a small industrial estate.

To the right of the coal yard is St Andrews Church. To most locals, 'St Andrews' is the area to the left (north) of the Clifton Extension line and 'Montpeiler' is to the south, so it's odd that St Andrews Church was in Montpelier. Montpelier Farm, on the other hand, was in the top left of the picture - very much in St Andrews.

In the centre is Colston's Girls School, to be renamed 'Montpelier High School' in September 2021. Many of its students use the modern Severn Beach Line service to get there.

Most of the station buildings were destroyed by bombing in 1940, as were St Andrews Church and several of the houses on the left of the picture (on Cromwell and Chesterfield Roads). The building with the three oval rooflights just below the centre of the picture was Cheltenham Road Library; this also fell to the bombs. The library site was recently redeveloped as a block of flats which is more or less the same shape and size as the old building. The houses that fell were rebuilt to 'utility' standard, they are easy to spot today as their red brick contrasts with the rubble-and-ashlar vernacular.

In the 1960s Bristol planned to build the Outer Circuit Road, an urban motorway, diagonally across this view from bottom left to top right. This would have sped traffic from a new grade-separated junction behind the Victoria Rooms in Clifton to the M32 at St Pauls. Initially four lanes, it was anticipated that this would have to be widened to six lanes to accommodate growth in traffic. Cheltenham Road, the main road running from left to right, was to become a dual carriageway with an 'almost continuous' central reservation, connecting the Outer Circuit Road to the Inner Circuit Road at the Bear Pit.

Urban motorway building largely fizzled out due to the economic shock of the 1973 oil crisis; by the time recovery came it was clear that it created at least as many problems as it solved. Now, at last, WECA^» (West of England Combined Authority - about) has a Plan for Rail. Let's hope that doesn't fizzle out!

[Bmblbzzz]

The detail about Cheltenham Road being dualled was new to me. I'm finding it very hard to imagine. How far north would it have gone?

On the photo, what is the open area enclosed by a wall just to the right and above the station? Also, there appear to be advertising hoardings at the bottom left of Station Road, where it joins Cheltenham Road ? just where they are now!

[Red Squirrel]

From Bristol City Centre Policy Report, 1966:

A.38 - Cheltenham Road, Stokes Croft, North Street

The assigned incoming morning peak flow for 1963 for this road was 860 p.c.u.'s per hour [I assume this means 'cars']. It is proposed to increase the one-way capacity to 2,400 p.c.u.'s per hour by the improvement of the road to two-lane dual carriageway standard and to restrict right-hand turns by the provision of an almost continuous central reservation.

The junction with the Inner Circuit Road and Marlborough Street at St James' Barton will be built in two stages. The first which is due to be commenced in 1966 will take the form of a large roundabout incorporating pedestrian subways; the second will consist of a two-way underpass connecting North Street with the north-west section of the Inner Circuit Road.

There would have been no need to extend this northward of the junction with the Outer Circuit Road, as most traffic would have used that for their onward journey.

They anticipated that a lot of traffic would continue towards the M32:

...it is intended that the [Outer Circuit] road should be a two-lane dual carriageway of urban motorway standard but even so certain sections, particularly that between Cheltenham Road and the Parkway [M32], will be operating at capacity by the year 2010.

I'm sure I read somewhere that they intended to factor in widening of this section, but I can't find it.

The open area behind and to the right of the station is allotment gardens; they're still there and were looking particularly lovely last summer!

[johnneyw]

Silveys Coal Yard rang a bell with me insofar as I vaguely recall that one of the family lived in the old part of Henbury (what some estate agents refer to a 'Blaise') not far from where we lived when the family moved to Bristol in late 1969.  Don't think I've heard the name mentioned since the early 1970s.

[Red Squirrel]

Thomas Silvey is still in business, though they now trade as Silvey Fleet - a fleet management company and fuel card reseller - and Silvey Fuels, selling mostly red diesel and heating oil.

Thomas Silvey was an inspector for the Gloucester Railway Carriage & Wagon Company. He left this job in 1870 to begin his own coal  business in St Phillips, Bristol. The firm supplied some of the biggest industrial names in Bristol, as well as domestic coal. They had coal yards at a number of local stations. In 1960 their ship the Yarrah was the last vessel to load coal at Lydney Docks.

The yard at Montpelier was actually run by F H Silvey, Thomas's son, who set up business independently with his brother Gilbert in 1905. They also ran the yard at Fishponds. Thomas Silvey had his big depot at Midland Road.