Events and Activities
We are holding a free history walk on Saturday 11 May 2024.
Everyone is welcome to join this fascinating amble around the centre of Downend, to find out how our area grew from a wild and dark forest into a thriving modern community. During the walk we will discuss some places which no longer exist, like Cleve Hill House, the Quaker burial ground, the Cottage Homes, and the hat factory, as well as some which are still standing, like the Green Dragon, WG Grace’s birthplace and the King George V Playing Fields. We will cover some local people and incidents, and recount changes in society over the centuries.
As well as sharing the history we have found, CHAP are also keen to collect people’s own reminiscences, as our aim is to gather and share local history. So please come along with your memories and stories from the past, or questions if you are keen to know more.
The walk is open to people of all ages and abilities and will not include any hills. There is no need to book.
Meet at the Scout Memorial at 10am.
More Downend School children took part in a guided historical walk to learn about our area in July 2023.
Here Michael Gorely, Local Heritage Education Manager at Historic England, explains how the assizes (court sittings) were held inside the Green Dragon and decisions made about what punishment suited which crime. Some of the children enjoyed a short spell in the reproduction stocks made by Downend Men in Sheds.
CHAP have taken around 250 Year 7 students from Downend School on walks around the local area to highlight points of interest and encourage them to look at the places around us from a new perspective. The walks were led by Nick Smith, Higher Level Teaching Assistant at Downend School, and Michael Gorely, Local Heritage Education Manager at English Heritage, with support from Downend teachers and teaching assistants, as well as CHAP volunteers. The sixteen walks were put on over four days as part of the school’s Activities Week.
Walking along the streets revealed how Downend has grown from a small village into the large suburban area it is now. Students were shown the history all around them, including where the Britannia crashed during a test flight, and where Cleeve Hill House country estate used to be. They were helped to spot houses from different eras, revealing which areas were built when, to recognise names of historically influential families like Cave and Player on street signs, and to notice where iron railings had been cut down and melted to make munitions and vehicles during World War Two. They looked at photographs of shops that used to be here, and learnt that in the late 1800s and early 1900s there were two blacksmiths’ workshops by the Horseshoe Inn which would have maintained the carriages and carts stopping overnight there on their way to or from Bristol. They also heard about the local people named on the Scout Memorial who died in action during the First World War, and about a spy who worked for the Nazis during the Second World War.
A further 250 Year 8 students also gained skills in researching by using CHAP’s historical map.
CHAP’s stall at the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Celebration in Page Park, Staple Hill was visited by hundreds of people on 4th June 2022.
Our stall included displays telling the story of Downend and Emersons Green, maps of the area from the 1700s on, historical artefacts from World War Two, and photographs of more recent history - the Covid-19 lockdowns.
We explained how crime and punishment was meted out in in the past, with numerous people trying out the historically-accurate stocks
made by Downend Men in Sheds. Stocks like these would have been outside the Green Dragon in Downend when the assizes were held inside the pub.
CHAP stall at Queen's Jubilee Celebration, 4 June 2022
We also told visitors about the local boy who became a renowned sculptor. Edward Hodges Bailey was born in Downend in 1788 and went on to create the statue of Nelson that tops Trafalgar Square in London!
We also handed out free copies of our historical map, and enjoyed hearing local people's stories and knowledge about the local area.
Community history walks
In July we will be running a series of entertaining educational walks for Year 8 students at Downend School, supported by Historic England. The walks will begin at the school and take in sites of interest depicted on our history map, including the 17th century Green Dragon Pub on Badminton Road.
Although this is a place for leisure nowadays, in the past it was where magistrates would meet in local courts, or ‘assizes’, and hold trials to deal with serious offenders like murderers, highwaymen and forgers, as well as civil disputes over land or money. People found guilty of wrongdoing were handed out penalties such as spending time in the stocks, or were given an even more brutal punishment at the whipping post which used to stand outside the pub.
The historically accurate stocks made by Downend
Men in Sheds (above) will be set up outside the Green Dragon during the walks.
The photo shows CHAP members Janet (L) and Nick (R) with Michael Gorely from Historic England, discussing the route by Downend's Boy Scout Memorial.
CHAP will also be running a further history walk open to everyone later on in the year, where the stocks will once again be set up in their old location in front of the Green Dragon.
Previously we have taken part in local events such as Heathfest and C in the Park, where we have shared some stories from our area and collected others.
