| St Werburghs | |
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St Werburghs
St Werburghs shown within Bristol |
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| OS grid reference | ST596742 |
|---|---|
| Unitary authority | Bristol |
| Ceremonial county | Bristol |
| Region | South West |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | BRISTOL |
| Postcode district | BS2 |
| Dialling code | 0117 |
| Police | Avon and Somerset |
| Fire | Avon |
| Ambulance | Great Western |
| EU Parliament | South West England |
| UK Parliament | Bristol West |
| List of places: UK • England • Bristol | |
St. Werburghs is an area in central north-east Bristol, England. Surrounded by the M32 motorway, railway embankments and allotment slopes it has the feel of a green village in the inner city.
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The area became known as St. Werburghs when St Werburgh's Church was relocated (and substantially rebuilt) to Mina Road in this district from Corn Street, Bristol in 1879. It is now a climbing centre by Undercover Rock. Before then the northern part was Ashley Vale and the southern part Baptist Mills.
The area was historically prone to serious flooding, notably in 1882 and 1889. There are still four Victorian flood marker posts. It was also a source of water supply for the city of Bristol through the Quay Pipe and The Boiling Wells.
St. Werburghs hosts a city farm and has been the scene of several environmental campaigns including the development of a self-build housing community and the establishing of Narroways Hill as a Millennium Green and wildlife area. There is a campaign to rid the area of the 8 unsightly billboards that dominate the main road through St Werburghs.
Since 2007, on the Saturday before Christmas, local residents have produced and performed a mummers play based on the life of St Werburgh, performed in and featuring characters from the four local pubs: The Farm, The Miners Arms (which also hosts a beer festival each summer), The Victoria and the Duke of York.
The BBC Television series Only Fools and Horses, which was filmed in and around Bristol, used the allotments for the episode 'Mother Nature's Son', and BBC wildlife and gardening programmes and the Casualty have been filmed in the area.
The district is close to the district of St Pauls. St Werburghs shares few of St Pauls' problems (e.g. drug dealing and, to a lesser extent, prostitution).[1] Whilst it has a more of a cultural mix than Bristol , it is not as diverse as other inner city areas.[2] It also has more family housing which has increased house prices. The area has less crime[3] than the other inner city Bristol areas. This leads to the benefits of a multi-cultural community but less deprivation than some neighbouring areas.
Mina Road is St Werburghs' 'high street', whose shops each have an imaginative figurehead protruding from their frontages indicating the type of trade on offer.
The park opposite the shops contains an original example of a cast iron Victorian public lavatory.