Ashton Court Estate Oral History
Audio Transcript
Narrator:
The story of Ashton Court is much bigger than the Smythes and the big house. Just as the Lower Lodge has a story of its own, other parts of the original estate have a tale to tell too.
Jill Cawardine:
I’m Jill Cawardine, and I live in Oakleigh cottage, directly behind the school. It was originally the blacksmith’s cottage to the estate, so the whole of my garden and the blacksmith outbuilding would have run up the lane, there wouldn’t have been any other modern buildings. They were built in 1666, thereabouts, which was actually before there was very much activity up at Ashton Court. We know they were the only properties in the area, and then presumably, they were taken on by the estate, as the Smythe family got more important.
Narrator:
In those days there area was really still countryside, and inaccessible.
Jill Cawardine:
There was Rownham ferry, which was the only way you could get over to Bower Ashton from Hotwells. And the ferry used to run regularly, just this side of the suspension bridge was called Ashton Meadows.
Narrator:
In the early days, Ashton Court employed many people to service the estate.
Jill Cawardine:
All the older properties around have sort of specific uses; the Grange, which we understand was built for the head gardener of the estate, and then across the road is Jersey Cottage, which was obviously where the cowman, men lived. And then there’s the stables. Then there’s Kennel Lodge, to do with all the dogs the Smythe family owned. And across there, there’s a property called ‘Lower Court Gardens’, still lived in by the son of the chap that ran the allotment gardens that produced the flowers and the produce for Asthon Court. In between these significant properties it was all orchards, and its very interesting because if you could look from above, you can see the rows of fruit trees, and I’ve still got an old apple tree and two old pear trees in my garden, that line up with my neighbour’s fruit trees.
Narrator:
After the war, the estate was in disrepair, and land was sold for Ashton Park School and other developments.
Jill Cawardine:
As the school was built, the area grew up and they’ve just been filled everywhere.
Eileen Pimm:
My name is Eileen and I live in Blackmoors lane, Bower Ashton. Only a matter of a few yards, I would say, to the Lodge.
Narrator:
Eileen Pimm still lives in the house she saw being built in 1957.
Eileen Pimm:
We came looking at the site, and we were told that they were going to build these five houses here. We knew that the detached one had already been taken, so we had the choice out of these 4 houses. At the time, before the trees grew so big, we could see Ashton Court itself. We used to come every Sunday to see how much was built and what was going on. And then one Sunday I came, and they put the stairs in. So I walked up the stars with nothing at the top, it was very fascinating watching it being built, and choosing different things, where you wanted the electric points, and it wasn’t done to suit the house it was done to solve your requirements. So eventually we were able to move in, and work on the garden, it was quite bare when we came here, as you can imagine. Because this ground was the market garden for Ashton Court, they grew all their vegetables and stuff on this site, so, you know, the ground was pretty good for gardens. It was quite an exciting time, getting a home together and everything. I was lucky for the man I’d met and you know, we got on so well and he was able to provide a house like that.
Narrator:
Now Eileen’s house is set back for the dual carriageway, behind some trees, but before the road was enlarged, there were allotments there.
Eileen Pimm:
The whole of that green was allotments, but right opposite this house, was an elderly gent, and occasionally he would leave vegetables in the front porch for us. And when they started the road scheme, that was the builders’ yard, and we had all the builders’ offices and everything over there. And eventually they were building the subways, and my daughter was a baby in a pram then, and I said to the site manager one day, I said ’when are you going to get the tarmac down on these paths?’, I said ’its hard work pushing a pram’, so he took the pram from me, pushed it, ‘oh, yes’ and they did get the tarmac down very soon. And a lot of people think Bower Ashton is like the back of beyond, that that road sort of cuts you off.
Narrator:
Meanwhile, Ashton Court had come wholly into to council ownership, Derek Brewer remembers coming into the estate for the first time.
Derek Brewer:
I do remember it, the City Council had bought it for the citizens, and we all thought ’oh that’s good’, you know, ’we’ll go along and see it’. You couldn’t go into the mansion itself, because it hadn’t been renovated or anything it wasn’t open to the public. But we were sort of looking through the windows of these empty rooms and remembered seeing the stables; where there were shire horses that the mayor had this coach pulled by. And of course there was a large expanse of grass and trees and everything, as far as I know, I don’t think I’d been to anything as big as that estate ever before.
Narrator:
And of course since then, Bristolians have enjoyed the open space. Sue Tucker as a teenager, made the most of what was going on.
Sue Tucker:
There were free music festivals there, as I can remember. That must have been in the 1970’s or 80’s. They were quite small, the people there, they seemed like hippies, old hippies. The festivals were sort of down by the House, so there is a quite steep slope that people would grass ski down, and it was sort of in that area there at the back of the house. One little stage, they were quite disorganised. I can’t remember if there were any loo’s or, you know, any food to buy or anything. You just kind of rolled up; it was all a bit sort of organic really. There was a nice spirit there, they were easy going and friendly, there was no trouble. But I think people were a bit scared of them, you know, they thought it was dangerous. But, you know, they weren’t at all; they were really mild and, yeah fun.
Narrator:
Mary has lived in Bedminster all her life and in the 90’s, the park was where her extended family got together.
Mary:
We always went out there for picnics, most Sundays. And my mum would come up other with us, and all the grandchildren because I always done a Sunday roast. And I had one of those hostess trays. My husband used to cut the meat before we left and put every thing, vegetables, roast potatoes, everything. So we’d put in the back of the car and off we’d go up Ashton Court, and we’d sit down and eat up Sunday roast up there. We would play cricket, or rounders. We did used to go up Ashton Court quite a lot then, as it was so easy, you know. And I loved it.