Gerry Brooke takes a look at a new, personal, history of Ashton

Most of Bristol, including its suburbs, is now well covered by conventional histories.

A book about Kingsdown, and another about St Andrew’s, for example, have gone on sale over the past 12 months.

You know the sort of thing, who built what and, more importantly, when.

And who the important people associated with the area, the movers and shakers, were.

These local histories - and don’t get me wrong, many of them are excellent - provide us with good, solid facts, an infrastructure which enables us to gain a better understand our past.

But a recently published book about a small triangle of roads in the Ashton Gate, BS3, area, takes quite a different approach to the past.

First and foremost a social history,“A Small Corner of Bristol,” relies heavily on the reminisces of twenty five people who have lived here for most of their lives.

This is the past as seen through other people’s eyes.

The area’s landmarks are the three red brick bonded warehouses built for the city’s tobacco industry, the Thomas Ware tannery, with its high brick walls, and the ever popular Greville Smyth park.

It’s bounded by Walter Street and Coronation Road to the east, Frayne Road to the south-west with Clift House Road to the north and Clift Road running through the middle.

This cluster of residential streets are lined by somewhat typical 100 year old Edwardian terraced houses.

With a large work force on tap, South Bristol was once a heavily industrialised area.

Many found work in the numerous local shops, garages and small businesses, others in the tannery, Braby’s steel works, the Ashton Gate brewery (Sunrise) or at Mardon packaging.

But many others worked at Wills’ who had a giant factory nearby, in Raleigh Road.

Of these employers, only the tannery and Braby’s survives.

The inspiration for the book, says joint author John Holland, who lives locally in Frayne Road, came after a local community group had organised some celebrations to mark the centenary of the houses.

A letter published in the Evening Post requested local people with an interest in sharing their memories to contact the small team putting the social history project together.

As a result of this, plus a further appeal in a community magazine, a number of elderly residents, many of who had lived or worked in the area all their lives, got in touch.

It’s their stories of everyday life, subsequently lodged with the Bristol Record Office, that you can read about in this book.

Liberally interspersed with photos, maps and drawings, the memories enable us to catch a glimpse of the life of a fairly typical suburban community from the 1930s right up to the present.

You’ll find the reminisces, which are scripted in full, divided up into sections on family, friends and neighbours, shopping, school, work, the war, play, City FC, outings and special events.

One thing that the residents recall most are the long lost local shops, an essential part of the community in days gone by.

At one time, say the book’s compilers, Ashton Road - from the Toll House to Duckmoor Road - boasted a large number of retailers.

In fact a 1930s photo shows a parade of smart shop fronts, each with a white sun blind pulled out over the pavement.

“Oh, we had it all down there...” recalls Dorothy Pike.

“ There was a sweet shop, a grocer’s, a fruit shop, a paper shop and a cycle shop - on the corner of the lane there.

“And there was (also) a sewing machine shop - a Mrs Ing kept that.

“And Gale’s (garage) sold oil because, of course we had oil lamps in those days.

“And there, further down, was Gulliver’s, who sold grain.

“The pub, of course, is still there (the Cooper’s Arms).

“And there was a shop that sold very nice cheese.

“There was a dairy shop, too, which sold milk and cream and butter.

“It was quite busy down there, really.”

One very popular meeting place near Greville Smyth park was the Bluebird, one of several cafes and tea rooms along the Ashton Road.

It was run, recalls Janet Steel - a friend of the owner’s daughter, Paddy - by Vic Crowcombe who made up his own ice cream on the premises.

No-one, it appears, bad word to say about it.

“As we went down the park, or came away (from it) we’d go in for a halfpenny cornet,” recalls Mervyn Southway, who used to play soccer in the park with his mates.

“I don’t know what his name was... (but) he made lovely ice cream.

“ It was beautiful ice cream,” agree Peggy Triggle and Sheila Williamson

“And it was always milk- and it was always in a wafer. That was a huge treat.

“The ice cream was wonderful,” recalls Janet. “He used to make his own (in) a little place built on the back.

“It was milk powder and eggs - lovely, wonderful things went in ice cream then.

“We ate him out of house and home with ice cream.”

Janet also recalls the cafe being a favourite meeting place for City players.

“Vic Crowcombe used to host (the) meetings” she says.

“You could sit at a table and have a fizzy lemonade with a dollop of ice cream in it or something like that and all the City players used to congregate in there.

“Their manager... would wander in and sit down and have an ice cream or what have you.

“ Mr Crowcombe used to keep getting sold shares because (the club) had no money in those days.

“ He’d say “Vic, I really need a new centre forward, or something.

“Would you like to buy some shares?”

Stephen Williamson recalls City FC using Greville Smyth park for training in the 1960s

“They used to train on one of the three football pitches” he says.

“It was great to go into the park and literally stand alongside your heroes.”

Former City player, Jantzen Derrick, who still lives in the area, has contributed some wonderfully evocative memories for a “Come on, you Reds” chapter.

The book also contains many stories about the tannery, one of the last in the West Country, and devotes a whole chapter to the long lost Clift House about which surprisingly little is known.

“A Small Corner of Bristol” by John Holland, Pat Hooper and Martin Howard is published by Redcliffe at £9.95