Baptist Mills is an area of the city of
Bristol
Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...
, England. The name derives from the former mills which stood in that area. The area is centred on the
River Frome at Junction 3 of the
M32 Motorway.
Construction of the motorway divided the neighbourhood such that parts west of the road are now often considered to be part of
St Werburghs, while parts to the east are often described as being in
Easton.
Geology
The solid geology of Baptist Mills comprises
Triassic
The Triassic ( ; sometimes symbolized 🝈) is a geologic period and system which spans 50.5 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.4 Mya. The Triassic is t ...
Redcliffe Sandstone, which is overlain by superficial deposits of
Quaternary
The Quaternary ( ) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS), as well as the current and most recent of the twelve periods of the ...
alluvium
Alluvium (, ) is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluvium is also sometimes called alluvial deposit. Alluvium is ...
in the floodplain of the Horfield Brook and the River Frome.
History
Baptist Mills is so named from the mills that once stood there. A grist (flour) mill is recorded in this area in a document written in 1470, and again in 1610, when they are marked on Chester and Master's Map of Kingswood.
The mills were converted to
brass mills by the Bristol Brass Company, formed in 1702 by
Abraham Darby, Edward lloyd, John Andrews, and Arthur Thomas. In 1706, further partners were admitted, the business becoming an early unincorporated
joint stock company
A joint-stock company (JSC) is a business entity in which shares of the company's capital stock, stock can be bought and sold by shareholders. Each shareholder owns company stock in proportion, evidenced by their share (finance), shares (certifi ...
with a capital of £8000. While there, Darby recruited skilled 'Dutchmen' to operate a brass battery with trip hammers. He may also have recruited men skilled in sand
mould
A mold () or mould () is one of the structures that certain fungi can form. The dust-like, colored appearance of molds is due to the formation of spores containing fungal secondary metabolites. The spores are the dispersal units of the fungi ...
ing as opposed to the loam moulding hitherto used in England. Darby was the active partner in the business, but later withdrew to concentrate on his new
ironfounding business at
Coalbrookdale
Coalbrookdale is a town in the Ironbridge Gorge and the Telford and Wrekin borough of Shropshire, England, containing a settlement of great significance in the history of iron ore smelting. It lies within the civil parish called The Gorge, Shro ...
.
Brass production at the Baptist Mills Brass Works ceased in 1814, and in 1839 parts of the former brass works were acquired Joseph and James White, who established a factory manufacturing "Egyptian Black" pottery,
and clay tobacco pipes. By 1861 the business was known as the Phoenix Pottery. The pottery closed at some point after 1891.
The last remains of the brass works were destroyed when Junction 3 of the M32 Motorway was constructed in the early 1970s. However, slag blocks made from waste from the works can be found in the area.
References
{{coord, 51.4665, -2.5745, region:GB-BST_type:landmark, display=title
Areas of Bristol
Non-ferrous metallurgical works in the United Kingdom
Places formerly in Gloucestershire