Excavations, Uses and Development

 

Roads

The old Bristol to Bath track, though rough, was the M4 of its day, in fact even more important than that before the railways were built. Coaches began to ‘fly’ from London to Bristol in 1724 “in a day God permitting” and two days for the return. Around 1760 the road was improved to enable it to climb the edge of Pylle Hill on a higher curved route so that the gradient was less steep. In 1833 the road was straightened and widened with “part of Pylle Hill being cut away to ease the gradients.”

 

With the development of the new rail system in 1830s the Exeter extension was planned to run from Temple Meads, passing through a field known as Sideland Pylle Hill and cutting deeply into the north west edge of Pylle Hill itself. A letter written in 1838 from a Railway Company representative to Lord Methuen’s estate manager outlines the plan, which included raising earth from the cutting onto Pylle Hill, creating a hill edge of 300 feet. The soil was to be levelled and planted with trees by agreement with Methuen who owned the land. When the Bristol Relief line was built at the beginning of the 20^th century the embankment was cut even further back into the hill along the whole length from the River Avon to St Lukes Road and the landscaping requested by Lord Methuen was lost.

 

Pylle Hill for city residents’ recreation

Pictorial maps in the City Museum show panoramas of the city drawn from the vantage point of Pylle Hill. Indeed they show well dressed ‘trippers’ to the hill enjoying the view. Bristol Annals writer Latimer wrote that in 1801 (while Pyllle Hill and Totterdown were still countryside)  ‘…the most cherished amusement of middle aged citizens was an occasional visit to the suburban bowling greens kept at various places including Totterdown villages, to which parties of friends resorted to enjoy their grog and tobacco in the country air, and afforded each other mutual protection from footpads on their return.’

 

In 1835 and before the Victorian ‘Lower’ Totterdown was built, a Zoological Society was looking into setting up a ‘zoological establishment’. Clifton Zoo history contains sparse details of attempts to get this going; first several acres on the Bath Road near Arnos Vale were purchased by a member of the Society but that attempt was aborted. Then in March 1835 eight acres of land on Pylle Hill had begun being planted up by John Miller. Miller was also the Vice President of the Society of Florists and owner of a ‘fine nursery garden off Whiteladies Road, (its present incarnation is as Garraways.) but subsequently the Pylle Hill plan was dropped and Clifton Down became the preferred site for Bristol’s Zoo.