Pylle Hill and its Fields
The last vestiges of rural Pylle Hill were recorded in a survey of 1852. The survey shows that the Hill and its slopes had once been divided into three large parcels of land which were later broken up.
The digging of the New Cut in 1804 provided a new, albeit temporary southern boundary for the expanding City of Bristol, before this the whole area of open fields between Redcliffe and Pylle Hill had been known as Ware Meads, by 1852 this name was attached to a single parcel of land that ran along side the southern edge of the New Cut. The name ‘Ware’ may be Saxon in origin and refer to a weir, perhaps located on one of the streams that drained Ware Meads into the Malago to the west and the Avon to the east. Ware could also be a family name. Ware Mead covered the area now occupied by the Mead Street Industrial Estate.
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Sideland Pylle Hill
Between Ware Mead and the top of Pylle Hill the land was known as Sideland Pylle Hill, ‘sideland’ literally meant the side of the hill. By 1852 the Bristol to Exeter railway had cut through Sideland Pylle Hill, leaving two smaller parcels of land on either side of the railway. When the Bristol Relief rail line was created in 1900, the south parcel was further cut into, creating the steep embankment that falls from the gardens of Richmond Road and the north end of Bellevue Terrace. The northern parcel was eventually covered by railway sidings and it too is now part of the Mead Street estate.
Hollybrook Well
The top, south and west parts of Pylle Hill were once part of a very large parcel of land called Hollybrook Well, this extended onto what is now the eastern slopes of Victoria Park although by 1852 the fields had been divided along the line of the stream that ran close to the line of the current St Lukes Road. This stream, which rose as a spring in the vicinity of Perrot Park was probably known as the Holly Brook, the location of the ‘Well’ is not certain but a large rectangular pond is shown on one early map as being located near to what is now the east edge of Victoria Park.
Broad Pylle Hill
The east side of Pylle Hill, the area now forming a wedge shape between the railway, the Wells Road and Cambridge Street, was called Broad Pylle Hill, ‘broad’ simply meaning ‘flat and open’ although of course even in 1852 its eastern edge was steeply sloped as are Bellevue Terrace and Cambridge Street today. A house had been built on the north edge of this parcel, with fine views across the newly built railway, the New Cut and south of the City of Bristol. It may be that it was this house which was acquired by John Herapath for his School in 1817, then called Knowle Hill House. As well as being a school teacher Herapath was an amateur scientist[1], and although in science John was outshone by his Chemist brother[2], John Herapath was to gain fame as the publisher of the Railway Gazette. By 1852 the house had been divided into two, one of its tenants was called Harmon Visger who seems to have been an American merchant, but who had in fact died in 1850. This same house was subsequently remodelled under the name Bellevue, the house and its landscaped gardens were lost when the Bristol Relief line was constructed, the only evidence remaining being the two massive stone Gate pillars and the name commemorated in Bellevue Terrace.
 Gate posts of Bellvue 2009
Adjacent Fields
The land to the north east of Pylle Hill, now a virtual island cut off on all sides by the Avon, the New Cut, the Bath Road and the Railway and which forlornly awaits redevelopment, was probably once part of the Ware Meads, but by 1852 it was called Coneygree which may indicate it was once the location of rabbit warrens. Fittingly the tenant of this parcel in 1852 was named Sir John Hare. The railway eventually came to dominate this parcel and for over a century it was the location of carriage works and engine sheds.
Also to the east of Pylle Hill was the only field which has its old name still in use, this is New Walls, a triangular piece of land formed by the branching of the Bath and Wells roads. Its name probably derives from the retaining walls that had to be built when the Toll Road was improved in 1833 by cutting more deeply into the slope on the south west side of what is now the Bath Road. The south edge of the New Walls field, close to the Wells Road, was the location of a house occupied by the tenant farmer who leased many of the fields that lay between the Bath and Wells Road, this farmer’s name was John Anjor, he is commemorated in the name of Angers Road. Farming on Pylle Hill
All of the Pylle Hill fields were under pasture in 1852 and were leased to a George Wise who had a house set back from the Wells Road in the region of present day Henry Street. It’s not clear if George Wise was actually keeping stock on these fields as unlike the contemporary farms at Redcatch, Upper Knowle and Lower Knowle there is no sign of extensive farm buildings having existed. However as John Anjor farmed without having a complex of buildings, it may be that George Wise did also.
A rural industry: the Rope WalkRope making was an important industry in Bristol as rope was required in huge quantities for shipping. While the demand for rope saw industrial scale developments, rope making was also a farm industry in the rural economy of the late 18th century. A ropewalk was typically shaded by trees, planted to shelter the ropemakers who walked up and down the walk constantly and in all weathers looping the rope making fibres over the tenterhooks (as they were called). An extensive rope walk, some 350 metres in length was still in operation in the early nineteenth century at the foot of Pylle Hill; located on the north edge of the field called Sideland Pile Hill, it ran very close to the line of the present Mead Street. The Rope Walk ceased operation after the building of the Bristol to Exeter Railway and its site was eventually lost below the sidings and goods yards that dominated the area at the end of the nineteenth century. (Nowadays it is a trading estate.) The Rope Walk was recorded in 1821 as pasture land owned by Mrs Ann Cook who leased a house and a yard on the property. Its entrance was on the west side of the Bath Turnpike Highway and the road widened there like a modern lay-by. The Ropewalk was shown as existing as late as 1849 and is shown in great clarity in a plan of 1878.
Pylle Hill’s Civil War role
During the Civil War Totterdown lay outside of the main fortifications of Bristol. In 1645 the Parliamentarians swept north after victories at Langport, Bridgewater and Sherborne, the first units of the New Model Army arrived at Keynsham and Cromwell reported to Parliament that his ‘Taunton Brigade Unit’ had ‘marched to Pile Hill on the south side of Bristol, “being within musket shot thereof where in a few days they made good quarter overlooking the city.”
Pile Hill itself had a siege battery on it, used in both 1643 and 1645, which was placed on the highest eastern side of Pylle Hill, opposite the river and overlooking the road to Temple Gate. The field called Broad Pylle Hill seems the most likely position, in the vicinity of modern Bellevue Road. Bristol historian Latimer writing in 1900 refers to ‘a sconce’ built at Totterdown being mentioned in a Parliamentary newsletter. A sconce was usually a simple earth ring ditch and bank, forming a small isolated fort.
[1] John Herapath
[2] The First General Anaesthetic
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