Bradley Stoke Community School - geograph

The North Fringe 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 ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

is a mostly developed area between the northern edge of the administrative

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

of Bristol and the M4 and

M5 motorway The M5 is a motorway in England linking the Midlands with the South West England, South West. It runs from junction 8 of the M6 motorway, M6 at West Bromwich near Birmingham to Exeter in Devon. Heading south-west, the M5 runs east of West Brom ...

s. Its eastern edge is usually defined as the M32 motorway. The area falls within

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 ...

Council, and is the northern part of Greater Bristol.

Development of the area

Before the motorways were built in the 1960s and 1970s, the area contained the suburban village and towns of

Filton Filton is a town and civil parish in South Gloucestershire, England, north of Bristol. Along with nearby Patchway and Bradley Stoke, Filton forms part of the Bristol urban area and has become an overflow settlement for the city. Filton Church ...

Patchway Patchway is a town in South Gloucestershire, England, situated north-north west of central Bristol. The town has become an overflow settlement for Bristol and is contiguous with Bristol's urban area, along with the nearby towns of Filton and Bra ...

and

Stoke Gifford Stoke Gifford is a village and parish in South Gloucestershire, England, in the northern suburbs of Bristol. It had around 11,000 residents at the 2001 census, increasing to 15,494 at the 2011 census. It is home to Bristol Parkway station an ...

, together with Stoke Park Hospital.

Bristol Parkway railway station Bristol Parkway, on the South Wales Main Line, is in the Stoke Gifford area in the northern suburbs of the Bristol conurbation. It is from London Paddington. The station was opened in 1972 by British Rail, and was the first in a new generat ...

was opened at Stoke Gifford in 1972. The

University of the West of England The University of the West of England (also known as UWE Bristol) is a public research university, located in and around Bristol, England. The institution was know as the Bristol Polytechnic in 1970; it received university status in 1992 and ...

(UWE) has its main campus in the area, at

Frenchay Frenchay is a village in the County of South Gloucestershire, England, and the Civil Parish of Winterbourne. It is on the outskirts to the north east of the city of Bristol. Frenchay was first recorded in 1257 as ''Fromscawe'' and later as '' ...

. As a result of major pressures for development for housing, industry, offices and out-of-town shopping, the then local authority, Northavon District Council, prepared the North Fringe

Local Plan A development plan sets out a local authority's policies and proposals for land use in their area. The term is usually used in the United Kingdom. A Local Plan is one type of development plan. The development plan guides and shapes day-to-day dec ...

for the area in 1987. This confirmed previous decisions in the

Avon County Council Avon County Council was the county council of the non-metropolitan county of Avon in south west England. It came into its powers on 1 April 1974 and was abolished on 1 April 1996 at the same time as the county. The county council was based at Av ...

structure plan, to remove land from the

green belt A green belt is a policy and land-use zone designation used in land-use planning to retain areas of largely undeveloped, wild, or agricultural land surrounding or neighboring urban areas. Similar concepts are greenways or green wedges, which ...

at Patchway Common. The area was subsequently developed as the new settlement of

Bradley Stoke Bradley Stoke is a town in South Gloucestershire, England, situated northeast of Bristol,OS Explorer Map, Bristol and Bath, Keynsham & Marshfield. Scale: 1:25 000.Publisher: Ordnance Survey B4 edition (2013). It is near the Severn Estuary of ...

. At around the same time, decisions were taken to develop major retail parks, and subsequently The Mall retail development, at

Cribbs Causeway Cribbs Causeway is both a road in South Gloucestershire, England, running north of the city of Bristol, and the adjacent area which is notable for its out-of-town shopping and leisure facilities. The retail and leisure complex takes its name fr ...

adjoining junction 17 of the M5. The North Fringe area, because of its highly accessible location adjoining two major motorways and on the edge of the major population centre of Bristol, experienced very substantial growth in housing and, in particular, employment during the 1980s and 1990s, which is still continuing. The first major business park in the area was Aztec West, adjoining junction 16 of the M5. The North Fringe had over 67,000 jobs in 2001. It now has severe road traffic congestion problems, particularly on the main roads, 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 ...

and A38, as well as the motorways themselves. Developments immediately to the east of this area and the M32, for instance at

Emersons Green Emersons Green is a suburb of Bristol and parish in the unitary authority of South Gloucestershire. Sitting 7 miles northeast of Bristol, England. It was developed from farming land during the 1990s and early 21st century, and sits within the hi ...

, are sometimes referred to as the East Fringe of Bristol. In October 2016, the MetroBus released plans to improve bus journey times to the area, with a route from Cribbs Causeway to Hengrove Park in south Bristol.

References

{{coord, 51.5254, -2.56659, display=title South Gloucestershire District Areas of Bristol