The Origins and Development of Winterbourne, Hambrook and Frenchay
My dissertation is dedicated to the memory of my Grandparents May and Fred Bartlett of Cambray, Frenchay.

S.A. Cairns

INTRODUCTION
The area formed by the parish boundaries of Winterbourne and Frenchay lying to the north east of Bristol, whilst divulging little of historical importance, nevertheless, in terms of social history, has much to offer.
It is likely that the colliers disputes over the centuries, the siege of Bristol by Prince Rupert in 1643 and the subsequent loss of the city to Cromwell in 1645, did not pass unnoticed; indeed reports can be found of two notables, one of Iron Acton, and one of Stoke near Stapleton, who were accused and fined by Protestant courts for their alleged helping of Royalist troops during the troubles. Generally speaking though, a farming community before the 19th and 20th centuries would have had more than enough to cope with just to maintain their property, let alone to have dealings with politics and the intricacies of city life.
The interest in this particular part of the country lies in its origins as part of the Royal Hunting Grounds, and the restrictions that this purpose put on the daily lives of the farmers, its nearness to and involvement in the mining and quarrying industries, the attention paid to it by the Quaker fraternity, and the rise of Frenchay from a mean collection of dwellings scattered over the common land surrounded by wooded and hostile conditions, to a successful and affluent country retreat for Quaker families and business men.
The problem with writing the history of any town or village is an immense one. Generally speaking there are no published books about the area one chooses, (the very reason for beginning the investigation) because little work has been done in Britain on these subjects. Therefore it is impossible to judge at the start whether the task will be an easy one or not. I was unfortunate in that not only was there little written about Winterbourne, Hambrook and Frenchay, but also there were few of the maps and documents in the Archives office in Bristol and Gloucester that make a researchers job rewarding. Because of this, some of the following will be very careful supposition, the rest will be justified in some way. It should be mentioned that it is impossible to write such a history in the limited time allowed, I have skimmed thinly the whole historical length and presented what amounts to an introduction.
Bibliography
Annals of Bristol, vol.1, 11, 111								Latimer
Victoria County History, Gloucestershire
Inquisitions Post Mortem
Domesday Survey of Gloucestershire							C.S. Taylor
History of Kingswood Forest								A. Brains
The Place names of Gloucester								A.H. Smith
Cartulary of St Mark’s Hospital								ed C.D. Ross	
Bristol Directory 1870-1889
Tithe Commutation map of Frenchay 1842	
Tithe Commutation map of Winterbourne
Court Rolls and other Manorial documents of the 16th & 17th century…
	…relating to the Manor of Sturdon amongst the Ashton Court MSS.
Industrial Archaeology of the Gloucestershire area					Buchanan and Cossons
Calendar of the Bristol Apprentice Book 1532-1565
Minute book of the Mens Meeting of the Society of Friends in Bristol
Winterbourne, Gloucestershire								C.H.B. Elliot
The Making of the English Landscape							W.G. Hoskins
Early Bristol Quakerism									Russel Mortimer
The Church in Bristol									Rupert E. Davies
Fieldwork in Local History								W.G. Hoskins
Gloucestershire Archaeological Society books from 19th and 20th century

Back in the Mists of Time
Britain lay at a lower level than it does now, and was shrouded in mist and steeped in marsh.  A chilly and inhospitable island but one that was, underneath, rich in mineral resources, and a plum for one of the civilised countries to pick at the right time.
Across the great Somerset plain the grey waters of the channel isolated the rise of Glastonbury; then, slowly, over the centuries, the shifting land gradually pulled the soil from the sea’s grasp but left it waterlogged and starved of goodness.
Beyond the range of hills in the north a similar story was told of the land rising slowly eastwards and dipping again to the Avon valley. Deep forest clothed the slopes right up to the Severn estuary and eastwards; one vast area of thick forest and scrubland, broken only by the rivers feeding the Avon, and small natural clearings.. The courses of the feeder rivers often cut deeply into the rock forming miniature gorges of great natural beauty, but of little use to the inhabitants of that period. Across this wild landscape wandered the nomadic tribes of the Stone Age, settling for a period of months in small clearings in the forest and growing what they could, working the ground until it was exhausted and then moving on, living on the game that surrounded them, deer, bear, wolf, and boar. They made little attempt at clearing vegetation because they were so few and the land so vast.
Slowly man began to come to terms with his environment and felt able to use it for his own benefit, began to think seriously about planning his life for the seasons to come. By being able to plan his movements, even if just for a few months, his life became more stable, he could build more permanent shelter and make his family safer and more comfortable. These settlements grew larger, more land was cleared to provide for them. Danger would have been ever present, rival groups, wild animals. Security for these settlements was a problem in their forest-covered environment, one solution was to find higher ground with slopes steep and bare enough to expose any danger, and to fortify it however crudely.
Just such a hilltop defence was the fort at Bury Hill near Hambrook. It was of sufficient height to see considerable distances over the east and west plain, even more fortunate was the fact that the river Frome wound its way around two sides of the mound. For even greater protection they had dug a deep trench around the hill near the top and piled up earth so as to form a wall. What is puzzling is that a peak of land on Whitehall Common is even higher than Bury Hill but was not used as a place of defence, instead it was used as a burial ground, for remains of a pagan burial site have been found there.
Invasion
Altogether the area around Hambrook and Winterbourne would have been ideal for a permanent site; sheltered, good soil and plenty of game. Settlement increased here, suffering times of war and enjoying short periods of peace for several centuries until the 7th century BC when the Celtic tribes of North-West Germany and the Netherlands swept over the South and Midlands of Britain. Invasion followed invasion as the British were gradually driven westwards, the Bury Hill Fort, probably for the last time, gave a measure of protection to its Iberian inhabitants, this time against a great and overbearing force which was to prove too strong, for the original islanders were driven into that part of Britain that we call Wales, and the Celtic peoples sat proudly over their conquered lands.
These Celtic tribes were superior not only in fighting but also in agriculture. They had ploughs of a sort, and a system of farming. Small areas of land were cleared and banked off with earth and stones, and probably a primitive form of crop rotation was practised in some of them whilst others served as enclosures for domesticated animals. Evidence of some of these enclosures can be found but many have been destroyed by later land clearance and utilisation.
In the 1st century BC Britain suffered another invasion, this time by the Belgae. This eventually proved to be beneficial to the land because they brought with them even more advanced methods of farming. Most important was the introduction of their heavy one wheeled plough which was capable of clearing what to them must have been prodigious acreages of land in much less time. More land was made available for farming and thus the population expanded. In the comparatively short time that they were in control they turned the land to corn growing on a large scale.
However in 43AD the fingers of Rome reached out for what was to them a land rich in minerals; tin, iron, lead. A conquering force of crack Roman troops was sent across and systematically planted the Imperial Eagle in all parts of Britain. Army posts were set up and the local Celts, those that were willing, were enlisted, and Rome settled in the land and proceeded to ‘civilise’ it.
The River Avon was seen as a potential danger spot for water borne invaders and so a defensive fort was built at the present day Sea Mills and was called Abona.
The local inhabitants would have respected, if hated, the Romans’ power and would have done their best to keep out of their way - not a difficult task with so much woodland. The old clearings cultivated previously in the forests around the present day Winterbourne, and other similar areas, would have been stripped of their grain crops to feed the Roman soldiers both stationed in Abona and campaigning in Gaul.
The Romans’ life was not at all easy from then on because the original Britons, quiet for so long in Wales, rose up and threatened the flanks of the soldiers. They were fought and temporarily confined again, but such was their fighting ability that the Romans felt the need to construct a whole string of look-out posts along the Severn to give warning of further attacks. So once more Bury Hill was to prove useful, only this time to the opposite side.
Bury Hill formed a useful link with the Severn-side lookout posts and the Roman camps on the Cotswolds. Various alterations were carried out inside; remains of an army hut have been discovered and a suggested reconstruction has the walls made from timber and sods of earth with a roof of twigs. The finding of Roman coins in the camp suggest from their dates that the fort was occupied for a much longer periop than the extent of the troubles with the Welsh.
Having pacified what peoples they could, the Romans began opening up the land. They built their structurally magnificent roads between all the important areas, and strengthened many of the old tracks that they thought useful that were formed by the ancient people to link village to village.
Insignificant collections of dwellings took on a new importance as they became links in the Roman network. Gloucester as the first crossing point in the south of the river Severn, and therefore strategically important, had a link with Abona on the Avon. Bath, or Aqua Sulis, was soon to become important with the discovery of its mineral waters. It was also a link between the west and east. Because these roads were very straight it did not mean that the land at the time was in any sense clear, the opposite was the case. The land surrounding Abona would still have been wild and tree covered, but the Roman road builders would let nothing stand in their way.
Once the country had been opened up, families were brought across and colonisation could begin. The rich built villas with underfloor heating, seldom far away from one of the main roads and always near a water supply. Just such a villa as the one at the head of Bradley Brook. Their servants or slaves would probably be some of the Celtic peoples. The Roman lands, which were extensive, were farmed in large open fields , contrasting with the small Celtic fields.
Far from altering the face of the British landscape, the Romans made very little impression on it, hardly more than the previous settlers. No great areas of land were stripped for farming, it is possible that interests were more rewarding, the salt, tin, iron and lead deposits and the coal which was being surface dug for the first time.
The Saxons
However, events abroad eventually caused a slow withdrawal of Roman troops to support their comrades, and left Britain undefended. Several times before the Saxons from Germany and Denmark had tried to invade the country, but each time the Romans had fought them off. Now when they came the task was much simpler, and by 400AD the Saxons were in power. Whereas most of the towns had become Romanised and the inhabitants of them likewise, the country had almost reverted back to its virgin state. Land that had been painstakingly cleared and cultivated was now in a wild condition. The villas, once such a pride to their owners, had fallen into decay, mosaics broken, drainage systems fouled. The roads were covered in grass and creeping undergrowth. Imperial rule had gone and chaos had taken over.
The Saxons though had their own ideas about agriculture, and ones which were to last almost unaltered in some parts of Britain until the beginning of our century.
Although a great deal of land had reverted back to wilderness, their job of reclamation was made easier by the existence of the Roman roads, with these they could penetrate Britain, and it gave them places from which to start. The ancient trackways were important too and soon the old cultivated areas were again revealed. Clearance went on at a tremendous pace with fire being used in many cases to speed things up, but the chief implement was the billhook and the Saxon’s energy.
As suitably sized areas were cleared, little groups of people settled down to farm, splitting up the cleared land around them into two or three areas to practice their system of crop rotation where one field lay fallow periodically to allow goodness to be restored to the soil.
Soon after the successful Saxon Invasion the country was broken up into kingdoms for more even distribution of power. Each king would then probably allot land to his favourites, who would then, together with their retainers, set about clearing it for farming. One such. king of the West had his station at Pucklechurch on the eastern edge of the great forest. He retained this forest for his own use as a hunting ground for the game which still abounded in Britain.
During the Saxon period a system for government came into force in which the land was split up into areas each with its own head who was responsible for his area in the court of that region. For this purpose the land was divided into areas which were capable of supporting one hundred households, these were further divided into tithings, each of which could support ten families. These tithings measured roughly 150 acres which was deemed a suitable acreage to live on, the amount varying depending on the quality of the land.
An elected person from each tithing would meet regularly with representatives of the other 100 tithings to discuss matters under their lord’s government, and to arrange the punishments of wrongdoers.
The lord kept a certain amount of his land as his demesne from which he lived, the rest he divided and rented to households of tenant farmers who, together with their lord, divided the fields into strips so that each farmer and the lord had equal amounts of good and mediocre  land in each of the areas. The land around the fields was wooded or scrub covered and was deemed common land. Domestic animals - cows, pigs - were grazed there, and their efforts helped to prevent the encroachment of saplings and undergrowth.
Winterbourne was probably then quite a thriving hamlet with a small collection of dwellings around the wooden manor house, nestled amongst green wooded countryside but neatly surrounded by cultivated land. A mile away would be a similar if smaller settlement Hambrook, by the side of a stream winding its way through the trees to the river Frome across the other side of which rose the long since unused hill fort, now overgrown.
Towards the south west, a small community was growing up on the site of the old Roman station by the river Avon. The Saxon kings were beginning to realise the potential of the river Avon with its long tidal flow, deep water and inland position, and once more it became a place to be defended.
With the increase in size of this settlement, tracks would probably be driven to it from most of the surrounding hamlets. Winterbourne would have had one linking it with this expanding and potentially wealthy place. It would have been coupled with the track linking both Hambrook and Winterbourne with Gloucester, already a thriving and wealthy township.
The later Saxon kings, notably Alfred, realised the importance of religion and education. Monasteries had sprung up everywhere and many small wooden churches had been built, acting as stabilising factors to the spiritual leanings of the communities in which they were founded. The kings knew the importance of an established religion so they supported and financed them. Precisely because of the materials used there is very little 
Education brought innovation, the power of water was discovered and utilised for grinding corn. Over the whole country, on selected rivers, waterwheels were constructed by the enlightened landlords, and tenants brought their grain to their lord’s cornmill to be ground at a small price and a portion of their crop.
For a long time it seemed as if Britain would flourish under the later Saxon kings, but across the sea in France, King William was laying claim to the Island. His was the greater right to the throne than Harold’s. Inevitably war broke out. The result is well known.
The French Feudal System
Naturally changes came with the new leadership. William, wishing to reward has supporters, and also probably to keep their minds occupied with their own responsibilities, allotted manorial lands to his chosen few. English lords were deposed and tenants thrown into confusion. In  many cases the new French owners preferred not to live in such a barbaric country and so handed their British estates to Saxons who had shown their loyalty to the new King, whilst they departed to France, sat back and collected the profits.
One of the worst social changes to sweep England was the introduction of the French feudal system whereby the lord of each manor had in his control native people who were termed servari (serfs) and whose status was that of a slave. They were the property of the lord of the manor. Attempts to leave the land were punishable by death. It was a poor existence but the status of the tenant farmers was also much reduced, not only did they have to give more in kind to their lord, but also they were required to work on the lord’s demesne at certain time of the year (spring sowing and harvest ) when they could ill afford to leave their own land unattended.
Many of the manors were kept by King William for his own use but were given to be controlled by his followers. One of the first things that William did on settling in Britain was to command a census of land so that he could know exactly what kind of prize he had conquered. This has passed down to us as the most important document of social climate in history, The Domesday Book.
Before any information contained in this book is used it is necessary to know something of the way the Norman life was ordered.
In the Saxon period the land was divided into shires, areas which could be represented in government. The Normans saw the value of this unit of government and so preserved it. As previously mentioned, the land was divided into areas each capable of supporting 100 households, these were further divided into tithings each of which could support 10 families. These tithings (being roughly 150 acres ) for the sake of taxation were divided into areas for one tenant and his family. The owners of these lands were taxed on the amount of suitable living areas, or hides, that could be supported. Not only was the land judged on the number of hides it could support but also on the number of plough teams . One team consisted of eight oxen yoked four abreast and capable of ploughing 120 acres. The tenants would probably form a plough team collectively whilst the lord would have his own.
From the translation
It can be seen that Winterbourne, along with Bitton and Wapley, was a part of the Suineshovede, or Swineshead, Hundred; the parish of Winterbourne was comprised of the tithings of Winterbourne and Hambrook. Swineshead Hundred was owned by King William and the three manors supported 41 villeins, 29 servants and 18 serfs, there were 36 hides, 5 oxen plough teams to work the lord’s land and 45 to work the villeins land. 6,000 acres were under cultivation and there was one water-powered corn mill.
This suggests that practically all the land was under cultivation, the remaining acreages, approximately 1,000 acres, probably being part of the great forest. Villeins appear to have less land than usual but this was probably very fertile. Roughly speaking, each family would have been working ¼ square mile, but this would not have been in a single unit. Each villein was designated a portion of the farmed areas available, the rotation of crops was in a three year system of fallow land, corn and pulses. Each villein would have a strip in all of the three fields.
It would be difficult to ascertain which of the three owned the watermill, both Winterbourne and Bitton were on water supplies, Bradley Brook and the River Boyd, there are mills mentioned only on the Boyd, but it is possible that a mill could have been positioned on the River Frome not far away where there is evidence of very old mills.
The question of the site of the manor house is a fairly simple one to solve in Winterbourne because of the placing of the church. The original church would have been built by the owner of the land and naturally he would have chosen a site near his home. Neither the original manor house or church would be seen today because they would have been constructed out of wood; however, the name of the place was usually passed on, thus because of the evidence previously mentioned ( the pre-conquest burial ground near the present church ) it can be assumed that the nearby farm has a strong chance of being on the site of the manor. In fact it is called Court Farm and the name ‘Court’ is fairly indicative of an early site of the local sessions which were conducted by the land owner in his own home.
William enjoyed hunting. Most of his reign was spent travelling through Britain, visiting and keeping in order all his property and subjects. There were many massive areas of forest still remaining in Britain which were preserved for the sanctuary of game, and thus for the pleasures of the Royal Huntsman.
One such area was Kingswood Forest, which was still many miles in circumference  but was contained more or less to the east by the River Frome. The manors owned by the King around the Forest were carefully chosen to be in the best position to afford him good hunting and adequate rest. Each of the manors of Winterbourne, Bitton and Wapley were under obligation to pay one night’s ‘fern’ every year to the King either in money or in hospitality.
It is uncertain which of the other farms belonged to the villeins. The circumstances of the type of farming suggests a closely grouped community surrounded by their lands, in other words, a nucleated village with the church and Court Farm as its centre.
Hambrook was also recorded, its case was slightly different in that it was one of those manors that the King handed over to one of hid followers to act as tenant-in-chief. William gave Hambroc to Geoffrey, Bishop of Coutances in Normandy. He, probably having more than enough to cope with in France, put a Saxon called Olaf in charge in his name.
Hambrook was a small manor with the demesne farm having two plough teams and the villeins also having two. There were two villeins and two serfs, 480 acres were cultivated and 6 were used as meadow land which was quite valuable and usually of the finest kind of grazing. The manor house here can also be recognised by it’s name, Hambrook Court, which stands on the site of the original. When the manors were recorded, Hambrook and Winterbourne were separate but it was not long before the importance of Winterbourne and its church made it inevitable that they should combine. However the distance to Winterbourne Court made it necessary for a court to be held periodically in Hambrook for the sake of the villeins in the far south of the area.
William noted at the time the success of the small port of Brigstowe, and endeavoured to increase trade. He ordered an imposing castle to be built as a precaution to protect his goods as they were exported and imported. The fame of Bristol was steadily 
growing, the wealth of its people and the surrounding countryside was accruing, and the roads from the north and east were becoming important highways. The size of Bristol’s population, entirely dependant on the farmers for food, meant that much of the land around the town had to be put to the plough, Kingswood Forest however was left almost intact because it was the property of the King.
The place hitherto unmentioned was the manor of Sturden, it must have been a small place of insufficient importance to warrant an inclusion in the Domesday Book, but it was later to equal Hambrook.
Frenchay, although unmentioned before 1248, must have existed long before that. Its name implies ‘Wood on the Frome’, but it is possible that this applied only to the steep, sometimes almost vertical, slopes reaching down to the river; the top being a combination of trees and common or scrub land. The first settlers here were probably squatters, come with their pigs and cattle to graze them whilst constructing their crude wooden dwellings. Eventually the land would have been claimed by the Winterbourne manor and developed as farming or grazing land with an appropriate number of villeins. The development of this part of the forest would have been seen as an important move because at that point the river was at its shallowest and was easily fordable.
During William’s reign there were periods of religious fervour; monasteries sprang up all over the country, congregating especially around the centres of trade and prosperity, London, Gloucester, Bristol, York. Although supposedly bound by strict laws of poverty individually, these laws did not seem to restrict the monastic orders as a body from hoarding great wealth. This wealth was used to buy land which in turn became a regular source of income.
The Hospital of St Marks in Bristol received many gifts of land, maybe for services rendered or for a feeling of religious well-being, whatever the reasons, large tracts of land changed hands and ended up in the charge of the church.
In 1250, an agreement was made between William le Waleys, rector of Winterbourne Church, and Henry de Gaunt, Master of the Hospital of St Mark, in which William gave over all his rights to the village of Frompshahe which were his by right of birth. In the agreement also were portions of land, some rents and services in Hambroke. He stated that one third of all land that he held through his father Ralph should pass over to the brethren.
Now the family of le Waleys owned the manor of Winterbourne from 1225 for several decades; William le Waleys was probably a nephew, but it is difficult to be precise. He looked after the church and so was close to the family. On Ralph le Waleys’ death the greater part of the property was inherited by his two daughters, but perhaps the Frenchay portion was not the finest and was therefore not sought after by the immediate kin.
Before that it can be seen that the heirs of Winterbourne manor did not own all the land, in 1241 Richard Gaunsell owned and granted to St Marks Hospital the rig which hts to land in Winterbourne and Hambrok. On a secular level, in 1230-50 Adam Boudam and Cecilia his wife owned a tenement of land which was rented by Robert Hunipin, and also the Hambrook Mill which was worked by William de Frampton.
There are other cases to show how the land swapped ownership at regular intervals, became split up as inheritors claimed portions. Yet no matter how frequently the change the workers stayed with the land, bound to it by law. The villeins would pay their rental dues in money or in kind every year and worked their lord’s land at the expense of their own.
The present church at Winterbourne was built on the site of the old one just before the 13th century. It was no longer the property of the manorial lord, it belonged to the church and to God.
In 1231 the reigning king, Henry lll, felt the pinch of poverty, and in order to add to his coffers, he passed a law of deafforestation which allowed any man to clear forest land (previously preserved) the only stipulation being that the King was paid for the privilege. Most of the landowners were only too pleased to pay because land was short. Through this the acreage of Kingswood was greatly reduced yet it still remained an impressive size. From that time on it was known not as ‘the Forest’ but as ‘the Royal Chase’. During his reign ‘Sea Coal’ began to be mined in the Chase.
For many years it was the custom for the constables of the big towns to dress in steel armour and carry out raids on nearby villages demanding the prisage of beer. This entailed the capturing of hay, corn, beer and money equal to a percentage of their worth. These captures became a familiar and almost lawful practice up to the reign of Edward l, when it was forbidden. Yet for some reason Bristol was excluded, and for the villagers around the city the torment continued.
There was little authority in the early period to keep the King’s peace, and wooded areas like Kingswood Chase, became the haunts of freebooters, who claimed squatters rights to the land, robbers and highwaymen - more stress for the villagers!
The Black Death
In 1348-49 a turning point came in the history of farming. The Black Death or Bubonic Plague, always a threat in overcrowded insanitary cities, swept the country in one of its worst outbreaks. In those two years it killed from one third to one half of the total population of England. Overnight the manorial lords found their lot changed from one of too little land and an excess of men needing work, to one of too much land to handle and a dire lack of labour.
Land, which had been eagerly cleared in previous centuries to satisfy voracious appetites for acreage, was now abandoned if less than perfect, and the focus was on fertile arable land. Landlords were now desperate for tenants, arable was converted into pastoral. The dawn of the tenant farmer had come. The landlord was eager to rent out his land and the responsibility. Most of the more wealthy common people were quick to take advantage, the landlord could no longer expect service during the year from his tenants because those tenants now called the tune.
In our area the tenants decided early on to abolish strip farming methods - these were wasteful in terms of time and energy. Between themselves and with the good will of the landlord they rearranged the land so that each tenant had one large area or at least had his land in larger blocks. Drystone walls divided the areas more permanently. With the splitting of the available land some tenants found the village arrangement an inconvenience if their plot of land happened to be on the edge of the original open fields. As a consequence some moved out of the ancient and protective village confines and built their homes closer to their farmland.
The Winterbourne landscape had been one of open field farming around the principal settlements, bounded by land through which pathways led to smaller breakaway settlements. Surrounding all this was forest, scrubland and the river. Now the landscape was completely altered into one of smaller walled fields and scattered farmsteads. The villages still remained but were populated by the poorer farm labourers.
New importance came to Winterbourne in 1393 when the King granted to Blanche Bradeston, lady of the manor, the right to hold a market every week and two fairs annually. Markets and fairs were the two things that persuaded people to travel  from 
miles around to gather in a comparatively insignificant town square. These weekly events ensured that the public ways to Winterbourne were well used. Gradually the attraction of the busy roads drew the villagers away from the protection of the church and homes were set up in ribbon developments.
The growth in cloth manufacturing in England encouraged sheep farming. The Cotswolds were a favoured area for investment because of its vast sheep covered slopes, and many town and city merchants invested in land. During this period much of the land around Winterbourne and Hambrook changed hands from hereditary lord to Bristol merchant.
Within two centuries the English people had lifted themselves from a period of great depression to one of great prosperity. Everyone benefitted. A period of great rebuilding began, first with the wealthiest demanding bigger and better mansions, then the richer tenant farmers followed suit, leaving us with many of the farms that we see today. Moorend Farm has the inscription ‘1676 B.R.E.’ The initials of the original occupants. Hicks Farm is dated 1630 and others have deeds which begin more or less in this period. Many of the cute cottages that we see today were not the homes of the poorer folk (theirs were less permanent ) but the new style houses of the more prosperous.
The reasons behind this new prosperity was the tremendous growth of the big cities creating bigger demands for leather, wool and food. The merchants were willing to pay high prices and the farmers outgoings were slight ( he had all the resources on the farm for a good standard of living and had his family to work unpaid for him ), his land was secure and the rents remained stable. It was obvious that the merchants would be eager to obtain land around Bristol, if not to work it, at least to own it. Another money spinner was discovered around the city - Pennant Grit - used for building and the filling in of roads leading to Bristol. In no time the money makers were cutting up the countryside around Winterbourne, Hambrook and Frenchay. Wherever there was a steep rocky hillside there would be the quarrymen tearing a scar in the landscape. These scars can still be seen today. Frenchay saw more activity in the 1600’s than at any time in its history, the steep slopes down to the river Frome were scoured of trees and pitted with quarrying. The hovels of the workers were dotted haphazardly amongst the cottages of the villagers. 
Across the river Frome the forest hid the steady destruction within. Everywhere pits were being dug to find coal, the poorly paid workers lived in squalor in little communities of wooden huts. They were not allowed to grow food because the land still belonged to the King. All of them, including the mine owners, were technically trespassing. At this time there was little demand for coal as it seemed dirty and smelly compared to wood which was freely available.
At the beginning of that century the price of foreign iron increased to a point where it became necessary to try to make use of the local iron ore deposits outside Bristol. The conversion of this ore could only be effected by the use of great quantities of charcoal. Much of the forest was destroyed and the citizens went in great fear of there being a lack of wood for fuel, a petition was sent to the mayor that certain iron mills at Mangotsfield owned by Arthur Player, and also at Stanton Drew, should be closed. The result of the petition was never recorded. 
At this time also a yearly rate was imposed on everyone for the upkeep of roads leading to the city which were in a terrible state especially during bad weather
Religion
In 1654 the first Quakers came to Bristol, sent by their founder George Fox of the Religious Society of Friends. There were two of them, John Audland and John Camm. They are mentioned here because they were to play a part in the history of Frenchay.
Another religious movement, whose followers were called Dissenters, was formed by those who refused to conform to Charles II’s command that only churches could be used for worship and then only by the service in the Prayer Book.
Interrupting these religious upheavals came the troubles between Cromwell and King Charles. In 1643 Prince Rupert, summoned from Hess by Charles, came to keep Bristol for the King, but in 1645 Cromwell had defeated him and his troops. Memories of the Royalist occupation were jogged for several years afterwards by the Protestants who came with Cromwell. Sir Maurice Berkeley of Stoke near Stapleton was forced to pay £1030.00 in court when he was accused of harbouring Royalist troops, his son Richard was similarly charged but was excused when he proved that he helped only because he was forced to do so. Sir Robert Poyntz of Iron Acton was fined £723.00 for being with the Royalists in the city. There were probably many more who were never accused because the majority of the Bristol citizens were merchants and traders who cared little for political battles as long as they were left in peace.
1652 brought the Baptist congregation to the public eye. They were despised by many who lacked understanding. For protection they held their meetings outside the city walls in the fields, the converts were baptised in the river Frome. Similarly the Quakers made for the fields where they held meetings with congregations of 3-4,000 people. A more permanent site for their meetings was found in the Winterbourne area Audlam and Camm used a building belonging to Hezekiah Cole near the site of the present Winterbourne House.
Persecution took many forms, personal harassment, the breaking up of ‘unlawful’ meetings and imprisonment. One of the rules of the Quaker faith was that it was forbidden for any Quaker to swear an oath. When the King, in 1660, was once more on the throne more than 4,000 Quakers in England were imprisoned for refusing to swear the oath of allegiance. The only avoiding action that they could take was to leave the city and set up their house of worship at a reasonable distance. Frenchay was ideal for this purpose being quiet and having few influential landowners. So in 1672 the Friends Meeting House was built. The site, if not the building, can be seen today, the present house was built in 1720.
Even in this quiet place they were not left alone. In ‘A Collection of the Sufferings of the People Called Quakers’ there is a passage....
“ In this year, 1677, John Meredith, Justice of the Peace, signalised himself by fiercely persecuting the Quakers. He beat William Bennet and William Wade unmercifully with his two hands; he took John Silcock by the hair of his head and pluckt him out of the meeting house at French Hay into the yard, and then drew his knife, and said he would mark  him, but was prevented by the interposition of his clerk and others. He pluckt John Bawn out of a meeting by the hair of his head: he also caused the forms and benches to be cut to pieces, not leaving one whole quarry”
Terrible persecution continued until the crowning of James II who declared a suspension of all laws concerning nonconformists and ordered those in prison to be released.
The rich Quaker businessmen were beginning to move out of Bristol to make their home in Frenchay near their place of worship. There were already several big houses owned by yeomen and ‘gentlemen’. It became a fashionable area drawing the big bankers and merchants out of the city, this popularity could possibly have been linked to its position regarding the city, a beautiful and safe side. The plain to the south and south west was marshy, the land directly to the east wooded and filled with the roughest assortment of people reduced to stealing or poaching to survive. The deer population in the forest had subsequently been almost wiped out here. The desperation of these poor people for survival gave them a fearful reputation and few dared to enter the Forest alone. The area we know as The Downs didn’t have the fashionable appeal that it has today, but Winterbourne and Frenchay were blessed with good soil, a sheltered position and easy access to the well frequented Bristol to Gloucester road.
Centuries before the land ownership had been sorted out, the fields divided and walled, therefore there was little unrest in the farming community. There was common land in Hambrook, Frenchay and Winterbourne for the labouring class. The mining and quarrying workers were sufficiently few as to constitute little threat to the outlook of 
the richer population. Winterbourne Down would have been a settlement almost entirely of Quarriers and their families, a poor community. Frenchay had progressed from a similar situation to a prosperous residential area. Hambrook, from being manorial land, was now a quiet village community sandwiched between the other two. Winterbourne, with its market and church, still acted as a religious and social centre.
In 1726, the council in Bristol ordered turnpikes and tolls to be introduced on several roads into the city to help towards improving their appalling conditions. The Kingswood colliers were furious because they had to pay the toll in order to take coal to Bristol and there followed a period of destruction of the turnpikes and holding to ransom of travellers.
A marked change came over the inhabitants of Kingswood with the advent of Methodism in Bristol. The Revd George Whitfield was refused permission to preach in the churches so he turned his attention to the state of those poor people, scattered in hovels and neglected by their six ‘lords’ who had usurped possession of the soil from the King. So, in February 1739, he went to Hanham Mount and addressed about 100 men. His reputation spread from the small congregation and as he toured the villages the crowds swelled to almost 20,000. He taught the colliers to have respect for themselves and reassured them of the love of God for all his creatures. His listeners went away in sober but elated mood. Kingswood, because of him, was no longer the fearsome place that it had been and, to a certain extent, people could travel through it in relative safety.
The roads leading to Bristol continued to worsen. Such was their state that the council had to reintroduce another turnpike act in 1749, exempting those people transporting coal. Moreover the number of turnpike roads was increased. It was now the turn of the farming community to show their disapproval. In July 1749 masses of agricultural labourers twice destroyed the three main city gates of Bedminster, Ashton and Don John’s Cross, and threatened the city itself. There were other attempts at the gates and rioting. Eventually the colliers joined in and by August 3rd 1749 almost all the tollgates had been destroyed with gunpowder, and many travellers were forced to pay the rioters money. It took a regiment of His Majesty’s Dragoons to disperse them eventually after many months of destruction.
The council were concerned at the inactivity of the country gentlemen over the destruction of the turnpikes by their own hired men. Naturally most of these farmers were sympathetic towards the cause and although many were brought to trial, not one of the farmers was found guilty of conspiracy.
The keeping of law and order could not have been easy in those times, the guilty party had too much in his favour, the slow communication between towns, the many hiding places, the woodlands and the lack of official records to aid identification. Pertinent to this is the factual account of a highwayman in this area. In the words of C.H.B. Elliott in his book ‘Winterbourne, Gloucestershire’, the story of a Frenchay Highwayman....
“ A man called Higgins, son of a Worcester farmer, and his brothers became notorious for highway robberies and burglaries. In 1754, Higgins was convicted at Worcester, and sentenced to transportation to America, being shipped from Bristol. Within three months he was home again, having broken into a house in Boston, and secured enough to pay for his passage. He resumed his career in Worcestershire, but in 1763, after one of his brothers had been hanged, he settled in the Great House at Frenchay. It is suggested that the huge bolt of the front door and the bars on the shutters of the windows were provided by him in view of seige. He adopted the name of Hickson, and is described in the Bristol Journal as “living in a splendid manner” keeping hunters and being very popular in Clifton society. He was later arrested on suspicion and committed for trial at Gloucester. When no evidence as to his robberies could be obtained, and he was liberated upon two sureties of£50.00 each - he then removed to Carmarthenshire, where he committed two daring robberies for which he was tried at Worcester and was liberated for lack of evidence. Shortly afterwards, however, he was sentenced to death at Carmarthen and although his execution was postponed more than once owing to powerful influence on his behalf, he was finally executed” 
Water Power
In the centuries since the Norman Conquest mills had flourished along the river Frome, grinding the local wheat. They were owned by the farmer landowner and were rented to the miller either for money or in kind. The mills were built of local stone at the edge of the river astride a narrow manufactured water channel which concentrated and increased the water power  to drive the wheel. The ruins of many of the mills can be seen today. Despite the advanced decay of these buildings they have a romantic attraction, clothed as they are by glossy ivy and bordered by the bubble -flecked river.
Many of these mills were made to suffer a change of purpose in the 18th century because snuff taking had become the rage ; corn mills, hitherto only just paying their way, were overnight becoming profitable concerns. Several on the Frome converted, one in particular, just down the river from Frenchay, is preserved today as a beauty spot - Snuffy Jacks Mill.
Not all the mills were old or converted however, for in 1761, at the bottom of Frenchay Hill, a mill was built for converting iron into agricultural implements. They may have used the water as a source of power to pump air into the furnaces or to cut and shape the metal. It is probable that the iron used came from the mines at Frampton Cotterell. Regardless of how it worked it certainly provided an extra source of income for the local people who relied on quarrying or labouring for their living.
Further up the river at the next bridge, another iron mill was built, and in 1810, the two combined to form the Frenchay iron Company, which enjoyed a fair degree of importance both in Great Britain and abroad. On interesting item produced by the company was the giant hoe, shipped to the West Indies for use in the cotton plantations.
Enclosure
From this time until the 20th century only one more thing was to alter the look of the land, and that was enclosure. Over much of England acts of enclosure had been passed for many years whereby the vast open fields of the villages were legally fenced off into squared areas to the advantage of the sheep and cattle owning landlords but to the detriment of the living conditions of the tenants.
In the Winterbourne/ Frenchay area enclosure was undertaken by mutual agreement at an early stage so there was no great social upheaval, but there were still large areas of common land used by the villagers for grazing their livestock which were tethered to ropes passed through a hole bored in a heavy stone. Most of the land was fairly rough and on the eastern side of the community. It was pitted with stone quarries. Nevertheless, encroachments were made during the last quarter of the 18th century. From the documents of Queen Elizabeth’s Hospital came the following letter...
“We are informed that a considerable part of Winterbourne Common hath been, and is now about to be, enclosed to the great injury of the lessees holding lands in that parish under the Governors. We therefore give you directions to employ proper persons to take up the fences or bounds of the said enclosures for the mutual and accustomed advantage of the freeholders and lessees having right of Common there, as always hitherto” 
They were concerned for those tenants who relied on the common land for the upkeep of their animals, and now this was being threatened by unlawful enclosure. However, their anxiety was to no avail for by 1789 about nineteen enclosures had been made, most of them with a cottage inside. They were not just homeless squatters who had staked their claim, a Dr Mountjoy of Whiteshill enclosed five acres for himself down to Damson’s Bridge. Action was taken against them but most remained after obtaining leases from the lord of the manor.
In 1825, an act of enclosure was passed, an application from the lord of the manor, John Wadham, for land in the Winterbourne parish, whereby all people who lived on land that had been enclosed from the common or waste land previous to the act should be deemed to own the land; but a distinction was made in the case of Frenchay Common, Hick’s Common and Whiteshill which were to remain for the benefit of all.
Frenchay Common had been divided many times, each division having a different function; 
quarrying, building, grazing; and had changed hands just as often until about 1870-80 when it was placed under the control of Winterbourne Parish Council, under whose control it remains.
Frenchay’s gradual social climb from a labouring, quarrying hamlet to the retreat of the successful, culminated in the building of its church in 1832. George Worrall conveyed a portion of the Common to the church building commissioners and, by 1834, the Church
Of St John the Baptist had been completed and consecrated at a cost of £4,775 11s 8d
Following the building of the church, a nearby portion of the Common was similarly donated by George Worrall for the building of a school in 1840. Frenchay had already had a school for some ten years at the bottom of the hill for boys and girls, but this was just a cottage and far too small. The new school was much larger with accommodation for the headmaster. Frenchay was no longer dependent on Winterbourne for its religious or secular education.
It was a prosperous parish, not without its fair share of the poor, for the quarries were still active and coal was still mined, but on the whole the landscape was one of grand mansions, elegant country houses and neat prosperous cottages.
The Bristol Directory gives an indication of the type of community although it only contains the names and occupations of the electorate. Between 1870 and 1889 the following can be seen...
Industries in the village: William Pearce Flour Mills, Hobbs Iron Works, M. Exley Millpuff Manufacturer, William Perry and company Woolstaplers and the Mitchell and Wilkes Edge Tool Works. All presumably using the local products, Frampton Cotterell iron, Cotswold wool and the local wheat whilst the quarry afforded materials for the stonemason George Pritchard.
Down the steep and narrow main street were clustered the many village enterprises, the grocer come post office at the top, the cordwainer or shoemaker, the grocers, the carpenters and the carriers. The spinster dressmaker, the prosperous solicitors, retired army officers, land owners, farmers and Carey Simmonds of the White Lion were their customers.
On sunny summer days they must have often strolled over the neat Common to watch cricket played by the club reputed to be the first in the country, and seemingly consisting entirely of the Grace family from Downend, for it was in this club that W.G. Grace played for many years.
Bristol’s boundary had been creeping towards Frenchay, even in 1897 most of the land between the village and Bristol had become suburb. Little by little Bristol had trickled around Frenchay but the village had been able to keep its rural quality through a number of reasons, the common land still existed as it does today, and still cannot be built on for the foreseeable future and the Frome valley sides were too steep to be built on economically.
This is basically true today although the steep sides are really no problem to the modern architect. The bigger houses still retain much of their land around the village and thus prevent development for the moment. Frenchay Hospital preserves acres of beautifully kept land to the north of the Common and the development of the Hospital itself is low profile, single storey. The National Trust owns certain portions forming part of a broad swathe of meadow land from the Common down to the river. The quarries, now disused, have until now been left to become overgrown. I understand that planning permission has now been granted for the building of two bungalows in the quarry on the northern bank of the river.
All development in this area has been carried out, in my opinion, with much thought given to the preservation of the village’s appearance. The architect John Bryant, in 1955, created an estate that settled easily into the atmosphere of the landscape. His houses were styled along the lines of the old Cotswold houses in the same warm yellow stone. Most of the trees of the old mansion grounds were preserved, and natural features such as the pond were incorporated into the design. In addition he also had 4,000 trees planted to surround and partly seclude the estate. Other estates followed but the same design principles were used throughout. The older parts of the village have in many cases been taken over and renovated, and further development is limited by the lack of space
History has been kind to Frenchay whilst Winterbourne and Hambrook have slowly declined in importance. A motorway now separates them leaving the two villages as islands of peaceful rural life. They have become fashionable retreats for the well off 200 years later than Frenchay but still in time to save the beauty of this particular corner of Gloucestershire.