Eastville is the name of both a council ward in 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 ...

in the United Kingdom and a suburb of the city that lies within that ward. The Eastville ward covers the areas of Eastville, Crofts End (also known as Clay Hill), Stapleton and part of

Fishponds Fishponds is a large suburb in the north-east of the English city of Bristol, about from the city centre. It has two large Victorian-era parks: Eastville Park and Vassall's Park (once the Vassall Family estate, also known as Oldbury Court). ...

. Notable places within the ward include Bristol Metropolitan Academy ( formerly Whitefield Fishponds Community School) and

Colston's School Collegiate School (formerly known as Colston's Collegiate School and Colston’s School) is an independent day school in Bristol, England, and is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference. It is currently in a period of transit ...

, and the Bristol and Bath Railway Path also passes through the ward.

Eastville

Eastville is an inner-suburb of the English city of

, situated between Easton and Frome Vale wards in the north-east of the city. In the north-west its boundary is the M32 motorway, which roughly follows the River Frome. Eastville Stadium (on the west bank of the Frome) used to be the home of Bristol Rovers Football Club, as well as being a site for greyhound racing and

speedway Speedway may refer to: Racing Race tracks *Edmonton International Speedway, also known as Speedway Park, a former motor raceway in Edmonton, Alberta *Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a motor raceway in Speedway, Indiana Types of races and race cours ...

, but this site has now been developed by IKEA. Eastville Park is a large park with a small lake, just to the east of the M32. The lake at Eastville Park was instigated as part of a social scheme by

Ernest Bevin Ernest Bevin (9 March 1881 – 14 April 1951) was a British statesman, trade union leader, and Labour Party politician. He co-founded and served as General Secretary of the powerful Transport and General Workers' Union in the years 1922–194 ...

(a well-respected westcountryman), who later became Minister of Labour under Churchill in the coalition government of WW2 and later Foreign Secretary in the Attlee Government from 1945 until his death. A large railway viaduct known as 'The Thirteen Arches' for obvious reasons, once ran through the area, roughly parallel to the current Muller Road; it was demolished in 1968. This was part of the Clifton Extension Railway. The Eastville Workhouse, originally the Barton Regis Union Workhouse, was a former French Prison which was bought from the Government circa 1832. In 1930, the Stapleton Workhouse, originally the Bristol Union Workhouse, became the Stapleton Institution and by the Second World War the site was mainly used for the care of the mentally ill and the elderly; eventually becoming Blackberry Hill Hospital.

Crofts End

Crofts End (also known as Clay Hill) is a suburb of

. It is an industrialised area, with many small Victorian houses, built when this area was a coal mining community.

Churches

Crofts End Church Crofts End Church is a nonconformist church, located in St George, Bristol, England. The specific area in which it is located is known locally as Crofts End. Formerly known as the Miner's Mission and Crofts End Mission, the church was establis ...

was established in 1895 by George Brown, as a Christian work for miner's children in The Freestone Rank, Whitehall Road, it became known as The Miner's Mission. It is now part of the local and much wider community but still very much a family church. The pastor is Andrew Yelland. The church was built on a site bounded by

market gardens A market garden is the relatively small-scale production of fruits, vegetables and flowers as cash crops, frequently sold directly to consumers and restaurants. The diversity of crops grown on a small area of land, typically from under to som ...

, a

brick works A brickworks, also known as a brick factory, is a factory for the manufacturing of bricks, from clay or shale. Usually a brickworks is located on a clay bedrock (the most common material from which bricks are made), often with a quarry for cl ...

and Deep Pit

Colliery 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 ...

. When The Beaufort Arms, then known as The Beatem and Wackem and now called The Wackum Inn was the place where most miners spent their hard earned wages! Hence the need for a children's work in that community. Another local church was Clay Hill Chapel which was demolished when the industrial estates were built.

Industry

Over many years, the Market Gardens became housing, White's Brick Works became Somers Wood Yard (now an industrial pallet site) – and Deep Pit Colliery became industrial estates. When Deep Pit closed, men were having to walk underground as far as Frenchay to reach the coal face.

Housing

Crofts End House, located at the junction of Plummer's Hill and Whitehall Avenue, still exists, but no longer as a single dwelling. It has been refurbished and is now part of a housing association development. The area is undergoing more change as the majority of ' prefabs' (built by American Service-men as post war housing) in the locality have been demolished. Planning applications will replace these with mixed style housing. The old, redundant Civil Defence building on the junction of Crofts End Road and Brook Road was demolished and housing association flats were built on the site, now named "Craftes Court".

Fishponds

Fishponds is a predominantly residential area of Bristol that lies partially within the Eastville ward.

Stapleton

Stapleton is a suburb of Bristol which lies in the east of the city.

Residents

* Andrew Beer (1862-1954), artist and racing pigeon expert *

Paul Potts Paul Potts (born 13 October 1970) is an English tenor. In 2007, he won the first series of ITV's ''Britain's Got Talent'' with his performance of " Nessun dorma", an aria from Puccini's opera ''Turandot''. As a singer of operatic pop music ...

, tenor, councillor for the ward from 1996 until 2003

References

{{Districts of Bristol Areas of Bristol Wards of Bristol