Thornbury Wayfinders

Last Tuesday’s “Walking Well Walk” was shaped by the rain that fell in the previous 24 hours. My wife, Libby, had warned me how slippery everything was underfoot, when she had taken Boris, our ancient Lab out for his pre-breakfast walk. So I decided to keep to the tarmac.

The first step was leave the St Mary Centre through the modern arcade to the High Street. My group refer to themselves as the Walkie Talkies and like to chat. They are not that keen on me mansplaining points of historical interest that they already know about. If they had come from out of town, I might have pointed out that the street is wider here because this was where the cattle market was held before it was moved to the other side of Rock Street. And this is why the Swan and the Lion are the remnants of a large number of pubs that used to serve the market. The third pub in this section of the street is the Butcher’s Hook, self advertised as the best pub in town, which still has on the ceiling of the bar the ironmongery that used to support carcasses from the cattle market.

The original market building is now occupied by the Tesoro Lounge. This building also used to house the town council, just as the Swan used to house the law courts. Further up the street, the town hall occupies a building that used to be a police station and a law court. The commercial activity associated with the market also attracted banks and law firms. The banks have been swept away by the internet and are in the process of being replaced by a Banking Hub in the narrow part of the street.

Reminders of the past are the well attended Boxing Day Meet of the Berkeley Hunt and the less controversial monthly markets augmented by events put on by Love Thornbury. But there was nothing special on as we made our way past the former registry office now the home of a popular fish and chip business and the grand Methodist Church that replaced the former chapel in the eponymous street at the top of the High Street, now the Cossham Hall in the the process of restoration.

The grand building that used to house the National Westminster Bank awaits a new purpose. It was built on the site of the White Hart Inn. Next to it is the water fountain, a memorial to Lt. Hector Maclaine of the Royal Horse Artillery, who was murdered by his captors in the Second Anglo-Afghan War. A little further on is the Lion House, recognisable by the lion on the eaves, which was built on the site of the Black Lion pub. This building was bought by the Quakers, who are rumoured to be planning to house there a family of refugees from the last Afghan War.

If you follow this route, you will not miss the Pump on the Plain. This is a modern replica of a town pump that stood there between the 1860s and 1924.

If you want to find out more about the older houses in Castle Street, I recommend The Thornbury Heritage Trail booklet obtainable from Thornbury Museum in Chapel Street.

I am particularly interested in tales the trees tell, which were planted in the grounds of grand houses.

The first such indicator is the yew tree that stands in front of the modern Catholic Church of Christ the King. It is clearly older than the church behind it it which was built to serve the mainly Irish workers who came to build the Oldbury Nuclear Power Station and the nearby motorways. The tree was presumably planted by a former owner of the Porch House, a large mediaeval hall house, that now serves as a community hall for the church congregation and others. If you look into the car park, you will see tall pine trees beyond, that were planted in the grounds of Stokefield house.

This grand house, built, according to the Thornbury Roots website, for Adrian Stokes in 1821, was in private ownership until 1958, when it became the offices for Thornbury Rural District Council. I don’t know where the RDC had its offices before then, but the RDC was abolished in 1974 anyway to form Northavon with Chipping Sodbury RDC as part of Avon County. At that time, Stokefield was demolished to build new offices and a court room that I visited on some rights of way case or other. I am not sure when that was, but Avon and Northavon were abolished in 1996 to create South Gloucestershire. The offices continued in use until 2015, when the building was empty. It was pulled down and the present Alexandra Lodge was built in its place (opened 2019). In the meantime, the surrounding trees kept on growing – most notably the Giant Redwood at the back of Alexandra Lodge.

Other notable trees are two Tulip Trees from America, which you may see – one on either side of the road towards the church – and a chestnut, which you will not see, because it blocked the pavement and its trunk can now be found on its side in Streamleaze open space – three quarters of a mile to the southwest as the crow flies.

Also invisible, is John Fewster, a doctor who was inoculating patients against smallpox at premises in Buckover up to thirty years before Edward Jenner popularised vaccination with cowpox from 1796. Fewster lived at Wigmore House, which was on the site of number 10 Castle Street and also had a surgery at Bank Cottage – now a dental practice. He wrote and published a paper entitled “Cowpox and its ability to prevent smallpox” in 1765, However, Fewster believed that variolation, which is inoculation with weakened matter from smallpox pustules was safer that inoculation with cowpox. Jenner’s careful research proved that vaccination with cowpox was in fact safer, though I know a farmer from the East Riding of Yorkshire who was pock marked because he caught cowpox when his child was vaccinated.

My route passed St Mary’s Church and the Castle. Thornbury Castle is now a luxury hotel and they tolerate but do not encourage walkers. The churchyard is closed for burials and is looked after by volunteers in the interests of wildlife. The snowdrops are splendid in season.

As we headed away from the church up Park Road, we left the Thornbury Heritage Trail and passed between Pound Cottage and the Pound, where straying cattle used to be impounded until released for a fine. So – plenty of Heritage!

Our walk went past the trees opposite the former site of the Sheiling School (before that it was Thornbury Park.) We then passed the Castle School – more trees and an advertisement for a women only running group, which had won one of the Mayor’s awards at the Castle last spring. And then down the path on the far side of the school that leads to the Alexandra Way Residential Care Home, whose grounds are being managed by Permaculture volunteers from Sustainable Thornbury.

We actually took a short cut, but we could have continued around the care home to take in the Mediaeval Fishponds. You can’t actually get into the Fishponds here without getting your feet wet, and you’d certainly have to go off-tarmac, but you can get close enough to appreciate the site. If you keep on alongside the stream, you’d join our shortcut on the way to the classical form of the Streamside Walk, which is due for an upgrade by South Glos.

To get there, we turned right past a new bridge beside what used to be a pond. The rain had nearly, but not quite, restored the pond. This bridge and the next one have recently been renewed because they had reached the end of their lives and had become unsafe.

At the end of this stretch, the path goes under Park Road. This underpass was easier for the engineers to envisage because this used to be a quarry. On the other side the path goes alongside a scout hut, which marks the site of the town gas works. (Actually I think this was in the car park beyond.)

A little further on, the tarmac path crossed over the stream. There is a more rustic path that leads to some stepping stones across the settling tank of the former sewage works. Agility and youth are recommended for this option. We stayed on the tarmac!

Past some willows that could do with a wee trim, the path comes out on the Gloucester Road (formerly Collister’s Lane). We cross over the zebra crossing and pass the gates of a grand building (Beechacres) before we rejoin the stream. On the Know Your Place website, this is marked as the Union Workhouse. It occurs to me now that I could re-write this walk on the basis of how we have treated old people over the years. We have already passed Alexandra Lodge and Alexandra Way Residential Home and we go past the former alms houses donated by Thomas Slimbridge who also set up Daggs Allotments, which now house Jigsaw in the St Mary Centre.

Or we could have traced the premises used by local government. Or how about education?

In the meantime we follow the Streamside path through site of the former tile factory to Gillingstool and up the hill back to the St Mary Centre and Hawkes House!