This week Marion tells us about her pride in Bristol's achievements

This week I would like us to reflect on days gone by – what some people call the “Good old days.”

When my grandson, James, was attending Stockwood’s Waycroft School he often stayed with me.

One day he came home with a homework project on Henry VIII and, being something of a history buff, I went into great detail about the king’s life, marriages etc.

I must have made it all very convincing because young James looked at me and said, “Were you alive in the olden days, then, Nan”?

Well, no, but I was alive after the war when most people had a great sense of pride in their country.

I wonder how many readers remember the Festival of Britain, opened by King George in May 1951?

It was organised to mark the centenary of the Great Exhibition of 1851 and to celebrate Great Britain’s achievements, both past and present.

Bristol played its part in the festival with the city centre, which looked grimy and shabby after the war, being beautifully decorated.

This photo of a crown, taken in black and white, was painstakingly coloured.

Fun and games on the Downs included an “It’s a knockout” type competition.

England was then known throughout the world for its ship building, steel works and thriving coal industry.

We Bristolians were proud of our great traditions – just as other cities were proud of theirs.

And are especially proud of Isambard Kingdom Brunel who, with his wonderful engineering mind, built the ss Great Britain – the very first iron-hulled, propeller driven ship, to cross the Atlantic.

In 1831, as a young man, Brunel had won a competition to design a suspension bridge across the Avon Gorge, although sadly he never saw it finished.

Due to the Queen Square riots work was suspended and the great engineer died at the age of 53 before the bridge could be completed.

A few years ago some friends, who had come over from America to tour the West Country, spent their last day in England with us.

Of all the sights they had seen, they said, they found the Clifton Suspension Bridge the most impressive .

However when we travel abroad what most people seem to know about Bristol is our aircraft history – the planes we have built.

There’s the Brabazon, which at the time of its first flight in 1949 was the world’s largest aircraft, but above all there’s Concorde – the world’s very first supersonic passenger plane.

I was living at Dartmouth Walk in Keynsham when I first heard its supersonic bang in 1969 and I thought then how beautiful the plane was with its drooped nose and silhouette.

Concorde certainly waved the flag for England wherever, and whenever, it flew.

I was so sad when the decision was made, wrongly, as far as I am concerned, to ground the supersonic aircraft.

Thousands and thousands of us watched and waited to pay our final tributes as Concorde 216 flew over the Downs and suspension bridge to land at Filton, its final home, in 2003.

On its last commercial flight it had flown into Heathrow escorted by the Red Arrows.

My husband Derek shed a tear as he had worked at BAe and watched Concorde 002 being built.

The Great Exhibition of 1851 had it detractors, with people complaining that too much money was being spent, but it is worth noting that even though travel was more difficult years ago it attracted 8.5 million people in six months.

London’s ill conceived Millennium Dome, by contrast, only managed to attract six million and has cost the country millions of pounds since.

I do wonder why, in this country, we have so many people who apologise for our past.

We Bristolians should be rightly proud of our heritage and guard it fiercely.

Bristol Cars, for instance, with their luxurious leather seating, are famous the world over.

Which brings me nicely to one of the most intriguing things I learned at school about Bristol’s history.

Did you know that in the 1880s Bristol had a thriving business in the collection of – how shall I put this delicately – doggy poo and such was the demand for it that the animals, and their owners, were even followed in the hope they would perform.

It was used, my friends, in the tanneries for the purpose of curing leather.

It is quite amusing to think of all the fashionable young ladies with their high leather boots and all the proud gentlemen relaxing with a glass of port and fine cigars in their leather chairs never dreaming of what had been used in their production.

Bye for now. Take care and God bless.

See you next week, Mario