Speedwell is an area of east

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 ...

, Part of the ward. It has a mixture of residential and industrial land. The 2014 population estimate of the population of Speedwell was 2,342. The one School in the area is Bristol Brunel Academy, previously known as Speedwell Technology College and Speedwell Secondary School. It was Bristol's first specialist school - a technology college since 1997. In 2007 the Academy moved into all-new purpose built buildings and the old school buildings were demolished.

History

The Speedwell area had many small coal mines in the 19th century. In the 1970s some of these old workings had to be stabilised in the area of Speedwell secondary school. A goods only railway connected the collieries and the

Peckett and Sons Peckett and Sons was a locomotive manufacturer at the Atlas Locomotive Works on Deep Pit Road between Fishponds and St. George, Bristol, England. Fox, Walker and Company The company began trading in 1864 at the Atlas Engine Works, St. George, ...

locomotive works (also known as the Atlas Locomotive Works) with the Midland railway at Kingswood junction. In the early 1970s, shortly after Avon county council was formed, approximately half of Speedwell secondary school burnt down, the school was partly rebuilt. A number of 'temporary'

prefab Prefabrication is the practice of assembling components of a structure in a factory or other manufacturing site, and transporting complete assemblies or sub-assemblies to the construction site where the structure is to be located. The term is u ...

houses, built in the housing shortage after the

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, existed in the west side of the suburb into the 21st century.

References

Areas of Bristol {{Bristol-geo-stub