Kingswood is a suburban town and unparished area in the

South Gloucestershire South Gloucestershire is a unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of Gloucestershire, South West England. Towns in the area include Yate, Chipping Sodbury, Thornbury, Filton, Patchway and Bradley Stoke, the latter three forming ...

district, in the ceremonial county of

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of ...

, England, bordering the eastern edge of the

City of Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

. The suburb is situated east-northeast of

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, city, Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Glouces ...

city centre and west of

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. Broadly speaking, Kingswood spans the area from John Cabot Academy in the west to the

A4174 The A4174 is a major ring road in England which runs around the northern and eastern edge of Bristol, mainly in South Gloucestershire, and through the southern suburbs of the city. When it was first conceived it was planned to circle the whole ...

ring road in the east. Some areas which are in close proximity to Kingswood, such as Two Mile Hill and St George East (both located within the City of

) and parts of Hanham and Warmley Hill are often considered to be part of Kingswood by locals. The border between

and the City of

is situated at the western end of Kingswood's High Street. Although anything beyond this point is technically no longer Kingswood 'proper', locals often consider the shops and residential areas that fringe the road named 'Two Mile Hill' (located within the area of the same name) to be a continuation of Kingswood. In 2011 it had a population of 40,734.

Royal Forest

Saxon The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...

times, The 'King's Wood' was a royal hunting estate which surrounded

, extending as far as Filwood in South Bristol. "From early days the Constable of Bristol Castle, the king's officer in the area, was also the Chief Ranger of the Kingswood Forest and the first of these recorded is Ella who died in 920. At the edge of the forest, to the north of the River Froom, lay the little hamlet of Stapleton, the name of which is Saxon in origin, being held to mean "The farm, homestead or croft - by or near the Stapol, post or pillar"".

Demography

Kingswood and Staple Hill are the only areas that are unparished (an area that doesn't have an incorporated town council on its own) in South Gloucestershire. Furthermore, Kingswood is considered by ONS as part of Bristol, being within its urban subdivision. This means that Kingswood isn't recognised as an individual settlement either statistically or administratively, being unparished and part of a larger urban subdivision, parliament constituency and district with all three divisions containing other areas. Hence its population is taken from four ward boundaries in South Gloucestershire. Kingswood is made up of three wards: Woodstock, New Cheltenham and Kingswood Wards These wards had a combined population of 40,734 in 2011, with a largely white British population. Women in Kingswood had the fourth lowest life expectancy at birth, 74.3 years, of any ward in England and Wales in 2016.

Transport

Kingswood High Street is situated around 3 miles (5 km) south of the M4 and 2.5 miles (4 km) east of Lawrence Hill railway station. Buses connect the town to surrounding areas including the City Centre, Southmead Hospital,

Keynsham Keynsham ( ) is a town and civil parish located between Bristol and Bath in Somerset, England. It has a population of 16,000. It was listed in the Domesday Book as ''Cainesham'' (as it is pronounced), which is believed to mean the home of ...

and Cribbs Causeway. Six national rail stations currently exist within South Gloucestershire. However, they are all concentrated around the highly developed North Fringe area which encompasses Filton and Bradley Stoke. However, Bristol mayor Marvin Rees' proposals for a 'Bristol Underground' envisage a line serving the East Fringe of Bristol.

Coal mining

The Kingswood area first came into industrial prominence in the late 17th century, because of

coal mining Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

. Typical of these were coal fields in the Easton and Coalpit Heath/Yate areas. The coal mining history still affects the town with gardens occasionally opening up. The local MP has petitioned in Parliament for full surveys of the coal mines under the town. An archaeological excavation of the Wade Street area of Kingswood uncovered artisans' houses that were established in the early 18th century. These dwellings were demolished as part of a

slum clearance Slum clearance, slum eviction or slum removal is an urban renewal strategy used to transform low income settlements with poor reputation into another type of development or housing. This has long been a strategy for redeveloping urban communities; ...

project in the mid 20th century.

The Whit Walk

There is an annual procession held on the morning of the Whit Bank Holiday. Its origins are uncertain, but it appears to have taken place at least since 1939. The walk is the subject of an ethnographic study by the English anthropologist Timothy Jenkins.Timothy Jenkins, Religion in English Everyday Life: An Ethnographic Approach, Oxford: Berghan Books, 1999

References

External links

Kingswood Rugby Club - The Official Home of Kingswood RFC

Kingswood and Mangotsfield Archaeological Assessment Report 1997

Photographic Record of Kingswoods Past

Kingswood Ten Sing – Youth performing arts group

{{Authority control Towns in Gloucestershire Areas of Bristol Unparished areas in Gloucestershire Former civil parishes in Gloucestershire