Tag Archives: Local History

Bristol Cathedral

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Bristol Cathedral

Those of you who follow my blogs are probably thinking “Oh no, not another cathedral”, and even though it doesn’t quite match the grandeur of some of England’s other great religious houses, it’s the one that made my home town a city, and there’s no way I’m not including it in my historical chronology of Bristol.

On the plus side, it means that this won’t be a long post, and it’s just possible that I might be able to reveal a fact or two that you weren’t aware of, including perhaps, the fact that you didn’t even realise Bristol had a cathedral at all.

When it was founded in 1140 it wasn’t even a cathedral, but a monastery dedicated to St. Augustine of Canterbury, the missionary who brought Christianity to England. One of his companions was a man called St. Jordan who, legend has it, was buried in a chapel on what is now College Green. There has never been any evidence to substantiate this claim, but experts believe that there was a church here during Saxon times thanks to the discovery of a stone carving beneath the Chapter House in 1831. It now hangs on a wall in the South Transept.

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Originally posted 2021-06-14 14:05:58.

Wandering Around Dartmouth

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Wandering Around Dartmouth

Continuing my tour of the South Hams, an area of South Devon where I lived before coming to Torbay, I would like to show you around Dartmouth – my favourite South Devon town – and you can follow the trail on the map opposite. How long it takes will obviously depend on how much time you spend in museums, pubs or on benches, but although it’s not a long walk by any means, I think you should allow at least half a day to really do it justice.

I covered some of Dartmouth’s history in Privateers, Castles, Sea Dogs and Pilgrims and a good place to start this walk is on the Embankment next to the Train Station with No Railway (No1 on the map).

Dartmouth’s Embankment is the riverside equivalent of a seaside promenade, where it’s possible to lose track of time just by watching the comings and goings along the river.

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Originally posted 2021-06-21 16:32:18.