Redhill, Somerset

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Redhill is a village in North Somerset on the A38 Bridgwater Road about 10 miles south of Bristol. It lies within the parish of Wrington at the top of the Wrington Vale that leads down to Weston-super-Mare.

Contents 1 Origins of the name 2 History 2.1 Prehistoric era 2.2 Roman times 2.3 Anglo-Saxon Era 2.4 Domesday 1086 2.5 Middle Ages onwards 2.6 Mining in the 16th Century 2.7 18th Century 2.8 19th Century 2.8.1 Education 2.8.2 Harvest home 2.9 Early 20th Century 2.10 World War II 2.11 Post-War Development 3 External links 4 References

[edit] Origins of the name

The earliest record of the name Redhill that has been found is on Day & Master’s map of Somerset from as late as 1782. The name may simply derive from the appearance of the unmetalled road up the hill, with deep cartwheel ruts scored into the red earth. Some say it means Roe Hill or Roe Hollow, alluding to the roe deer which are still plentiful in the area. Some dictionaries give the name as deriving from Ragiol, a village featured in the Domesday Book of 1086; this however, seems more likely to be Regil or Ridgehill.

What is clear, however, is that Redhill has been a place of human habitation for maybe 3,000 years, or even longer.

[edit] History

[edit] Prehistoric era

There are at least three prehistoric structures in Redhill:

1. Barrow Cemetery (grid reference ST507638

Redhill round barrow cemetery is one of only three cemeteries known in the Avon area. There were at least six barrows here (though the mounds you can see will be less than 1m high). It's not far from two long barrows (see below)

2. Long barrow (grid reference ST499635

This barrow is crossed by a field boundary at one end, and only about 60cm high. However, it (and no doubt the plethora of other sites around) seems a good reason why this bit of folklore is attached to the area.

Redhill long barrow is behind Raglan Farm and very close to Hailstones Farm: “There is a farm near Wrington called Hailstones Farm but some folk say it should really be Hurlerstone Farm on account of the Devil picking up a great rock lying there and throwing it right over the Mendips to hit Cranmore Church. Of course he missed, but it was a tidy throw even for the Old Boy. Some say it was a giant dropped it or made a bad shot of it. Anyhow the rock lies on the edge of a cliff in the woods and they call them Hurdlestone Woods. And there is a Giant's Grave there too.^[1]”

3. The Water Stone - burial chamber (grid reference ST501644

The remains of this burial chamber are just south of Bristol International Airport. The mound is almost gon but the cover slab remains - with a hollow in it that collects the rainwater, hence the name. The slab is said to always have water in it, and this was taken advantage of by the Wimblestone (another Neolithic monolith from Pylle Well near The Star Inn at Shipham), who once came to drink here. It's also said that offerings of primroses and milk were once made here.

"Well, twas the wonder of the village and the conjuror he gets the notion he'd aget his fists on more than one gold ball when next the fairies opened the hill. So he do pick a bunch of primroses and he go on up Goblin Combe, and he was glad enough to get in to the rock after all he see and hear on the way up. Well, twasn't the right day, nor the right number of primroses, and he wasn't no dear little soul - so they took him!^[2]“

4. Abspiut Pond

Just by Goblin Combe on the edge of Wrington Warren is Abspit Pond. Once an ancient monolith stood here also, but the Bethel Stone, as it was called, was removed before the 19th century.

[edit] Roman times

Further up the Vale of Wrington, and following the same road to Redhill, about three miles, in the deep hollow and a quarter of a mile beyond the church is Lye Hole, where there is a stream of water, which runs into the Yeo River not far from Havyatt Green. About two fields from the farm house of Mr. Body, at this spot, and ascending up the hill to the south, there was found last summer the site of a Roman villa. Owing to the dryness of the month of July, 1876, the whole plan of the villa became evident in the turf, and led to the ground being opened, when the remains of a hypocaust were found. Many of the pilae were exposed, and were found to be constructed of roofing tiles from a still older building. The floor of the room laid open had however been destroyed, and nothing was found but remains of burnt matter, pottery of different kinds, and many roofing tiles. As it was evident that at some remote time the floors of the rooms had entirely perished, and nothing of importance was likely to be discovered, further examination was abandoned.^[3]

At Lye Hole the enclosure system, often referred to as fields, implying that they represent cultivated infields, around the villa survives and is made up of long, rather narrow fields some 30m broad. This was a settlement of the late Roman or Roman-Saxon era.

There is evidence of another Romano-British settlement at Scars Farm at the top of Lye Hole Lane.

[edit] Anglo-Saxon Era

The battle of Dyrham in 577 gave the Anglo-Saxon kings control of the Avon valley and a route to the River Severn.

Lye Hole itself as a place-name is the Saxon lea-hole (or legh or leigh hole): the "clearing-in-the-woods hollow". With the fact that the Lye Hole hamlet may well be one of the sub-estates mentioned in the Domesday Book entries for Wrington. At the foot of Sutton Hill a brook rises nearby and flows past Lye Hole and Cowslip Green to join the River Yeo near Perry Bridge on the A38, Bridgwater Road (near the site of another Romano-British villa at Havyatt Green). In the Saxon charter of 904 (detailing the claim of Glastonbury Abbey to the Manor of Wrington) the brook appears as Wethelegh Brook (sheep-clearing or sheep-field brook), an important and easily recognisable part of the Wrington manorial boundary. Whilst Sutton Lane, in Lye Hole, encircles the Saxon’s Wulbikan Hill.

When the greater part of Broadfield Down was heath land, as it was still in 1738-9, the Saxon fields, referred to in the charter as "Styficleye" (the-lea-of-the-clearing-in-the-woods), must have been a conspicuous feature. In Winters Lane (from Downside to Redhill) there is surely another survival of the Saxon name that translates as "east side of the winter acres", and the straight line of Winters Lane itself may mark this eastern edge of the Wrington manorial boundary.

[edit] Domesday 1086

By late Saxon times and at the Norman Conquest in 1066, what is now known as Redhill comprised two of the three tythings of the Manor of Wrington (“Weritone”):

1. Lye Hole, to the East of the main Bridgwater Road, adjoining Butcombe;
2. Broadfield Down, to the West, adjoining Wrington, where Broadfield Farm still is today; also incorporating modern Downside, to the North, adjoining Felton and the site of Bristol International Airport.

[edit] Middle Ages onwards

In the middle 1200s, a detailed list of the tenants of the manor shows no fewer than 104 people holding from three to 40 acres each; eight cottagers with a garden; three millers who also had land; one priest and four freeholders.

At this time, land was divided according to its character into "meadow" - long thin strips on either side of rivers and brooks and used to provide the winter hay needed to keep the relatively few animals not slaughtered and salted down; "arable" for growing crops; and "pasture" - usually the higher ground fit only for summer grazing.

There were some very small enclosed fields (called "crofts", "closes" or "paddocks" beside outlying farmsteads on Broadfield Down and in the Lye Cross and Lye Hole area. But in the main, the only hedges were those separating meadowland from arable.

The arable land was divided into a number of blocks, in turn divided into long strips - the area an ox-plough could cover in a day, often 220 yards by 22 ... or one acre.

Each tenant was entitled to a varying number of strips in each field, sometimes allocated in turn or by lots, to allow everyone a chance of farming the more fertile strips.

[edit] Mining in the 16th Century

In the middle of the sixteenth century Queen Elizabeth I was badly in need of brass to make cannon so she sent her mining engineers out to look for ore. Calamine, a zinc ore, was found near Worle. It was then taken down the Banwell River and floated across the Bristol Channel to Tintern for smelting.

Further calamine was found at Downside, Redhill, Wrington, Shipham, Winscombe and Rowberrow. There are still signs of shafts and underground workings at many of these places. With the use of gunpowder in the seventeenth century the extractions speeded up. Iron ore has been found during the excavations at Row of Ashes, on the boundary between Redhill and Butcombe, in the 1970s.

Ore extraction and purification often utilised washing and settling lagoons, called buddles, for example, at the Priddy Mineries and at Velvet Bottom at the top of Cheddar Gorge near Charterhouse. Lye Hole Farm was referred to, as "the Washing Pool" or "at the Buddles” and there is still a field on Lye Hole Farm, called ‘Uddles, which has a spring in it.

[edit] 18th Century

The road we know as the A38 has been one of the main links between Bristol and the South West of England since mediaeval days. It may even have far earlier roots - linking the Roman settlement near Bristol with that at Exeter. The fact that so many Romano-British settlements are to be found either side of the road would seem to support this.

Hugh C Smith, in the Wrington Village Journal of March 1974, records a dismal picture of our local roads prior to the 18th century. Agricultural and other produce was carried in panniers or horse pots, slung upon packhorses, which were driven in single file along tracks worn deep by constant usage.

Teams of 40 or 50 horses were driven along tracks at times made almost impassable by bogs and intersecting rivulets.

Broadfield Down was a centre for calamine mining (for zinc) so one can imagine that this was one of the products being carried to centres for producing brass - such as Bristol.

The first Directory of Bristol in 1794 records that "fast coaches" left the Bush Tavern in Corn Street, or the White Hart in Broad Street at 6am every day, except Sundays, to journey to Exeter. There were also numerous carriers and waggoners, as well as private and farm traffic travelling what became a busy road.

The creation during the early 18th century of toll roads ("Turnpike Trusts") would have helped the quality of travelling (if not the cost). For Redhill and the Bridgwater Road, the first attempt to form such a trust was made in 1727 and again in 1731. Both were frustrated by local opposition - but the necessary Act (for Bristol) was eventually passed.

Initially, the Trust planned to deviate from the former road at Lulsgate and cut across Broadfield Down to enter Wrington by the bridle path now called Old Hill - but this was successfully opposed by the then Rector on the grounds that "it would corrupt my parishioners".

Before Christ Church was built in Redhill, worshippers had to go down to All Saints Church in Wrington, while - from 1715 - non-conformists used their own building. This was probably Meeting House Farm on Broadfield Down. The house was closed for the purposes of worship between 1751-1782 and again from 1788-1815.

There was probably a school at Broadfield from the latter part of the 18th century. We also know that, after this, there was an old cottage, on the corner of the Bridgwater Road and Church Road, now demolished, called "The Old School House". The "fees" were one penny a week. This "Dame school was run by a Mrs Saunders for 19 years until the building of the new one in 1874.

An appeal on her retirement raised £11.10s from villagers, 18s from her former pupils and she also received an annual allowance of £7.10s."

[edit] 19th Century

By the Tudor period, larger open fields had started to appear, but even in the early 19th century there were still a number of local fields divided into two or more strips without hedges and in different ownership - including Sutton, above Lye Hole Farm. Rural conditions are reported to have been deplorable in the years following the passing of the Enclosure Act for Wrington (1813). Work was scarce and many agricultural labourers faced starvation.

John Macadam was appointed Surveyor to the Bristol Turnpike Trust in 1816 and his new process of covering the roads with a layer of crushed stone bound with tar and rolled smooth was quickly copied by all the other trusts. The improvement to the road surface meant that roads could be narrower: There was no longer any need for vehicles and horses to go out to the verges to find a firm surface.

The result was that the sides of the road - which had been 30 yards wide - were taken into the adjoining fields, or used as gardens or building plots. There were no pavements by the side of the Old Coach Road. Water would run down the hill in a ditch either side. The carters would place a flagstone over the ditch by their cottages to trap the water flowing down the hill, so each cottage could have its own "pond". Stables were attached to the houses along the Bridgwater Road for the carters and the cottages were built afterwards. Number 1, Rose Cottage, was originally a pigsty and the house built on "Squatters' Rights". This meant that the chimney had to be built and the fire lit the same day - several cottages were built in this way.

As the Bell Inn (subsequently the Darlington Arms – renamed after another of the Duke of Cleveland’s titles) was so conveniently situated for travelling, facilities were provided for the stabling, watering and changing of horses, while the travellers stayed overnight. It was also used as a halfway house and resting place for carters taking their produce to Bristol - including potato carts from Axbridge and fruit carts from Cheddar.

The Darlington Arms also hosted markets, agricultural sales, the Redhill shooting match and the annual ploughing match dinner. An inquest was also once held there when a 63 year-old man was thrown off a load of hay - returning a verdict of accidental death.

The early years of the 19th century were the golden days of the fast coach: a one-way journey commanding the princely sum of 16s 6d. With the opening of the Bristol and Exeter railway in 1844, the popularity of the inn waned and, by the 1850s, it was stated that the railway had "run away with its customers".

Three parallel roads - the A38, the Turnpike Road and the Old Coach Road - can today be traced running by the Holiday Inn (once the Paradise Motel). The nucleus of the present village arose at the crossroads of what is now Church Road, Winters Lane, Long Lane and The Pound - which was so called because it was there that drovers would keep their livestock overnight as they travelled to market in Bristol.

The older houses grouped around this crossing include an old private home on the north east corner with a very chequered history. It has been, in turn, The Rising Sun Inn and then a shop and post office (and still bears that name today), then an office and now a private house.

Winters Lane is thought to have once been the main road of Redhill leading up to the ancient settlement in Goblin Combe. The lane was also called "The Old Drove Road" and is still called "Cooks Bridle Path" at its far end where it enters Brockley Combe. It was "uncut" or unsurfaced until the 1920s.

Many of the houses in the present village were built in the 20th century, but others - especially the farms - date back much further. Goblin Combe Farm, for instance, dates back to 1858. Scars Farm may look like a fairy tale castle, but it was actually built in 1884. Worship Farm was built in the 19th century - although its name has no religious connotation. It is simply that the field it was built on was called Worship Land. Quarry Farm, was built around 1900.

Christ Church, Redhill's chapel of ease was first erected in 1843 and consecrated in the following year by the Bishop of Salisbury. Built by James Wilson it is of Lancet style, with a west tower, a nave without aisles and a short chancel. The local inhabitants met its cost, with the Rector John Vane contributing the entire cost of the chancel, porch and tower.

Its exposure to the prevailing west winds meant that rain was soon permeating the porous local limestone. In 1869, the church had to be closed so that the walls could be lined with pitch and replastered inside. Further improvements were also added - both then and in subsequent years - as gifts were bestowed.

The board in the church porch states that there were "315 seats, 250 of which are hereby declared to be free and unappropriated for ever". A new organ was installed in 1888 at a cost of £200 - paid for at least in part by a concert of songs and piano pieces. Mr RD Frost of Victoria Street in Bristol exhibited some magic lantern views - which were greatly appreciated by an audience probably unused to such extravagant entertainment.

The church was built on land owned by the Harse family, who also provided the land for the Parsonage in 1910 - prior to that Hailstones Farm used to be a parsonage while the curates lodged at Broadfield Farm and Redhill House on the A38.

[edit] Education

The last village school was built in 1874 (at the grand cost of £811.12s 6d, plus £50 for the architect) and opened by the Bishop of Bath and Wells. The Duke of Cleveland, who owned the major part of Wrington Parish, gave the site.

The first entry in the new school's logbook was made by Miss Dulcibella Drew, headmistress, on January 19 1875. She wrote that: "The children are very neat but unaccustomed to order, and very backward in Arithmetic. The Reading is indifferent."

The average attendance in the first year was 54, and the headmistress had two monitoresses to help - one of whom was paid 2 shillings a week. Education was not free in those days - even for the poor - this only changed in 1891.

School numbers varied over the years from a rather full 105 in 1879 to 17 in 1937. By this time it had become a Junior School (as from 1927). Education in the 19th century was very different from today - the emphasis then being mainly on the 3 "Rs" - reading, writing and arithmetic. Pupils sat in rows and did their work on slates, until the change to exercise books in 1904.

Subjects taught were: Religious knowledge, reading, transcription (copy book writing), arithmetic, the 4 rules, fractions and compound fractions, analysis, geography, spelling, singing, grammar, composition, dictation, recitation, parsing, drilling (PE) and object lessons (art). There would be a monthly exam to assess progress and an annual visit by inspectors to examine the children in religious knowledge.

The classrooms were heated by tortoise stoves until the arrival of night storage heaters. As children had to walk to school, absenteeism could be high in bad weather - or they arrived very late.

Being an agricultural community, many of the children frequently went absent to pick up potatoes and apples during the season. Soon after the school opened, a note was sent to parents warning them that a fine of £5 would be imposed on all those who sent their children to work under the age specified in the Agriculture Act.

Many children went absent on "Gooding Day" - the feast of St Thomas the Apostle, 21 December - when they went round begging. Boys also went absent to beat the woods for gentlemen shooting pheasants. Discipline was tough - with girls as well as boys receiving thrashings.

Half days and holidays were given for various local events, such as the annual Ploughing Match at Wrington, Wrington Flower Show, sheep-shearing at Wrington, Lulsgate Harvest Home, Wells Millenary (1909) and the Hannah More Centenary Celebrations at Wrington in 1933.

[edit] Harvest home

The harvest has always provided a highlight of the rural calendar, and Redhill was certainly no exception, with its own Harvest Home festival.

In 1888, the Weston Gazette reported that the festival was celebrated "amid the usual rejoicing" and the weather was "delightfully fine". The roadway was spanned by several floral arches, houses were decorated and flags flown. A magnificent archway was erected by the landlord of the Darlington Arms - incidentally winning the first prize of 30 shillings.

Proceedings opened with a church service - with little of the interior left unadorned. Afterwards, 760 people took tea before participating in a programme of sports that included a married vs. singles tug of war. In the evening dancing "was heartily indulged in" to the strains of the Weston-super-Mare town band.

[edit] Early 20th Century

Redhill Village Hall was built in 1911, with a gift of land and funds from the Mr Henry Herbert Wills (of the W.D. & H.O. Wills tobacco family) family and furnished by the villagers. Part of the original hall was a reading room - replacing the former reading room in the cottage next to Rose Cottage on the Bridgwater Road.

At first no intoxicating liquor was sold on the premises. Then it was run as a club with the kitchen being used as an off-licence. Ladies (until after the war) were not allowed access to join the men as they played Skittles, darts or billiards, and the recreation field was kept firmly closed and bolted on Sundays. When women were first admitted, they had to pay 4 shillings a year subscription - while men paid only 2s 6d.

The Village Store used to be at "Banwells", opposite the Darlington Arms. Even when the post office opened near Ashford Road, Mrs Banwell continued to sell sweets and cigarettes. A branch of the County Library was opened at the school in 1938 - to be replaced by the mobile van in later years.

Redcroft, a cul-de-sac off Winters Lane, consists of six houses and the parsonage - all built around 1910 or 1911, the houses for the estate workers of Mr Henry Herbert Wills of Barley Wood, who had purchased much of the Wrington Estate on the death of the Fourth Duke of Cleveland (died 1891) when the estate was sold by auction (in 1896).

Ashford Road (built in the 1930s) was originally planned to comprise 60 houses but the majority were never built.

[edit] World War II

War brought excitement as well as danger: the school was closed for a week in September 1939, and used by the Billeting Committee. Evacuees from London and Bristol came and were incorporated with the Redhill children. During WWII, the village hall was used for evacuees from Bristol air raids and as the HQ for the local Home Guard.

On 11 July 1940, at about 11.20am, gunfire and aeroplanes were heard, so some children were sent home from school while the rest sat on the porch roof and under tables.

“Early in the 1939 - 1945 war, farmers on Broadfield Down received notice from the War Office that their land was to be taken over and used as a Royal Air Force (RAF) station. It was used throughout the war. In 1956, it was eventually purchased by Bristol City Council in 1956 to become what is now Bristol International Airport.

When the decision to create an RAF station was made, local people must have wondered how much this would affect their lives, especially as the area had already had its share of the bombs that formed part of the Bristol Blitzes - particularly during the 5th Blitz on the nights of 16 March & 17 March 1941 and on the night of Thursday/Friday 3 April/4 April.

Initially, 14 acres of Cornerpool Farm were acquired along the north side of the A38 to create a relief landing ground. Over the following months, further land was requisitioned - including some from Goblin Combe Farm - to create an operational RAF station.

Construction was initially entrusted to George Wimpey & Co Ltd with the cutting of the first "sod" on Wednesday 11 June 1941. Tons of hardcore were excavated from Goblin Combe Farm - helped by the odd stray German bomb! Gun testing butts were laid out near the southern boundary. Later in the war, Cornerpool Farm was used to house Italian prisoners of war - who became well known in the area.

The crew and ground staff at the station soon discovered the delights of the local hostelries, and some of their favourite haunts, together with their respective hosts, were: The Bungalow - Mrs Edith Rogers and daughter in law Alice; The Darlington - Eric House ;The Golden Lion - Mrs Daisy Priddy; The Plough Inn - Mr & Mrs Richard Fowler.”

Redhill played its part in the Second World War, and even had its moments of glory, as this report, by Horace Ashman, recalls: One of Lulsgate's most dramatic moments came on 24 July 1941, when a huge German bomber was seen flying around Broadfield Down at tree top level. To everyone's amazement, it lowered its landing wheels and landed on an unfinished runway. The work was being pushed on at high speed to meet the requirements of a fighter station.

The bomber taxied along the runway and stopped near a group of workers. Five airmen jumped from the plane and began to ask questions, soon discovering their mistake. The workmen remained calm and signalled to the Guard from the King’s Own Royal Regiment and immediately a truckload of soldiers was racing across the aerodrome.

The German airmen, running hard to regain their aircraft, were intercepted by the troops in the nick of time. Thus five more airmen were captured and the RAF received a present in the shape of a new Junkers JU-88 bomber. The JU88 became part of the RAF’s 1426 (Enemy Aircraft) Flight formed at Duxford.^[4]

The explanation given to the interrogating Officer was simply that the Luftwaffe men had mistaken the Bristol Channel for the English Channel and thought they had landed on an emergency airfield in France. The inexperienced German crew had taken off from Lanovac in France to attack Birkenhead and become confused on their return journey.

On January 23, 1943 a B17 Flying Fortress, nicknamed “Thumper”, from the US Air Force’s 303 Bomber Group from RAF Molesworth made an emergency “belly” landing on the grass at Lulsgate, after having its hydraulic system and two engines damaged over Lorient. Image:B17-F Thumper.jpg

The pilot and co-pilot made a safe landing but the bomber never flew again as the fuselage was twisted on landing; the plane landed on Mount Pleasant, now part of the airfield. The other eight crew were ordered to bail out but one was killed as his parachute failed to open. Two crewmen were seriously injured and placed in Barrow Gurney Hospital. The plane was taken away by an American Air Force transporter for salvage.^[5]

Redhill, like Wrington and Downside, had its very own "Dad's Army", a platoon commanded by 2nd Lieutenant Tidman. The platoon at Downside was under Sgt Charlie Lock, although orders came via Corporal (later Sergeant) Briffett, as he had a telephone in his house - Highfields in Winters Lane.

[edit] Post-War Development

Major change arrived after the Second World War when electricity and mains water came to Redhill. Before water was laid on, villagers would collect water that fell onto the roof, with water kept in a cistern. Some houses and farms had their own pumps and wells, while the last resort was the village pump in Pump Lane, to which people either walked or came by horse and cart.

With water such a hard won resource, taking a bath (whether it was needed or not) meant taking it in turns to use the same water, with the water being recycled afterwards for the clothes washing.

Redacre, a cul-de-sac of six houses and bungalows was built in 1964-5.

Redhill School had its centenary celebrations in 1975. Falling numbers of children of school age finally led to the decision being made to close Redhill School.

[edit] External links

• Wrington Village
• B-17 Crash (photo) - 303rd Bomber Group, USAAF
• Junkers JU-88 (photo)
• Bristol Past - The Luftwaffe over the Bristol area
• History of Bristol Airport

[edit] References

1. ^ “Somerset Folklore” by Ruth Tongue, 1965.
2. ^ “Folktales of England” by Briggs and Tongue, 1965.
3. ^ On an Interment found on Cadbury Hill, near Yatton, and on Roman Remains found in the Vale of Wrington” by The Reverend Prebendary Scarth, M.A., Rector of Wrington, published in the Proceedings of the Somersetshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, 1877, Part II, pp 8 – 11.
4. ^ "War Prizes - An illustrated survey of German, Italian and Japanese Aircraft brought to Allied Countries during the Second World War" by Phil Butler, published by Midland Counties, 1994, ISBN 0 904597 86 5.
5. ^ 'Story of RAF Lulsgate Bottom', I James, Redcliffe, 1989.