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The farm- and field-names of old

Shirehampton

Richard Coates

Shirehampton: Shire Community Newspaper

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This electronic book can be read like an ordinary book by scrolling through, or it

can be searched using the search-engine provided on the web-site. It may be freely

downloaded or printed off and bound, on the sole condition of including this page

with this copyright notice:

Text © Richard Coates 2012

Revised and corrected: March 2013

Locations have been much improved thanks to “Know your place”

The moral right of Richard Coates to be identified as the author of

The farm- and field-names of old Shirehampton has been asserted.

The copyright in images rests with the author except where stated. Some old

images believed to be out of copyright have been used.

The publisher is Shire Community Newspaper, Shirehampton.

Contents

Preface .... 3

Brief history of the area .... 4

Words often appearing in field-names .... 4

The farm-names of old Shirehampton .... 9

The field-names of old Shirehampton .... 13

How to read an entry .... 14

Lost names .... 39

Detached lands .... 40

Further information .... 41

Unpublished sources .... 42

The end .... 44 (and last page or back cover, with map .... 45)

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One of few surviving old views of Shirehampton showing fields (just). The marshland with Broad

Pill can be seen left of centre, this side of the river Avon. The engraving, with a viewpoint at the

end of Penpole Ridge, seems to be early Victorian because Avonmouth lighthouse, built in 1839,

can be seen to the left of the pillar and seat.

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Preface

Shirehampton was originally a farming community. This booklet is about the

names of the farms and fields as they existed not long before the period in which

the built-up area expanded greatly (say from about 1876 onwards). It is a

companion to my book The street-names of Shirehampton and Avonmouth (2011), which

can be found online at www.shire.org.uk/content/history/streetnames.pdf. It

offers an analysis of the names of fields and other patches of land listed in the

Tithe Award for Shirehampton which was drawn up in 1840-1, and a copy of

which is preserved at Bristol Record Office, document reference EP/A/32/34,

along with a map showing where each field was. The fields on the map are

numbered, and the name of the field can be found out by checking the number

assigned to it in the Award. The numbers are given after the field-name in the

entries below. In 1840-1, Avonmouth did not exist. The whole of its area was part

of the farmland of Shirehampton, which was a chapelry of Westbury on Trym

parish, though completely separated from it by King’s Weston, a strip of Henbury

parish. Shirehampton became a parish in its own right in 1844. The names are

reproduced here exactly as spelt in the Tithe Award, and where older spellings are

known from other sources, they are given in the relevant entries along with a few

more recent ones.

Names sometimes attach to more than one field, for two different reasons. There

may be many fields of a particular type, so there is more than one called The

Paddock or Five Acres, for example. And sometimes a larger unit has been divided

without any renaming taking place, so that adjacent fields may have the same

name, as with Widenhams. Some people may choose to consider labels of the type

The Paddock not as names at all, but as descriptions. I have chosen to include all

such items in this book.

Particular fields did not always belong to the same farms. They could be sold or

exchanged; their ownership might be shared; their boundaries could change. New

farms might be created within an existing landscape. It could therefore be

historically misleading to deal with the fields as if they belonged to particular farms,

and I have treated the names of the farms separately from the fields.

Most of the field-names have disappeared because the farmland has been covered

with streets, factories, and trading estates. A few have been adopted as the names

of streets, and these are printed in red. Very few early pictures are known to exist

showing Shirehampton’s fields.

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Some farm- and field-names appear to contain surnames, and I have not always

been able to discover a local connection. If you know one, I would be glad to find

out; contact me at richardc.yb@gmail.com. Please also tell me of any mistakes.

This booklet is meant to be something for everyone’s interest, not an academic

work, so I have not put detailed references or footnotes in the body of the text. It

has been properly researched, though, and all my sources are given discreetly in the

bibliography at the end.

Brief history of the area

A potted history of the Shirehampton and Avonmouth area is set out in my Street-

names book, online at www.shire.org.uk/content/history/streetnames.pdf, and I do

not repeat it here. More detail can also be found in the local books by Ethel

Thomas (see the list of references on pages 41-2).

Words often appearing in names

There are several words which turn up repeatedly in our field-names and in the

discussion of them. It makes sense to explain them here so that the definition is

not repeated over and over through the book. Readers should check this list if they

find that a word is not explained fully in the list of names. Note that just because a

word with a particular meaning appears in a field-name, it does not mean that that

field was used for that purpose in 1840-1. The names may persist when the use

changes. Ham Mead, named from being a meadow, had become ploughed land,

and so had Grove Paddock, while Upper and Lower Furlong, which judging by

their names had clearly once been ploughed land, were by then pasture. Many

common lands came into private ownership in 1840-1.

acre

In the medieval system of agriculture, fields did not usually belong to privately-

owned farms as they did in later centuries. All land was held by the lord of the

manor, and the manor had open or common fields in which the lord’s tenants

were assigned strips of land. These strips of land were grouped into furlongs, but it

was the strips that were farmed by the tenants, not whole furlongs. A tenant might

have many strips in different furlongs in different open fields. The word acre was

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originally applied to land that was available for ploughing and sowing crops, as

opposed to meadow or woodland, for example, and it might also mean a single

arable (ploughable) strip of about 220 yards in length and 22 yards in width. Later,

the word came to be used of a holding of a particular size, and the size of an acre

could differ quite markedly across England. These “local acres” were eventually

replaced by the national “statutory acre”, which had an official definition: 4840

square yards (the same area as 220 yards by 22 yards). Where the word appears in

local field-names, it mostly seems to mean the statutory acre, and the field-names

come from the estimated size in acres. I have sometimes included the actual size of

a field in acres, roods, and poles (rods or perches), so for example a field called

Four Acres, no. 239 in the Tithe Award, is 3-2-15 (three acres, two roods, and 15

poles, i.e. a bit less than the full four acres; there were 40 poles to the rood and

four roods to the acre).

allotment

In local field-names, the meaning is more like ‘allocation’. It often is used with a

person’s surname to mean the common land allocated to them by an Act of

Inclosure. An allotment as we know it might instead be called park.

close

This is the normal local word for what is generally called a field: an enclosed

(hedged or fenced) area, most often one created by enclosure in about 1822.

common

Land in which all those who had rights in the manor were entitled to do a certain

thing, like turn animals out for grazing; land not in private ownership or use and

not divided up in any way.

croft

A small plot of land, normally one attached to a house.

dumball or dumble: see warth

enclosure

Any piece of land enclosed by a hedge or fence. But in farming history its special

significance is that landowners often wanted to make more productive use of their

land than the strip system of open-field farming allowed, so they would, especially

in the 18th and early 19th centuries, apply to Parliament for an Act allowing them

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to enclose the common land of the manor. (Such an Act was often called an

Inclosure Act, especially that of 1845 which allowed enclosure to take place

without a specific application being put before Parliament.) Tenants would often

also exchange strips so have to have a more manageable block of land. The result

of both processes was the patchwork of fairly small fields so typical of English

farms in many areas in the south and midlands in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

feeding

This is a word that occasionally appears in local records (ffeedings, in a lease of

1748), apparently meaning the same as pasture.

field

This word, in the modern sense, is quite rare in our local names. The sense, as in

the field parrock, sometimes appears obscure: this is ‘paddock in the open field’. In

Shirehampton, the only important early use of the word seems to have been for

the medieval open or common fields (see under acre), and we find it in The Lay

Field, the name of one of the three open fields.

furlong or furrows

A group of strips in an open or common field (see under acre).

gout

A drain under a road or track; a culvert. Some might have a sluice, or one-way

door at the end of a reen which allowed marshwater to drain out but did not

allow salty tidewater back in. A gout is often to be found in a seawall or other

marshland bank.

grip

Local alternative word for where a reen drained into the Severn.

ground

Locally, this seems to be a general word for a piece of land, often in home ground, an

enclosure nearest to a house.

inclosure: see enclosure

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leaze

This originally meant ‘pasture’, i.e. ‘grazing’, grassland set aside for animals to feed

in. Later it is sometimes not clearly distinguished from the other sort of grassland,

mead or meadow, which was land in which the grass was mowed for hay to

supply winter fodder for animals, bedding, and so on. Leaze is especially a word of

the south-west of England and very common in names of the Bristol area.

marsh

Land with wet soil which was subject to flooding or waterlogging and useless for

growing crops; it was valuable as grazing land. The marshland in Shirehampton

was drained in the medieval period, or perhaps earlier, using reens. It was also

enclosed by seawalls. Marsh could also be called moor.

mead(ow)

Originally grassland for mowing: see leaze.

messuage

A legal term for a house along with its yard, outbuildings, orchard, and garden.

moor

Land not fit for ploughing, often used of marsh, as in Sedgemoor, and also of high

grazing land, as in Exmoor. The word was also used for warthland.

paddock

A hedged or fenced enclosure in which animals are kept. See also park.

park

Originally a large tract of open country with some trees, enclosed to contain deer

for hunting. It came to mean the grounds around the house of a large country

estate which could be landscaped and used for leisure and recreation. Locally, and

in other parts of the country, it could also mean ‘allotments’ in the modern sense.

It seems to have shared an origin with the word parrock, which is the source of the

modern word paddock.

pill

A saltwater creek, sometimes defined as one into which a freshwater stream drains,

as in the place-name Pill.

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reen or rhine, sometimes rhyne (pronounced “reen”)

A drainage ditch in the marshland, recorded locally for example as Reenes in 1684.

Note that the winding Shirehampton Reen (Rhine) is in what is now Avonmouth.

sea-bank or seawall

A stone-filled earth bank to protect marshland from flooding by the tide in either

the Severn or the Avon. In Shirehampton there was an earlier inner bank and a

later outer bank. The outer bank left only a narrow strip of warthland along the

two rivers and there was no regular flooding after it was made.

wainshard

Shard is a local Gloucestershire term for a gap in the hedge, and there are local

17th-century references to one or more waynsheard near Kingroad Farm, i.e. gaps

wide enough for wagons to pass through.

warth

The warthland was the shore of the Severn and the Avon which was flooded by

the highest tides but which could be used for grazing at certain times. In later

centuries, the term, originally just meaning ‘shore’, was restricted to mean the land

outside the seabanks. Another word, dumball or dumble, has a similar meaning,

but seems to have meant land further out than the warth and subject to more

constant overflowing. Neither of these terms seems to mean actual saltmarsh, land

which is flooded twice a day by the rising tide. Warthland was also called moor.

What is left of the Avonside warthland or riverside pasture near the end of West Town Road,

with a later sea-bank visible on the far right.

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The farm-names of old Shirehampton

Avonhouse (earlier Avenhouse)

Far out in the marshes near the old mouth of the Avon, this may have been the

tenement which paid a parish rate in Westbury on Trym in the 17th century.

Avonmouth Farm (Lait’s Farm; Pullin’s Farm)

A farm which appeared in the 1870s near the eastern end of the new Avonmouth

village serving the docks community. Site of buildings now under the western end

of Crowley Way.

Barrow Hill or Barrowhill Farm

The red stone farm building still stands

as the home of the playgroup in Grove

Leaze. For the name, see Barrow

Hill(s) in the field-names section.

Battery Farm: see Kingroad Farm.

Bradley Farm

A farm of the Kilminster family appearing in the record just after 1900. See (The)

Bradley in the field-names section.

Briffett’s Farm

A fairly short-lived enterprise on Avonmouth Road in Avonmouth.

Bushes Farm (mistakenly Rushes on some early maps)

This was later, by 1880, called T Farm (apparently from a T-shaped orchard plot

next to the farmhouse, though it appears as Tea Farm in 1871) or Kilminster’s

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(from the family that farmed it in the later 19th century), and later Norris’s. It is

now under one of the Avonmouth trading estates, roughly, east of First Way.

Possibly from a surname of a family Bush recorded as having responsibilities in

Shirehampton in the late 17th century. The site of the buildings was near the end

of First Way, right by the M5 slip road.

Kingroad Farm

This clearly took its name from the anchorage in the Severn estuary centred

between Portishead and the mouth of the Avon, but it is really further north than

most of Kingroad. It was known for some of its later existence as Battery Farm,

from the gun battery guarding the mouth of the Avon here during the Napoleonic

wars (1803-15). Its site is under the coal yard near the present St Andrew’s Road

station. Lodgings for the soldiers at the battery were at Barracks Cottages.

King’s Weston House

King’s Weston was the great aristocratic house of this area. King’s Weston Home

Farm was in King’s Weston Lane, in Henbury parish. But the King’s Weston

estate, from the 18th century onwards, acquired much of the land of

Shirehampton.

Manor

Shirehampton may never officially have had a separate manor or centre of local

administration, but the prominent house known as The Elizabethan House in the

High Street (demolished 1937) also carried this title as if by courtesy. Most of the

land in Shirehampton by the end of farming was part of the King’s Weston estate.

Myrtle Farm

Historic photo of the

entrance to the former

allotments at Myrtle

Farm (from the Ethel

Thomas collection; copy-

right unknown).

Myrtle Farm took its

name from the

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adjacent late-18th century house Myrtle Hall. The farm buildings were demolished

in the 1930s.

The Old House

There was a building called simply The Old House on an 1830 map. It looks like a

marshland farmstead, but nothing is known about it and it has vanished by 1841.

Park Hill Farm (left)

On the south side of the bottom of

Park Hill. The house is still standing.

St Peter’s Hospital, Bristol

This famous charitable establishment,

whose medieval buildings were destroyed in the blitz of 1940, owned land in

Shirehampton in the 18th century, though it did not actually give its name to any

farm. See Hospital Allotment in the field-names section.

Shire Farm

This was a short-lived enterprise in the region of Woodwell Road and St Bernard’s

Road, recorded in the 1940s. Its farmhouse was the old wooden Community Hall

in Dursley Road. It may also have been known as Woodwell Farm.

Shirehampton Farm (Green’s Farm; Williams’ Farm)

The forlorn site of

Shirehampton Farm in 2012,

looking towards the M5

embankment. This field under

the tarmac was probably

Marsh Acre.

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This farm was at the bottom of Lower High Street, and its buildings were roughly

under the M5 flyover and the site of the former GKN Westland Aerospace

research labs in Atlantic Way. The site is now in Avonmouth, but Avonmouth had

no separate existence as a parish till 1904.

Sunny Hill Farm (Long’s Farm)

A dairy farm situated at the bottom of the north side of Park Hill. The Long family

were its last farmers.

T Farm (Kilminster’s Farm): see Bushes Farm.

Westward House

This, the fine building in the High

Street designed by Frederick Bligh

Bond, infamously demolished in 1952,

deserves a mention in this section

because it was the office of the King’s

Weston Estate. (No known copyright.)

Wick House Farm

There seems to have been a farm of this name on the marshland, revealed by a

similarly-named field, but nothing is known about it. There was also a building

called simply The Old House on an 1830 map, but again nothing is known about

it and its site is labelled Orchard and Ruins (plot 249) on the Tithe Award map of

1841.

I have not been able to locate Isgar’s Farm or Redding’s Pig Farm, both

somewhere near the junction of The Portway and Avonmouth Road.

Many messuages are mentioned in 18th-century documents. These were probably

smallholdings, since closes (enclosed fields) are attached to them, but in this

section I have only listed the largest and/or the most recent farms. There are

mentions of these messuages at various points below. Some of them may be

forerunners of the farms mentioned here. Others are short-lived, such as Mutter’s

Farm, a small enterprise on Avonmouth Road opposite the end of West Town

Lane, mentioned in oral histories.

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The field-names of old Shirehampton

Shirehampton seems to have had three medieval open or common fields for

ploughing, called Bradley, Whitley and The Lay Field, and there were possibly

common meadows in or near the warthland called Widenhams. These names

survive in the names of the later fields created by enclosure, and they will be found

in the list below. Three open fields is a typical pattern, though some manors had

only two or more rarely some other number. Other aspects of the ancient

agricultural landscape are more difficult to work out, especially in the marshland,

though common grazing land must have existed along with other common

meadows, and there are regular general mentions of the Marsh, the Moor and the

Warth, which must have provided the grazing and fodder needed for the animals.

In the post-medieval period through to the 19th century, the open fields and

commons were divided into smaller private tenanted farms, and the names in this

book largely represent the state of affairs created by this process. The names are

accompanied by at least one number, representing their number(s) in the Tithe

Award of 1840-1. The spellings are those given in the Tithe Award (including

missing apostrophes!)

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How to read an entry

Example:

Adams’s Common 340, Adams’s Common Mead 377 [Portview Road

and northern end of Victoria Road, Avonmouth]

Means: Adams’s Common is field number 340 in the Tithe Award, and

Adams’s Common Mead in number 377. They are fairly close together and

the second is named from being near the first. [In square brackets is a rough

guide to where they are on the modern map – but this is only a guide rather

than an exact location. If anyone has more precise information, the author

would be pleased to know and will correct the book.]

Any other comment follows. Words which frequently occur in field-names

are explained in the list above on pages 4-8.

o A name underlined is one which does not appear separately in the

Tithe Award of 1840-1, but is included as part of other names.

o Alternative names are given in italics, and so too are parts of names

which have a separate entry.

o Names separated by a semi-colon do not refer to the same location.

o Names separated by a comma are near each other and refer to the

same location or object.

o Numbers followed by .... mean that number and following ones.

o Where a field is called by a square measurement name, e.g. Five Acres,

a number following in square brackets means its actual size in 1840:

so [4-2-37] means four acres, two roods and 37 poles (rods or

perches).

You can now locate a field-number exactly by using the Bristol City

Council’s “Know your place” web-site, http://maps.bristol.gov.uk

/knowyourplace/, with the “1840s tithe” map as the base map, and

running the spyglass over it with “2013 OS” installed.

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Adams’s Common 340; Adams’s Common Mead 377 [Avonmouth Old

Dock; south of Portview Road]

From a surname known locally.

Alehouse Ground 166 [PBA sports ground]

From the former

Lamb and Flag

alehouse, long gone,

on the banks of the

Avon near Myrtle

Hall.

The Port of Bristol

Authority sports ground

is partly the location of

Alehouse Ground.

Allotment 355a [Green Lane]

Ash Paddock 151a; 299 [(1) between Station Road and Woodwell Road; (2)

former Kingroad Farm in Avonmouth, now St Andrew’s Trading Estate]

Almost certainly from ash-trees rather than industrial waste (e.g. from a smithy).

Ashleys and Garden 170/1 [Dursley Road and Coaley Road]

Ashley is documented as a surname locally in the 19th century.

Avon House Ground 312 .... [within dock gates, King Road Avenue]

Something of a mystery. Avenhouse is frequently mentioned in 17th-century records

of Westbury on Trym, and it is probably this place at the far western end of the

marshes near the old mouth of the Avon, the site of the former Marine Hotel and

now lost in the Avonmouth dock estate. It was probably a farm in some sense, and

its produce provided some of the income required to support the poor of

Westbury. Nothing more is known about it. Avenhouse grounds and parrocks were in

private hands in 1679, and must have been near, rather than part of, Avenhouse.

Avon House Ground is not linked with the house called Avon House at

Lamplighter’s.

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Bane Acre 55 [Barracks Lane]; Bean Acre alternative name for 39a [north

of Lower High Street]

Probably from a dialect pronunciation of bean (i.e. a place where broad beans were

grown), but just possibly from bane in the sense of ‘poison, anything likely to cause

harm’, as in “the bane of my life”. Close by is The Bean Acre, a street developed

just after the First World War, which continues the field-name in a slightly changed

form, but the street called The Bean Acre is actually on the opposite side of Barracks

Lane from this field. Compare Bean Close. You can grow beans in the same land

year after year because of the nitrogen they put back into the soil.

Barrow Hill 217, Barrow Hills 224 .... [Barrow Hill Road and Crescent

respectively]

Fields of Barrow Hill Farm. In the south of England, barrow meant ‘burial mound’,

but originally more generally a hill or mound, so it is not clear whether the

reference is to the low hill on which the farm stands or to any barrows that may

once have been visible on it. There is no record of barrows, so the ‘hill’ meaning

may be the intended one, with hill added when nobody understood the word barrow

in that sense any more.

Bean Close 298 [near Jubilee Way, Avonmouth]

Compare Bean Acre, under Bane Acre. Mapped with this name in 1772.

Bradley [between St Mary’s Road and Springfield Road; Robins’s Bradley

was south of

Springfield

Road]

All that’s left of

The Bradley, once a

very large open field:

the playground in

Springfield Road

(2012).

17

Bradley is an Old English name meaning ‘broad clearing’, and it is probably the

name of one of the ancient open fields of Shirehampton. It was often just called

The Bradley, and when it was enclosed it gave its name to several subdivisions

(Great Bradley, Long Bradleys, Lower Bradley, Robins’s Bradley, and Upper

Bradley), as well as to two streets which were built on it, Bradley Crescent and Bradley

Avenue, and Bradley House in High Street.

In 1720 we find “close[s] called ... the Bradley”, in 1736 “a right of way through

‘Bradleys’”, and in 1898 “a close of ground called part of Great Bradley, no 193 on

Tithe Map of Shirehampton” , on which the new cemetery in what is now St

Mary’s Road was to be opened. There is a reference to a distinct Bradley Farm of

the Kilminster family around 1905-7.

Brains 219, Brains Hill 220 [Portway/Markham Close (park & ride) and

part of Barrow Hill Crescent]

Probably from a surname. It is known in the 18th and 19th centuries, but mainly

on the east side of Bristol.

Brickyard 168, 169b [playground and field at Lamplighter’s]

Brickyard field –

fully tamed for leisure

in 2011.

A field from

where clay was

dug to make

bricks for

chimneys, ovens,

and so on. Houses

here were made of

stone at this

period rather than

brick, which was a novelty in the later part of the 19th century. But tiles were made

from brickearth before the introduction of Welsh slate for roofing, and there was a

tileworks at West Town by 1840, presumably meaning here.

18

Broad Furlong 275 [just north of St Brendan’s roundabout, Avonmouth]

Broad Furrows [Third Way, Avonmouth]

Mapped in 1772. Appears in Little Broad Furrows. Furrows amounts to the same

as Furlong.

Broad Leys or Wamphills 378 [Victoria Road, Avonmouth]

This is probably ‘broad meadow (i.e. leaze)’; it was on the warthland next to Broad

Pill. However, no other leazes are on the warthland.

Broad Pill &c [close to eastern end of Avonmouth Old Dock]

Brooks’s Common 257a [near Atlantic Road, Avonmouth]

From a surname.

Bucklewell Field 132/140 [close to the line of The Portway where it skirts

the golf course]

From a well-known spring in the cliff at the southern end of King’s Weston Little

Park (now Shirehampton Park), overlooking Horseshoe Bend in the Avon. The

well’s name may have meant ‘(fallow or roe-) buck well’. I have seen a roebuck not

far from here myself.

Bundy 247, Bundys

246 [east of Willment

Way, Avonmouth]

Mapped as Bundies in

1772; from a surname,

known in Bristol in the

early 18th century.

Perhaps surprisingly,

parts of these fields

survive as open space,

as seen in the photo,

right up against what

was the northern boundary of Shirehampton in the marsh, marked by what is still

called Shirehampton Rhine.

19

Bushes 294 [within the premises of the former Britannia smelting works]

Separated from Bushy Leaze only by a marshland track. The same bushes may be

referred to.

Bushy Leaze 295 [Haslemere Industrial Estate, within the smelting works]

Cartwrights Common 358 ...., 362, Cartwrights Common & Old Sea

Bank 361 [between Cook Street and West Town Road, Avonmouth]

From the surname of a landowner here in 1840-1.

Catharines Greenway 156, Catherines 158 [eastern end of Cotswold

Estate]

It is not known who Catharine or Catherine was. Maybe it is not a coincidence that

this land is opposite the former St Catherine’s Chapel and St Catherine’s Pill on the

Somerset side of the Avon. But there were several significant Catherines in the

Southwell family, several generations of whom were lords of the manor of King’s

Weston in the 18th century, but the early date of the first recorded mention tells

against them. The land is recorded early and often. In 1640 we find “ground called

Katherines”, in 1666 (copied in 1677) “a close called Greate Katherine Close”, in

1693 a “Close called the Katherine Hill now divided into three and called the Little

Katherines” [boundaries given], in 1710 “land called Great Catherines”, at some

time in the early 18th century as Katherines (with a perhaps separate Greenway), and

in 1774 “a Grounds at Shirehampton call’d Katherine Hill”. It seems to have no

connection with the later street-name Catherine Mead in Avonmouth. Compare

Greenway.

Chapel Paddock 188, 190 .... [Church Leaze, Bradley Crescent]

This land is named from being just south of Shirehampton church, which only

became a parish church in its own right in 1844. Before that it was a chapel of

Westbury on Trym, hence this name, appearing as Chappel Paddock in a survey of

about 1733.

.... Cliff 137, Clift 131, Clift Wood 133, Clift Wood [part of] 134 [lower

end of golf course above Portway]

A widespread alternative form of the word cliff. It is above the steep ground

dropping to the Avon at the southern end of King’s Weston Little Park

(Shirehampton Park). The cliff is recorded as early as 1287. “Close[s] called the

20

Clift” appear in 1720, and “the Clift” in 1769/70; Clift Wood is in a lease dated 1748

and an undated survey of about the same period.

Close (1)195 [Priory Road]; (2) 320 [main entrance to former smelting

works, Avonmouth]; Close or Lawn 30 [east of Woodview Close]

Coal Wharf & Warth 210 [existing quay on Lamplighters’ Marsh]

Coal must have been landed here for industrial use: a tileworks had been

established here at West Town by 1840. Domestic fuel may also have been landed.

It is less likely that coal was unloaded here from seagoing vessels into barges to be

taken on into Bristol Docks because the Bristol and Kingswood mines could have

supplied the city directly.

Collins Paddock part of 291 [Third Way, Avonmouth]

Collins is recorded as a local surname, sometimes in the form Collings.

Cornish Paddock 222 [Portway/Ermine Way]

From a surname found locally – as on this Victorian gravestone in St Mary’s

churchyard.

Crossways & Paddock 182 [48 Station Road]

Crossways was so called because its southern end was near the junction of the

lanes which became Station Road and Springfield Road/Hung Road. See

Greenway.

21

The Daisy Field 212a

A recent name (coined in about 2000?) for the land consisting of parts of Malt

Acre, Long Grove, Shortways, Passage Leaze and Springfield. Maybe from a

fringe of marguerites growing annually at the eastern end. Also controversially

known as The Portway Tip. The raised area was a dump for spoil from the building

of The Portway in the 1920s, and the lower area contained railway sidings for the

road builders.

Dowdings Common Mead 364 [Stane Way, Avonmouth]

This land was owned by a person surnamed Dowding in 1840-1. This is clear in the

Tithe Award. Dowding is found in Shirehampton in the 18th century, but there had

also been a family called Douling or Dowling; were they the same?

Downend 41, 43 [eastern end of King’s Weston Avenue]

Down meant ‘hill’, and this land is at the end of Penpole Ridge. There was a

“messuage and close[s] called Downend” in 1725.

Dumball Island [now absorbed into Avonmouth Docks]

This island, until the later 18th century, was land forming the northern extremity of

Somerset, in the parish of Easton in Gordano. It became an island when the main

channel of the Avon broke through further south than its old mouth. The resulting

island became attached to Gloucestershire as the old main channel silted up, and it

was then destroyed in the works which created Royal Edward Dock from 1904

onwards. The word dumball meant shoreland subject to tidal flooding.

Eight acres/open to Flea Croft / 248a [Second Way, Avonmouth]

Elbury Gout (Tithe map) [just north of Royal Edward Dock, Avonmouth]

The sluice at a place on the shore of the Severn estuary recorded in 1299 as

Elleberge, probably meaning ‘elder-tree mound’, for which see also Home Barrow.

A small pill still crosses the foreshore here. It was recognized as the northernmost

limit of Shirehampton on the bank of the Severn.

The Eyes 54 [Avon Primary School and adjacent allotments]

This includes a word derived from Old English ēg ‘island’, also used of plots of dry

ground in marshland. That must be the relevant meaning here.

22

Five Acres 251 [4-2-37] and 284 [5-2-13], The Five Acres 300 [5-0-31] [all

three, separate, in the marshes; Atlantic Road; Third Way; southern fringe of

the Britannia smelting works]

These three names show that the size of an acre could be elastic to the naked eye,

i.e. without accurate surveying instruments.

Flea Croft / open to Eight Acres / 248b [west of Willment Way,

Avonmouth]

Uncertain. It might indicate that fleabane (Pulicaria dysenterica) grew here, or the first

word might be from fleed meaning ‘piece of peat turf pared off (for stacking)’, but

that is a word normally restricted to north-west England. It might be an alteration

of the common type of name Flitcroft meaning ‘piece of land in dispute’, or it might

just be an uncomplimentary name for a troublesome bit of land that bites its

owner. It is recorded from 1725: “close[s] called ... Flea Croft”, and as “Flea Croft

& Townsend” in a deed dated 1720.

Fords Ground 272 [north of St Andrew’s roundabout, Avonmouth]

From the surname Ford; a man of this name occupied a tenement in 1840-1.

Four Acres 239 [3-2-15]; 244 [Second and Fourth Way, Avonmouth]

Furlong 228 [Old Park Road, Watling Way], Furlongs 327 [eastern arm of

Royal Edward Dock, Avonmouth], Furlong & Shoulder of Mutton 324

[Royal Edward Dock]

Furlong appears to be an independent field-name, not just the name of a group of

strips in an open field; other fields named Upper Furlong and Lower Furlong

seem to confirm this.

Garden Paddock 178 [Nibley Road]

Goody Land 321 [between Royal Edward Dock and St Andrew’s Road]

Possibly from a surname. The surname Goody seems to be absent from Bristol, so

if this is not a mistake for the known local surname Goodeve, it may be from the

antique word goody meaning ‘lady of the household’, ‘mature female’. But there also

is a phrase of the far south-west to grow goody, meaning ‘(of plants) to thrive or

prosper’. Recorded on a map in 1772.

Great Bradley 193 [Shirehampton cemetery]

23

Great Kinsale 319 [St Andrew’s Road, west side of Britannia smelting

works]

This is mapped as Great Kingsales in 1772, and there are similar field-names just

across the parish boundary in King’s Weston, Henbury. The “lord of the manor”

of King’s Weston from 1755 to 1777, Edward Southwell, was MP for Kinsale,

County Cork, from 1761-8, before his elevation to the House of Lords as the 20th

Baron de Clifford in 1776. There are other Southwell family references in the

names of his lands surveyed at this period, for instance Ardglass and Cromwell

Farms from titles of nobility and Watson and Campbell Farms from surnames.

Great Warth & Sea Bank 325 [eastern arm of Royal Edward Dock]

Green Land 328 [sheds on eastern side of Royal Edward Dock]

It is not clear why this land should have been especially green ‒ perhaps an

unusually damp part of the marsh. In 1772 it appears to be Greensand with an 18th-

century letter <s>: Greenſand. But that cannot be right here.

Greenway 154, 155, Greenways Warth & Towing Path 159 [Burford

Walk, riverside]

On record since a survey of about 1733, and as Grinaway in a lease of 1749, this

land may have taken its name from a lane by which it was reached, but it is

possible that way might have a special meaning in these parts because it also

appears in the field-names (not path- or lane-names) Crossways, Marshways and

Shortways. These may take their names from (lost) lanes, though. Greenway

Warth is sometimes Greenway Wharf. Compare Catharine Greenway.

The Grip or Grippe

A local name specially for Holesmouth, a point on the bank of the Severn north of

the present Avonmouth docks, where a reen entered the Severn, but also

apparently a more general word for a ditch. Not clear whether there is a difference

between a grip and a reen.

Grove Leaze 193a ...., Grove Paddock 198; Grove Paddocks 183

[between Springfield Avenue and Portbury Grove; between Springfield

Avenue and Hung Road]

Probably from some nearby small wood, though there is no such thing on the

Tithe Map. Grove normally meant ‘small wood with one dominant species of tree’.

Grove Pill and Wall Croft is found in 1806, possibly indicating that it was near the

24

(newer) seabank, but there was a Grove Pill which was a detached land in Henbury

parish (see below). One of the Grove Paddocks is recorded in about 1733.

Ham Mead 363 [Portway/West Town Road, under M5 near Pilgrims’ Way,

Avonmouth]

Ham is a dialect word originally meaning ‘land hemmed in on at least two sides’,

‘riverside meadow’ or similar. This field was indeed close to the Avon.

Hayward’s Ground perhaps part of 193 [Pembroke Road]

From a surname found locally. This may have been former glebeland, land set

aside to provide the parson with an income.

Hills Common 353 [Portview Road/Green Lane, Avonmouth]

Probably from a surname Hill, which is known in Shirehampton in later years.

Hilly Ground 5 [Oasis Academy Brightstowe playing field]

Occupies part of the rising ground up to Penpole Ridge, now the site of the

playing fields of Oasis Academy Brightstowe (formerly Portway School), along

with Upper Ground.

Home Barrow 333 [west side of Royal Edward Dock, Avonmouth]

Next to Kingroad Farmhouse. There may well have been a barrow (mound) in this

field, probably the same one as that giving its name to Elbury Gout. For home, see

also next entry.

Home Close 176; Home Ground 292; Home Paddocks 245 [allotments

at Myrtle Hall; Third Way, Avonmouth; Fourth Way,Avonmouth]

Typical names for enclosures right next to the farmhouse. There was another Home

Paddock in 1772 at Park Hill Farm. The street Home Ground is actually on the site of

one of the Lawns, and a field of this name was at the western end of Old Quarry

Road. But just below The Lawns was Lower Home Ground, so the part of The

Lawns where the new street is must have been called Home Ground too. Home

Paddocks was next to Wick House Paddock, and the lost Wick House (Farm)

may be the farmhouse in question.

25

Honey Pen 264 [under Bristow Broadway and M5 slip road, Avonmouth]

Uncertain. There might be a reference to beekeeping, but that cannot have been

the only use of this large field of thirteen acres [13-2-0]. Honey in field-names may

indicate sticky ground, which is quite possible here in the marshland, or very

productive land (as in “a land flowing with milk and honey”: Deuteronomy 31:20).

There was also a Honey Pen Hill in Clifton.

Hop Yard 186 [Baptist church and St Bernard’s Primary School]

Many Gloucestershire villages had land set aside for growing hops for brewing.

This one, for The George, is mapped since 1772. Cf. Malt acre.

Horse Paddock 311; 322 [both under railway line, east side of Royal

Edward Dock, Avonmouth]

Hospital Allotment 345; Hospital Common Mead 365 [Avonmouth Old

Dock; Catherine Street, Avonmouth]

These names refer to the fact that St

Peter’s Hospital in central Bristol held

land in Shirehampton in the 18th

century. This “hospital”, also known

as The Mint, was in fact a group of

almshouses, and the rent from this

land was intended to support the

needy who lived in them. A stone

dated 1770 indicating the presence of

St Peter’s used to be visible on The

Portway at the foot of the golf course

(Shirehampton Park).

(Image of St Peter’s left, early 20th century,

Wrench postcard, no known copyright.)

26

Hungroad Ground 173, Hungroad Warth 162 .... [open ground between

Stow House and river]

Named from the reach of the river Avon which was used by ships tied up waiting

for the tide before sailing, or being towed, up to Bristol Docks.

Kents Close 180 [Dursley Road east of Hung Road]

Recorded since about a survey done in about 1733. Probably from a surname, not

so far found locally.

Lady Smyths Common 341 .... [in and near Avonmouth Old Dock, and

western end of Portview Road]

Indicates the land owned locally by the Smyth family of Ashton Court and their

relatives. Cf. Smyths Close.

Lamplighters Marsh

Named from the presently (2012) closed pub by the site of the former Pill to

Shirehampton ferry. See The Meadow.

Lane 281; 306 [both in the marshes]

The presence of this as a label for land in the Tithe Award suggests that it is

really about the right to cut grass from the verges of the lane. Cf. the entry

Herbage of Lane 267, which makes this quite explicit.

Lawn [much of the area between Penpole Lane and High Street]

The name or description of two fields north and east of the manor house, not in

the Tithe Award by this name. The word originally meant ‘a glade’, later coming to

mean any area set aside for entertainment rather than cultivation. One of these

grounds inspired the name of the big house next to the High Street end of The

Ridge, The Lawn, which survives in the name of social housing (The Lawns) built in

its former grounds.

Lay Field 142-144, Lays or Leaze 145 [much of the area between Park

Road and the railway]

Lay in field-names usually means ‘fallow’, one of the open fields in the medieval

system that was, or could be, left unsown. Lay Field was indeed an open field, as is

confirmed by the mention of “Land in Lay Common Field” in 1745. Leaze is

27

obviously a mistake based on the much more frequent word for ‘meadow’ found

here and throughout the west.

Leaches [Fourth Way, Avonmouth, and M5 slip road, Lawrence Weston]

From a surname; Isaac Leech is mentioned in Shirehampton in 1748. Appears as

Lower Leaches and Upper Leaches.

The Lower Level

A name recorded in 1684 for the Severnside marshland.

Little Marsh acres 233 [east of Atlantic Road]

Little Wamp Hills 375 [west of Victoria Road]

Lockstones alternative name for 184 [in the angle between Hung Road and

Station Road]

Lockstones is from a surname recorded locally in 1720, no doubt a variant of Loxton,

a small village in north Somerset.

Long Bradleys 189 [west of Bradley Crescent]

Long Grove Paddock 214 [part of Lamplighters’ Marsh]

Long Leaze 276; 301[western end of Third Way, Avonmouth; former

smelting works]

Long Park or Bean Acre 39a [along east side of Lower High Street]

Park here has the meaning of ‘allotment ground’, which is what we also find in

The Park from which Old Park Road is named. Both these parks run alongside

what is now Lower High Street. The Park contained the village pound in which

stray farm animals were locked. Long Park is Long Paddock in 1772.

Lord de Cliffords Common Allotment 336 [dockland including King

Street, Avonmouth]

The de Cliffords were the owners of King’s Weston House from 1776 till 1832, i.e.

at the time of the Inclosure Act (1811) and Inclosure Award (1822) applying to this

parish. The lord at the time was allocated this part of the former common land;

there is also Lords Common 255a, 255b [narrow strip between Avonmouth Road

and Bristow Broadway, Avonmouth].

28

Lower Bradley 196 [Shirehampton School]

Lower Broad Furrows 297 [Third Way, Avonmouth]

Lower Close & Warth 160 [riverside near Ryeleaze]

Lower Furlong 231 [Watling Way]

Lower Home Ground 57 [Penpole Close]

Lower Leaches 242 [end of Fourth Way, Avonmouth]

The Lower Level

A name recorded in 1684 for all of the Severnside marshland.

Lower Passage Leaze

Lydes Allotment 254; Lydes Common Mead 367 [St Brendan’s

roundabout; Portview Road/Cook Street, Avonmouth]

From a local surname; there were five Lydes in north Bristol in the 1891 census.

Lyde Brook is the name of a stream in Henbury, but that seems too insignificant a

feature to have given rise to the surname.

Malt acre 216, Malt Acre & Grove Leaze 197 [Barrow Hill Road/

Groveleaze/ The Daisy Field]

Cf. Hop Yard. There must have been small-scale brewing in Shirehampton. A

man trading as a maltster is mentioned in the census of 1851.

Man Lands 316 [transit shed east of Royal Edward Dock, Avonmouth]

This appears to be a frequent type of name meaning ‘common lands’, from the

Old English word gemǣne ‘held in common’, and that seems to be confirmed by the

fact that it was free from the requirement to pay tithes. It was called Mainlands in

1772.

Mansells 296 [Haslemere Industrial Estate, Avonmouth]

Apparently from a surname.

29

Marsh Acre & Rick Yard 235 [east of Atlantic Road, Avomouth]; Marsh

Ground 274 [St Brendan’s Trading Estate]

Marsh Acre is a field next to the buildings of Shirehampton Farm, and the rickyard

was the one belonging to the farm. Marsh Acre is next to Pool Ground. Marsh

Ground (Grounds in 1772) is next to Marshways. The land was obviously still wet

in these two areas despite drainage.

In 1666 there is a mention of a “Messuage and land called the Marsh Leaze” (copy

1677), in 1725 “messuage and close[s] called ... Marshleaze” , and in 1832

“Marshleaze and 3 messuages built there by Stephen Willington”. I do not know

whether these are the same place as Marsh Acre or Marsh Ground.

Marshways 265, 266 [St Brendan’s roundabout, Avonmouth]

These two fields are by a track leading from T Farm into the marshes. See also

Greenway.

The Meadow 215 [much of what is now called Lamplighters’ Marsh]

This, pictured from the

motorway bridge, is the

area which was called The

Meadow before West Town

became completely

industrialized and railway

sidings were built over it.

It is now scrubland. The

street called Meadow Grove

leads towards it.

Middlemead

This self-explanatory name – for part of the common meadowland on the marshes

‒ appears only in 18th-century surveys.

Middle Passage Leaze

30

Moor 46 ...., Moor Ground 50, Moor Paddock 48 [between Kingsweston

Avenue and the M5, and sports ground]

This area at the foot of Penpole Point is mentioned earlier in “[messuage and land

called] ... the Moore” (1666, copy 1677), and in “½ acr. in the Moor” in 1720.

Moore Leaze appears in 1835; this is in one of the detached lands, see below (p. 36).

Nailers Hill & West Close 78, 229 [Beachley Walk and park]

Nailer is a surname recorded locally in 1772; Naylers hill is mapped in the same year.

New Sea Bank

North Croft (late Peters Hospital) 283, North Croft 285 [Second Way

and Third Way, Avonmouth]

For Peters Hospital, see Hospital Allotment.

Oars 221, 373, Oars & Sea Bank 374, The Oars (late Peters Hospital)

371 [Avon Gorge Industrial Estate, Avonmouth]

From an Old English word ōra ‘shore, bank of a river’, which is appropriate here

since it was next to the New Sea Bank and may have been the last land usable for

agriculture before the warthland until the New Sea Bank was built. In 1711 there

is a record of a “Close of meadow in Shirehampton called the Oare, bounded to

west by Oare Lane”,

and in 1725 a

“messuage and

closes called ...

Great Oare and

Little Oare”. Oare

Lane ran alongside

The Oars, and still

existed by name in

1830.

For Peters Hospital,

see Hospital

Allotment.

In the picture: what is left of The Oars, under the M5 bridge, in 2011. No sign of the sea-bank.

31

Old Orchard Brakes &c 304 [north of Jubilee Way, Avonmouth]

In some parts of the country Brakes might be ‘land overgrown with ferns

(bracken)’. But this is not fern country, and the word is typically northern. A

surname Brake is more likely, and this is known in the Bristol area.

Old Sea Bank [in the angle of West Town Road and Avonmouth Road,

Avonmouth]

This refers to the flood barrier which ran along the shore of the Severn, then

turned inland in what is now Avonmouth, running roughly parallel to Avonmouth

Road, on the north side, to come to an end near the present eastern end of

Barracks Lane. On the Ordnance Survey one-inch map of 1840, but not named,

the New Sea Bank followed the north bank of the Avon from near its old mouth

to Myrtle Hall. It was the construction of the New Sea Bank that enabled the

former common land west of West Town Road to be enclosed for private use,

probably in the early 1800s. East of West Town Road, this bank was soon

obscured by wharves on the river frontage.

Oldfield 125 [between Park Hill and Park Road]

‘Field which was formerly ploughed’, as part of Park Hill Farm; it is mentioned in a

lease of 1748 and it appeared on a map of 1772.

Orchard 79; Orchard and Paddock 84; Orchard and Ruins 249 [Old

Barrow Hill; Home Ground; Second Way, Avonmouth]

Paddock 53; 136; 138; 179; 194b; Paddock near Old Orchard 58 [various

locations; Shire Gardens]

In 1725 there was a “messuage and close[s] called ... the Paddock”, but which of

the above it was, if any, cannot be discovered.

Pages Common Mead 366b [Pages Mead, Avonmouth]

From a local surname, and revived in the Avonmouth street-name Pages Mead.

The Park 39 [along the north side of Lower High Street]

Used in the sense of ‘allotments’. The Parks is found in documents after 1733.

The Parsley Bed

Found in only one undated 18th-century document. Its location is unknown.

32

Parsons Common 370 [opposite the western end of Catherine Street,

Avonmouth]

Common land allocated to the parson, presumably the rector of Westbury, as part

of the glebe or land specially set aside to provide for a clergyman’s living; or from

the local surname.

Passage Leaze 200, 209, 212a [between Springfield Road and

Lamplighters’], Passage Leaze or Lockstones 184 [Portway north of

Shirehampton station]

Passage is a word used in Gloucestershire for ‘ferry’, and here it means the ferry

connecting Shirehampton and Pill which was in use from time immemorial till

1974, when the need for it was removed by the opening of the M5 Avonmouth

Bridge. This large field approached the houses near to the ferry at Lamplighters’.

The name is now that of a street where the field once was. It is first recorded in

1711 as a “close called Passage Leaze”, but is divided as Lower, Middle and Upper

Passage Leaze in an undated 18th-century survey. “Lower Passage Leaze in the

common mead” was recorded in 1794.

Pear tree Ground 270, Pear tree Leaze 271 [north of Crowley Way,

Avonmouth]

Wild pear-trees are rare enough to be significant when names are being coined, but

these lands may have been next to an orchard.

Penpole Plantation 45 [old quarries in Old Quarry Road]

From the name of Penpole Ridge, which is of British Celtic origin and

meant ‘head (end) of the district’. It commands wide views over the Severn estuary

into Wales and down to the Bristol Channel.

Perry Leaze and Orchard 279/280 [Island Trade Park and M5 slip road]

Perry is from Old English pirige ‘pear-tree’, and perhaps the same one is meant as in

Pear tree Ground.

Plantation in Wall Croft Lane 252 [Avonmouth Road by M5 bridge]

33

Pool Ground 237 [M5 slip road/Atlantic Road, Avonmouth]; Pool

Paddock 289 [Third Way, Avonmouth]

These names, out on the marshes, may be self-explanatory, but a man with the

surname Pool held land in Shirehampton in 1772.

Priors Paddock part of 290 [Third Way/Avonmouth Way]

Priors Paddock is probably from a surname, but in any case it has nothing to do with

the supposed priory in Shirehampton, which did not exist. Pryors Paddock in 1772.

The Ragg

Only found in 18th-century documents; it is not clear where it was. The field-name

authority John Field says that in Wiltshire and possibly other southern counties rag

may mean a small patch of wood.

The Rally Fields

Unofficial name for fields east of Avonmouth village, near the former starch

factory in Portview Road, where the travelling fair would regularly set up.

Reen Close 331 .... [St Andrew’s station, Avonmouth]; Reen Paddock 302

[smelting works]; Reen Paddock & Garden 286/7 [east of Third Way,

Avonmouth]

Riding Leaze 260 [St Andrew’s Road, Avonmouth]

The first word may be ryding, Old English for ‘clearing’, i.e. an area cleared of trees

and stumps, but that is uncertain. It is not in the same place as the modern street

with this name in Lawrence Weston.

Robins’s Bradley 199 [Grove Leaze/Burnham Road]

From a surname, not so far traced in Shirehampton. But it appears as Roberts

Bradley in a survey of about 1733.

Rossers Common 339 [Clayton Street, Avonmouth]

A man with the surname Rosser owned this land in 1840-1.

34

Rushy Ground 259 [King Road Avenue, Avonmouth]; Rushy Leaze and

Priors Paddock 290 [Third Way/Avonmouth Way]

Rushes are a sign of wet ground, as in the Rush Pool in Shirehampton Road, which

was a pond where cattle on the hoof in transit from Ireland could slake their thirst.

“Land ... called Little Rush Paddock” is recorded in 1745, and a “Three-cornered

close called Rush Paddock” [boundaries given] in 1751. This may or may not be

the same as one of the above. Rushy Leaze is mapped as Rushy Lease in 1772, and

there is a separate Rushes Lease.

Rye Leaze 153 [Nibley Road/Ryeleaze]

A pasture which was sown with rye-grass (Lolium perenne), a rich fodder grass

regarded as too coarse for modern lawns, but which was highly regarded by the

agricultural improvers of the 18th century. The name has been revived for the

modern street.

Sages Paddock part of 11 [Clifford Gardens/Penpole Place]

Sage is a well-represented local surname; the land had this name already in 1772.

Sawpit Ground 172 [middle of Dursley Road and part of the Cotswold

Estate]

The site of a deep trench for rough woodwork using a two-man (vertical) saw.

Sea Bank 379, Sea Bank adjoining do. [i.e. Lydes Common Mead] 368

The seabank in question is the Old Sea Bank. There is an undated earlier mention

of “the Sea Wall”, which may be this one.

Seagers Common part of 354 [Collins Street/Farr Street, Avonmouth]

Seager is the surname of major landholders in Shirehampton from the late 18th

century. Amongst others, they occupied the site of the later Twyford House.

Seven Acres 293 [south-east corner of Britannia smelting works]

Shirehampton Warth 334 [along the Severn by Kingroad Farm, mainly

under the Avonmouth Docks oil basin]

35

Shortways 211 [on Lamplighters’ Marsh]

There does not seem to have been a path or way nearby. See Greenway for the

possible significance of this.

Shoulder of Mutton 275 [north of St Andrew’s roundabout, Avonmouth]

A frequent type of field-name, from its shape as in

the 1772 map extract below, and illustrated in the

pub sign from Playhatch, Berkshire. (Public domain

image.) Turn them until they match!

Six Acres 273 [5-3-20] [Fire Station Lane, Avonmouth]

Smyths Close 261.... [north of St Brendan’s Way, Avonmouth], Smyths

Common 342 [Avonmouth Old Dock]

See Lady Smyths Common.

Springfield or Passage Leaze 202 [Springfield Lawns]

There was a well at the still-existing 18th-century house called Springfield which

accounts for the name of it and the field. The southern end of Springfield is what

is now the eastern end of The Daisy Field – or Portway Tip.

Square Cap 278 [by the former T Farm, now by First Way, Avonmouth]

In 1772 this was a detached field of Kingroad Farm, and it certainly was not square

(see map on page 46, centre bottom).

Steep Paddock or Sages Paddock 11 [Penpole Place/Clifford Gardens]

The name is alluded to by the house-name Steepy Fields, lost from its original

setting on the west side of Penpole Place and transferred to a modern building on

the east.

36

in the Swarths

Found in only one undated 18th-century survey, and location not known. This may

be a mistake for Warth – elsewhere in England we often find mentions of plots and

splots, plecks and splecks, and there may be a connection between wash and swash. If it

is not a mistake, the word may be the sward that we find in greensward or it may be a

blend of sward and swath, swathe meaning ‘a measure of grassland’.

Thatchers Bush 308 ...., 317 [scrapyard east of Royal Edward Dock,

Avonmouth]

From a surname; mapped since 1772.

Three Acres 282 [2-3-29] [east of Island Trade Park, Avonmouth]

Townsend and Bane Acre 232a [in angle between Barracks Lane and

Lower High Street]

‘End of the village’, appropriately for a location at the lower end of Shirehampton.

First recorded as “close[s] called Townsend” in 1720 and in Townsend Six Acres in

the same year, and as a “messuage and close[s] called ... Townend” in 1725.

Two Acres 250 [2-2-18] [end of Second Way, Avonmouth]

Tyning in Layfield 141 [partly forming allotments, Woodwell Road]

Tyning is a Gloucestershire and western word of ancient origin meaning ‘enclosure

in a common or open field’, which seems exactly appropriate here, since Lay Field

was probably an open field. It is Tining in Lays Field and Tynings in a survey of about

1733, and the land has recently been renamed Tynings Field; it contains allotments in

the modern sense and has recently (2011) been the subject of a controversial plan

to place a travellers’ site here.

Upfield 318 [St Andrew’s Road, Avonmouth]

Mapped in 1772 as Up Field.

Upper Home Ground 40 [Penpole Lane/Old Quarry Road]

Upper & Lower Whitley 181 [Portway and St Bernard’s Road]

Upper Bradley 194a [Portbury Walk/St Mary’s Walk]

Upper Broad Furrows and Collins Paddock 291 [Third Way,

Avonmouth]

37

Upper Furlong 230 [Meadow Grove and Old Park Road]

Upper Ground 6 [Oasis Academy Brightstowe buildings]

This is mapped in 1772 on ground rising to Penpole Ridge, and with Hilly

Ground now forms the eastern part of the site of Oasis Academy Brightstowe

(formerly Portway School).

Upper Leaches 241 [centre of J18 on the M5]

Upper Passage Leaze

Upper Three Acres 236 [3-1-15] [end of Atlantic Road, Avonmouth]

Wag Bags 238 .... [under junction 18, M5]

Bag (exact meaning in names unknown) occurs as a Tudor-period field-name in

Rangeworthy, Rockhampton and Thornbury, and in Ruggbagge in Alkington near

Berkeley, but apparently nowhere else, so the fact that these places are nearby in

Gloucestershire is unlikely to be a coincidence. It might have meant ‘field with

only one entrance or exit’. The first word might be a rhyming development of werg,

a mainly South Country dialect word for ‘willow’ (cf. the nearby name Withy Bed),

but that is very uncertain. Curiously, Bagg is also found as a surname locally in

1684.

Wall Croft 253 [Avonbridge Trading Estate, Avonmouth]

‘Small enclosure by the (sea)wall’, appearing as “close[s] called ... Wall Croft” in

1806; may be the same as Wallcroftes in 1628. This was at Shirehampton Farm, and

the wall is the old sea-wall.

Wamp Hills 376 [Victoria Road, Avonmouth]

A very difficult name which may contain a local variant of the Gloucestershire

dialect word want ‘mole’. This wet ground outside the sea-bank would not have

been very pleasant for moles, though.

Warhills 7, Warhill Orchard 8b [Clifford Gardens]

A very difficult name which may have a word derived from Old English (ge)weorc

‘earthwork’ as the first part, though no earthwork is known here. In later records it

has been influenced by the known local surname Worrall. It was Warr Hill in 1666

(copied in 1677).

38

Warth (late Peters Hospital) 349, Warth Close 326, Warth Ground 325,

Warth Ground &Allotment 343 [all lands in the docks complex under

water or quays; 343 is Avonmouth station]

For Peters Hospital see Hospital Allotment. Warth Ground is mapped as Wharf

Ground(s) in 1772.

Weeks’s Common Mead 366a [Avonmouth Primary School] From the surname of a family owning land locally in 1840-1.

Wellhay Paddock 303 [former Rhodia works, Avonmouth]

The first word may mean ‘well enclosure’, possibly documented as early as 1625,

with the word hay so often found in south-western names; it is reduced to Welly

Paddock on a 1772 map. This is probably the same name as that which turns up in

Wellinghouse Farm (= Well Hay House) in Henbury. Hay is not the usual word for

‘enclosure’ in these parts, though, and the name may represent an alteration of Well

House; there seems to have been a house nearby.

On the other hand, given that this seems to be the only occurrence of the word hay

in Shirehampton, Wellhay may be the same place as the “[Messuage and land

called] ... Hayes Close” in a document of 1666 (copy 1677) and Hayes Field in the

same document. There are uncertainties here.

West Close 307 ...., West Paddock 305 [former Rhodia works,

Avonmouth]

Whitley [between Hung Road and Station Road on the Woodwell side]

This may well be a name of great antiquity, maybe the name of one of the open

fields. Some of those which it gives rise to seem to indicate a surname (e.g. the

next item), but more likely it means ‘white clearing’ or ‘white pasture’. There is a

“[Messuage and land called] ... White Leaze” in a document of 1666 (copied 1677),

which suggests pasture, but more typical are the “Close called Whitley” in 1669

and the “close called Whitley” in an undated document. Probably therefore ‘white

clearing’.

This name is the basis for a group of other names made necessary when the field

was subdivided. These include Upper Whitley and Lower Whitley.

39

Whitleys 263 [between St Brendan’s Way and Avonmouth Road]

This is distinct from the fields called Whitley, and may include a surname.

Wick House Paddock 243 [Fourth Way, Avonmouth]

Wick in place-names usually means ‘outlying farm with a specialized function (e.g.

the production of butter or cheese)’. It is a very frequent name. This paddock is

next to a Home Ground, indicating that there must once have been farm buildings

here. There is no Wick House there in 1840-1, but there was another Wick in the

north of Henbury from 1195 (Wike, later The Wyck), recalled in Wyck Beck Road.

Widenhams 348, 350/2, 354, 356, 357 [Avonmouth Old Dock, Collins

Street, Davis Street]

‘The wide hams’, with ham meaning ‘riverside meadow’ as in Ham mead. Their

width can be judged from the fact that the name covers at least five adjacent fields

down by Broad Pill. The name has an ancient appearance, and is probably one of

the earliest in the area. The likely pronunciation is indicated by Widdenhams in 1772.

Wilding and Seagers Commons 354 [Farr Street, Avonmouth]

Wilding is a surname recorded locally in 1772.

Winpennys Allotment 355b [Collins Street, Avonmouth Road]

From a surname known in the neighbouring parish of Henbury in the 19th

century, and occasionally noted in Shirehampton.

Withy Bed 49 [sports ground at end of Barracks Lane]

Withies are willows whose shoots are used for basket-making and other practical

jobs requiring flexible material; a very useful resource for the parish. See also Wag

Bags.

Woodwell 146, 148, 152 [bisected by Portway and St Bernard’s Road]

These are field-names, but the base-name is that of a well-known spring in

Woodwell Road which ran till the 19th century and which supplied water from

underground in emergencies even in the 20th.

Wright’s Field

The site of Avonmouth School, Catherine Street, named after a local man who

kept a cow and a horse.

40

Yerburys Common 338 [Meadow Street, Avonmouth]

From the surname of a local landowner in 1840-1.

Young Orchard 330 [coal yard east of Royal Edward Dock]

Either from a surname noted in Shirehampton as early as 1480, or by a conscious and unusual distinction from Old Orchard.

Lost names

Some field-names are recorded before the Tithe Award of 1840-1, but have fallen

out of use. These are listed here:

Messuage, land, and close called Bennets Parrocke in [Shirehampton]

Deanes Lande 1623 (possibly reflected in Deans Mead, Lawrence Weston,

Henbury parish)

the field parrock 1669, a Grounds at Shirehampton call’d ... field parrock 1774;

no doubt a paddock made in one of the open fields

close[s] called Grove Pill 1806

the Keeping, in a sequence of deeds; probably a field where animals were fattened

before being taken to market, a field where green provender was put out for them

a ½ acre in Lawyers Field 1720

[Messuage and land called] ... the Salt Meadow 1666 (copy 1677)

41

Detached lands

Some land in the neighbouring parish of Henbury was reckoned as part of

Shirehampton and therefore as belonging to Westbury on Trym parish. These

small parcels are in the fields which are listed here as they appear in the Tithe

Award. Their names are mainly self-explanatory.

Barhams (apparently from a surname)

Bowdens Field(s) (also known as Boulton’s Fields; from a surname)

Brandiers (from brandiron, ‘a trivet, potstand for an open fire’, possibly from its

shape, trivets originally being triangular; or from the name of a hamlet in Minety,

Wiltshire (formerly in Gloucestershire) containing this word)

Chapel Ground, Chapel House Orchard (from the former Lawrence Weston

chapel )

Fern Hill (as in Fernhill Lane)

Henbury Field (probably one of the common open fields of Henbury; roughly

where the riding school in King’s Weston Road is)

Hill Field

.... Home Ground (adjacent to farm buildings; cf. similar names above)

House Croft

Long Croft (now the street-name Long Cross)

Moor Leaze (cf. names with moor above)

Stoney Croft

Thistly Hill

West Field

Windcliff (as in Windcliff Crescent; originally from a tourist destination at

Piercefield near Chepstow)

and an unnamed close at Bilsham (near Northwick).

42

Further information can be found in:

Bristol City Council (2013) Know your place, interactive web-site at

http://maps.bristol.gov.uk/knowyourplace/.

Coates, Richard (2007) South-West English dumball, dumble, dunball ‘pasture subject

to (occasional) tidal flooding’. Journal of the English Place-Name Society 39, 59-72.

Coates, Richard (2008) Correction to The place-names of Gloucestershire, vol. 3 (EPNS

Survey vol. 40). Journal of the English Place-Name Society 40, 129-130.

Coates, Richard (2011) The street-names of Shirehampton and Avonmouth. Shirehampton:

Shire Community Newspaper. Online at www.shire.org.uk/content/history

/streetnames.pdf.

Field, John (1972) English field-names: a dictionary. Newton Abbot: David and

Charles.

Field, John (1993) A history of English field-names: approaches to local history. Harlow:

Longman.

Grundy, G. B. (1935) Saxon charters and field names of Gloucestershire, 2 volumes.

Bristol: Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society. [Not completely

reliable; use with care.]

Helme, Judy, and Sue Davies, eds (1999) A Mouthful of memories: an oral history of

Avonmouth. Privately published.

Helme, Judy, and Sue Davies, eds (2001) Another Mouthful of memories: an oral history

of Avonmouth. Privately published.

Marshall, William (1789) The rural economy of Glocestershire, vol. I. [Mentions “Shard, a

gap in a hedge; the common term”, on p. 331.]

Parsons, David N., and others (1997-) The vocabulary of English place-names.

Nottingham: Centre for English Name Studies, etc. [3 volumes published so far.]

Smith, A. H. (1964) The place-names of Gloucestershire, vol. 3. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press (Survey of English Place-Names 40).

Thomas, Ethel (1981, 1992) Down the ’Mouth. Privately published.

43

Thomas, Ethel (1983, 1992) Shirehampton story. Privately published.

Thomas, Ethel (2002) The continuing story of Shirehampton. Privately published. [H. A.

Lane’s map (1979) derived from the Tithe Award Map with field-names (not all

transcribed accurately) appears on the endpapers.]

Way, Lewis J. Upton (1910) The owners of the great house, Henbury,

Gloucestershire. Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society 33,

304-337. [Some Henbury field-names are mentioned on pages 331-332.] Online at

www2.glos.ac.uk/bgas/tbgas/v033/bg033304.pdf.

Woods, S. R. (1970) Shirehampton: the 1851 census. Transactions of the Bristol and

Gloucestershire Archaeological Society 89, 145-155. Online at

www2.glos.ac.uk/bgas/tbgas/v089/bg089145.pdf.

Unpublished sources

Unpublished documents in Bristol Record Office, ‘B’ Bond, Smeaton Road, Bristol

BS1 6XN:

Cann, Thomas (1684) An Accompt of all the seawall from Sheerehampton

to Aust as alsoe of the Publick Bridges Gouts Reenes and Pills in the Lower

Levell and who ought to scowre cleanse maintain and repaire the same;

Bristol Record Office [BRO] document reference 08838;

Taylor, Isaac (1772) Maps of several estates belonging to Ed. Southwell esq.

[etc.], BRO document reference 26570;

Maps of Shirehampton tithing (1777), photostats, BRO document reference

16668/1;

Westbury-on-Trym enclosure act (1811), BRO document reference

12151/175 (a Miles family document);

Henbury and Westbury-on-Trym enclosure award, BRO document

reference 40597/1; also Westbury enclosure map (1822), BRO 37959/40;

and Westbury enclosure map and extracts from award dealing with various

rates ([1814] 1822), BRO P.Hen/SD/7;

44

Shirehampton Tithe Award (1840-1, with map), bishop’s copy, BRO

document reference EP/A/32/34;

Henbury Tithe Award (1841, with map), bishop’s copy, BRO document

reference EP/A/32/22;

Documents in the Ashton Court/Woolnough collection, spellings of names

and BRO document references given:

o Messuage, land, and close called Bennets Parrocke BRO AC/WO/12/32 o close[s] called ... the Bradley ... 1720 BRO AC/WO/12/80; a right of way

through ‘Bradleys’ 1736 AC/WO/12/86; a close of ground called part of Great Bradley; no 193 on Tithe Map of Shirehampton 1898 01674/3; Bradley Farm 1905 Building plan/Volume 49/63d

o close[s] called the Clift ... 1720 BRO AC/WO/12/80; the Clift 1769/70 AC/C/121_1-64

o Deanes Lande 1623 BRO AC/WO/12/30 o messuage and close[s] called Downend ... 1725 BRO AC/WO/12/85 o the field parrock 1669 BRO AC/WO/12/40; a Grounds at Shirehampton call’d

... field parrock 1774 AC/WO/12/71 o close[s] called ... Flea Croft 1725 BRO AC/WO/12/85; Fleacroft Acre1720-31,

endorsed 1734 BRO AC/WO/12/81 o close[s] called Grove Pill ... 1806 BRO 12151/104 o [Messuage and land called] ... Hayes Close 1666 (copy 1677) BRO

AC/WO/12/44; ... Hayes Field 1666 (copy 1677) BRO AC/WO/12/44 o ground called Katherine; late parcel of a copyhold messuage in Sherehampton

1638 AC/WO/12/34; ground called Katherines 1640 BRO AC/WO/12/35; a close called Greate Katherine Close 1666 (copy 1677) AC/WO/12/44; the Katherine Hill [omitted from recital in AC/WO/12/44 but found in subsequent deeds concerning the same mortgage]; Close called the Katherine Hill now divided into three and called the Little Katherines [boundaries given] 1693 AC/WO/12/51a-b; land called Great Catherines 1710 AC/WO/12/57; a Grounds at Shirehampton call’d Katherine Hill ... 1774 AC/WO/12/71

o the Keeping [omitted from recital in BRO AC/WO/12/44 but found in subsequent deeds concerning the same mortgage]

o close[s] called ... and a ½ acre in Lawyers Field 1720 BRO AC/WO/12/80 o land in Lay Common Field 1745 BRO AC/WO/12/87 o Messuage and land called the Marsh Leaze 1666 (copy 1677) BRO

AC/WO/12/44; messuage and close[s] called ... Marshleaze 1725 AC/WO/12/85; Marshleaze and 3 messuages built there by Stephen Willington 1832; 12151/195

o [Messuage and land called] ... the Moore 1666 (copy 1677) BRO AC/WO/12/44; ½ acr. in the Moor 1720 12151/126; Shirehampton Moore 1720-31, endorsed 1734 BRO AC/WO/12/81

o Close of meadow in Shirehampton called the Oare; bounded to west by Oare Lane 1711 BRO P.St M/CH/21/a-b; messuage and closes called ... Great Oare and Little Oare 1725 AC/WO/12/85; Oare Lane 1830 P.St M/D/1/l

o messuage and close[s] called ... the Paddock ... 1725 BRO AC/WO/12/85 o close called Passage Leaze 1711 BRO AC/WO/12/58; Passage Leaze 1720-31,

endorsed 1734 BRO AC/WO/12/81

45

o Lower Passage Leaze 1794 12151/173 o land ... called Little Rush Paddock 1745 BRO AC/WO/12/87; Three-cornered

close called Rush Paddock [boundaries given] 1751 AC/WO/12/90 o [Messuage and land called] ... the Salt Meadow 1666 (copy 1677) BRO

AC/WO/12/44 o the Sea Wall undated BRO AC/WO/12/49 o messuage and close[s] called ... Townend ... 1725 BRO AC/WO/12/85; close[s]

called Townsend ... 1720 12151/126; Townsend Six Acres 1720-31, endorsed 1734 BRO AC/WO/12/81

o close[s] called ... Wall Croft 1806 BRO 12151/104; Wall Croft Lane 1822 Enclosure

o [Messuage and land called] ... Warr Hill 1666 (copy 1677) BRO AC/WO/12/44 o [Messuage and land called] ... White Leaze 1666 (copy 1677) BRO

AC/WO/12/44 o Close called Whitley 1669 BRO AC/WO/12/41; close called Whitley undated

AC/WO/12/49

o There are lists of names in a “rough survey” of about 1733 BRO AC/WO/12/77, an undated survey of about the same period BRO AC/WO/12/78, and a lease of 1748 AC/WO/12/89

Other documents:

o Avenhouse grounds, Avenhouse parrocks 1679, lease, document in

Gloucestershire Archives D2957/329/142

The end

Richard Coates researches and teaches at the University of the West of

England, Bristol, and is Hon. Director of the Survey of English Place-Names.

He lives in Shirehampton.

46

Isaac Taylor’s map of Kingroad Farm in modern Avonmouth (1771-2), from his “Maps of

several estates belonging to Ed. Southwell esq.” [etc.], Bristol Record Office document reference

BRO 26570, reproduced with permission.