South Bristol Voice Bedminster, September 2018

southbristolvoice September 2018 No. 35

www.southbristolvoice.co.uk

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Alex Davis: Good grades despite being in fear of seizures after coma

EXAMS are an ordeal for most pupils but for Alex Davis at Bedminster Down school, just taking his GCSEs was a result.

Alex, 17, was in a coma for a week after shattering his eye socket in a football game last year. But after special tutoring at Bedminster Down school he won the top Grade 9 at English and Maths. You can read more about Alex on the Voice website.

STORY: Page 13

Councillors plead for mayor to give them the decision as row intensifies

Arena: ‘Give us a democratic say’

THE ROW over the site long reserved for an arena near Temple Meads reached a new level of confrontation as the Voice went to press, with councillors calling for the mayor to give them the decision.

An extraordinary meeting of the full council has been called for September 3, the day before mayor Marvin Rees meets his all-Labour cabinet to decide the fate of the Temple Meads site.

The meeting was called by a letter to the mayor including signatures from a majority of councillors, including members

of all four political parties.

The letter asked that the mayor abides by the full council’s decision on the arena site. The council says that under the council’s constitution, the issue is for the Cabinet – which is all Labour – to decide.

The mayor has been saying all year that he has a duty to explore better uses for the plot – which for years has been called Arena Island but which the council now calls Temple Island.

Mr Rees says 1,500 more jobs and £500 million in extra economic benefit could be won

A TOP BEER GUIDE Page 31

PLUS MONEY OFF SKIP HIRE LANDSCAPING BICYCLE REPAIRS Allegra Garrett: Gained 11 GCSEs at grades 9-5 at Bedminster Down

for the city if the island is used for homes and business rather than an arena.

His critics said he had no evidence for this. But on August 23, investment giant Legal & General unveiled plans for 10 high-rise blocks on the island, styled by architects Zaha Hadid.

The tallest is shown as 24 storeys – dwarfing the 21-floor student accommodation block proposed by Bristol university on another part of the island.

Proposed is a large conference centre and exhibition space, a Continued on page 4

Page 17 Page 19 Page 46

INSIDE • METROBUS: TIME TO GET YOUR TICKETS

• DIESELS LIKELY TARGET IN BS3 CLEAN AIR ZONE 6 • FEAR FOR FUTURE OF CENTRE FOR BLIND 8 • WE’RE BACKING BEDMINSTER 10-12 • PLASTIC ATTACKS ARE GOING GLOBAL 20 • FIRST LOOK AT REVAMP FOR OLD BREWERY 27

• HISTORY: PIRATES AND SLAVERY 35-39

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IN

southbristolvoice

2 Paul Breeden Editor & publisher 07811 766072 paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk Ruth Drury Sales executive 07590 527664 sales@southbristolvoice.co.uk Editorial team: Beccy Golding, Alex Morss, Martin Powell & The Wicked Witch. Deliveries: Greg Champion

Intro

ARENA CRUNCH TIME HAVE THE mayor and the council gone so far out on a limb in exploring building an arena at Filton that the city centre option no longer gets a fair hearing? That’s the allegation from the opposition parties, on the eve of the cabinet meeting which will hear Marvin Rees’ verdict on the city site.

Mr Rees says the choice is not between an arena at Filton and one at Temple Meads. He says the immediate question is whether there is a better use for Arena Island (which has been renamed Temple Island).

Trouble is, emails reveal the council has been working with YTL, owner of Filton airport, for

You can find South Bristol Voice on Facebook and Twitter facebook.com/ southbristolvoice Twitter: @sbristolvoice Next month’s deadline for editorial and advertising is September 19th more than a year, and appears to support its arena plan.

But a Filton arena would be most unlikely to win permission if the city centre alternative hasn’t been ruled out first. This is just what Mr Rees appears poised to do.

The mayor says he wants to take a decision based on the evidence. But it seems all the evidence he has cited this year is against a city centre arena.

Now it emerges he’s met YTL three times in the last year while the city centre team say they can’t get to meet him.

The Greens and Lib Dems say these factors endanger the validity of Mr Rees’s decision – and could leave it open to legal challenge. No one is accusing Mr Rees of personal corruption.

But how did we arrive at such a damaging perception of bias?

September 2018

How do I get in touch with ...

My MP? Karin Smyth MP By email: karin.smyth.mp@ parliament.uk By post: Karin Smyth MP, House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA By phone: 0117 953 3575 In person: Call 0117 953 3575 for an appointment.

My councillor?

By post: (all councillors) Brunel House, St George’s Road, Bristol BS1 5UY Celia Phipps Labour, Bedminster

By phone: 07469 413312 By email: Cllr.celia.phipps@bristol.gov.uk Mark Bradshaw Labour, Bedminster. By email: Cllr.mark. bradshaw@bristol.gov.uk By phone: 0117 353 3160 Stephen Clarke Green, Southville By email: Cllr.stephen.clarke@ bristol.gov.uk Charlie Bolton Green, Southville By phone: 07884 736111 By email: Cllr.charlie.bolton@bristol.gov.uk

USEFUL NUMBERS Bristol City Council www.bristol.gov.uk 0117 922 2000 Waste, roads 0117 922 2100 Pests, dogs 0117 922 2500 Housing benefit 0117 922 2300 Social services 0117 922 2900 Police Inquiries 101 Emergency 999 Fire Inquiries 0117 926 2061 Emergency 999

Action Greater Bedminster COMMUNITY CONVERSATION 1: What’s the best and worst about living in Bedminster? Saturday October 6, 10am-5pm, North Street Gallery, 135 North Street, BS3 1EY. Family print-making workshop from 2pm.

Facebook: Action Greater Bedminster

EDITOR’S NOTE: South Bristol Voice is independent. We cannot take responsibility for content or accuracy of adverts, and it is advertisers’ responsibility to conform to all relevant legislation. We strive to conform to the NUJ Code of Conduct for journalists: • nuj.org.uk/about/nuj-code Feedback is welcomed: call editor Paul Breeden on 07811 766072 or email paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk.

All stories and pictures are copyright of South Bristol Voice (unless otherwise stated) and may not be reproduced without permission in this or any other plane of the multiverse.

South Bristol Voice Ltd | 18 Lilymead Avenue, Bristol BS4 2BX

That’s That’s music music totomy tomy my ears! ears!

That’s music ears!

September 2018

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n NEWS Pub horseplay

Stadium: talks beginning soon

A NEW play touring South West pubs is planning a free show in North Street. Horses! Horses! is described as a darkly comical tale of a stolen horse and wild West Country relationships, set in a pub. It plays at the Beer Factory Tap Room on October 1. wassailtheatre.co.uk

BOSSES at Ashton Gate stadium are set to meet council officials in coming weeks in an attempt to ease continuing problems with matchday parking.

Emergency vehicles are still unable to get through on some occasions, while the 24 bus is being halted short of Ashton

Vale. Ashton Gate Ltd previously told residents that it may build a multi-storey car park near the stadium but has given no details.

Also awaited are plans for a multi-sport arena and other developments at Ashton Gate.

Catch up with the City news: • The City Page, 45

Metrobus is about to roll – at last

Ready to roll: The M2 buses are all orange

That’s despite the graffiti, the parked cars and other setbacks THE LONG-delayed Metrobus M2 service is due to start on Monday September 3 – and bosses will be hoping passengers will be so impressed they will forget all the teething troubles.

In the fortnight before the launch, Metrobus had to fend off several new concerns.

Huge areas of graffiti have appeared along the raised busway over Winterstoke Road and other parts of the route.

But removing the graffiti is not something the council or Metrobus has budgeted for, unless it appears on the bus stops or iPoint terminals.

The new service will run every 10 minutes in peak times, from 6am to 10pm Monday-Saturday.

It runs from Long Ashton Park & Ride to Ashton Vale, stopping at Ashton Gate, Cumberland Basin, SS Great Britain, Wapping Wharf, Redcliffe Hill, Temple Meads and Cabot Circus. Tickets

must be bought in advance – £1.50 for one zone (most journeys) or £2.50 for two zones (to Long Ashton).

The M2 replaces the 903 P&R service. But 903 group and 10- or 20-journey tickets won’t be valid.

Some 903 users are angry that they face a longer walk to get to some city centre destinations because the route has changed.

HOW DO I GET A TICKET? • Not on the bus! And not by cash, except as below ...

• First Bus mTicket smartphone app (with a bank card, PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay or Pingit); • iPoints at every Metrobus stop; • TravelWest smart card topped up online, at iPoints using bank cards, or at Payzone stops and the Travel Shop at the Bus Station using cash or cards.

• Passes as well as First’s standard day and season tickets are valid.

The Temple Meads stop, for example, is on Temple Way, a sixminute walk from the station.

Ashton Gate stadium is an eight-minute walk from the stop at the far end of the flyover.

However, the service has not been designed for serving match days, and there will be no extra services when thousands of fans arrive.

Further setbacks to the route included the arrival of travellers on the M2 route in Ashton Vale.

Cars have also been seen parked on the route, and cyclists and a mobility scooter have used it.

However, the first Metrobus route, the M3 to Emersons Green, won far more passengers than expected since it started in May, and bosses are hoping the M2 will repeat its success.

The M1 service, from Hengrove to Bedminster, the city centre and Cribbs Causeway, starts in January 2019.

Bedminster as it used to be DO YOU remember Bedminster as it was decades ago? Would you like to share your recollections with others?

The Memories of Bedminster group is back after its summer break and meets every Monday at 1.30pm in the South Bristol Christian Centre, Churchlands Road, off West Street, BS3 3PW. The month kicks off on September 3 when Mike Britton gives an illustrated talk entitled Send a Postcard.

September 10’s meeting has yet to be confirmed, while on September 17, Elizabeth Rhodes talks about Sweet Success and the Slave Trade. September 24 is a members’ afternoon.

Further details from Lew Pedler on 07305 157750.

If it ain’t broke we don’t want it YOU NAME it, we’ll have a go at repairing it, is the motto of the BS3 Repair Café, which marks its first birthday with a party on Saturday September 29 from 1.30-4.30pm.

The celebration at United Reformed Church Hall, West Street, Bedminster, will feature special sessions of jewellery and bike repairs, plus all the regular workstations for sewing, electronics, woodwork and domestic appliances.

For children there’ll be face painting and craft activities – plus home-made cream teas, hot drinks and cakes.

Facebook: BS3RepairCafe

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September 2018

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4

n NEWS

Continued from page 1 345-room hotel, 550 new homes (including 220 affordable homes), and two office buildings.

It’s claimed it would drive social inclusion, support low-carbon technology, and provide new green public spaces.

Legal & General told the Voice that there would be “a good amount of parking” on the site.

The plan gives credence to the mayor’s view that more intensive development is possible on the site, rather than a 12,000 capacity arena.

But the scheme came under immediate attack.

Former mayor George Ferguson told the Voice: “This is crass development and clearly comes out of desperation. Is this really what we want to welcome people to Bristol with?” He predicted the plan would turn into “a huge mayoral own goal”.

One of Mr Rees’s Labour colleagues, Bedminster councillor Mark Bradshaw, tweeted that the L&G plan was “more of the same as in the Temple Quarter area. Bland

THE ARENA SHOWDOWN

Mayor under fire as arena DECISION TIME IS NEAR HE DECISION on whether to put an arena at Temple Meads is due at a cabinet meeting on September 4, where ordinary councillors do not get a vote.

But such is the fury at the prospect of the arena being lost to the city that councillors of all parties called an extraordinary meeting of the full council on September 3. It will follow a

meeting of the scrutiny committee, which will question the mayor.

A majority of councillors and many Labour members back the Temple Meads option. Back in March 2018, they voted by 34 to 12 (with 17 abstentions) in favour of a city centre arena. All four Labour councillors from Bedminster and Windmill Hill backed the Green party motion.

Few Labour members supported

the mayor’s position, apart from cabinet members. But the vote was only advisory. The meetings on September 3 can be expected to hear a tide of objections. Lib Dem deputy leader Gary Hopkins said: “There will be every form of challenge we can muster.”

Cllr Hopkins claimed that 70 per cent of the Bristol public, and the same proportion of councillors, back a city centre arena.

corporate mixed use development that investors favour at the moment.”

Mr Rees welcomed Legal & General’s vision, saying: “It provides another useful contribution as we move towards making a well-informed decision on the best use of Temple Island.

We must make a decision which is evidence-based and best for the future of the city centre.

L&G’s vision for social inclusion and a greener use of the space is

an interesting aspect which will need consideration.”

Mr Ferguson earlier savaged Mr Rees for backing what he called “a lunatic plan” for a 16,000-space arena at Filton, built by Malaysian firm YTL. Mr Rees is under fire for accepting hospitality from YTL, meeting its bosses three times and flying to Kuala Lumpur twice to meet them.

Yet Arena Island Ltd, the backers of a Temple Meads

arena, supposedly the council’s in-house plan, say they have been refused a meeting with Mr Rees all year (see panel, right) Knowle councillor and deputy Lib Dem leader Gary Hopkins accused Mr Rees of effectively making his mind up in favour of the YTL scheme as early as the beginning of last year. He called the affair “disgraceful – the worst decision making I have seen since I became a councillor.”

The Lib Dems and Greens

T

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September 2018

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5

THE ARENA SHOWDOWN

debate reaches point of no return THE SEQUENTIAL TEST – IS THIS THE VITAL QUESTION? ORMER mayor George Ferguson says several planning experts have told him that the plan by YTL for an arena at Filton Airport is unlikely to get planning permission.

“It would be impossible for any self-respecting city planner to recommend approval for such a significant venue on the edge of the city when alternative sites exist in or near the centre, as they clearly do,” Mr Ferguson wrote in an open letter on August 8.

“This is known as

the Sequential Planning Test, an excellent piece of planning legislation, which was introduced in 2014 to ensure the vitality of our town centres,” he added.

This means that the planning system is supposed to support town and city centres, and only to approve out-of-town projects if no alternatives exist.

Critics of Mr Rees say that his actions appear to be pointing towards ruling out a Temple Meads site for the arena. Only with that proviso would a Filton arena have any sign of success, they say.

Green party leader Eleanor Combley points to emails disclosed in Bristol Live under Freedom of

claim a decision by the mayor could now be open to legal challenge.

Bristol Live has reported internal emails published under Freedom of Information requests showing that the council was in talks with YTL about building an arena at Filton airport in April 2017 – six months earlier than previously disclosed.

Council officers offered help with the YTL plans, and agreed to sign a statement of support for it in alliance with South Gloucestershire council.

The council says it is normal to be in contact with a developer about a major scheme in this way. It says there have also been contacts between the council and Arena Island Ltd – but it did not say why the mayor has not met AIL recently, despite his multiple meetings with YTL. Bristol South MP Karin

Smyth has stayed silent on the latest allegations, though she was very critical of a report by KPMG which first claimed that the arena site could provide more jobs and income from other uses.

After that report came out in June, the council scrutiny board took 10 hours of evidence and rejected the KPMG view, voting 11-1 for a city centre arena.

Legal & General says its plans would help bolster finances at the cash-strapped city council.

Because the site is in an enterprise zone, the council can keep more of the business rates raised there.

But a Temple Meads arena would also do much to bolster city centre shops, hotels and restaurants, say its backers. The KPMG report concedes that putting an arena at Filton would mean much of this trade would leak to Cribbs Causeway and South Gloucestershire.

F

Favoured? The Filton arena Information requests. She says these show the council is trying to overcome the sequential test by ruling out Temple Meads and thereby helping YTL. She quotes an email from a

BACKERS OF COUNCIL’S ‘IN HOUSE’ ARENA MAKE FOI DEMAND OVER YTL

J

OHN Sharkey is executive vice president at SMG Europe, which with another US firm, Live Nation, has formed a Bristol venture, Arena Island Ltd (AIL).

SMG has made a Freedom of Information request for full details of contacts between the mayor, council officials and YTL. (Details, and a longer version of Mr Sharkey’s comments, are on the Voice website).

Mr Sharkey took issue with Mr Rees’s objections to the AIL plan.

SIZE Mr Rees says arenas need to be bigger than 12,000 nowadays.

Mr Sharkey says 12-13,000 is the perfect size for a city like Bristol: any bigger would risk empty seats.

COST Mr Rees says the council would have to borrow money. Mr Sharkey says it would be repaid

council source, whose name has been redacted, on March 19, 2018, who “has been appointed by BCC to prepare a statement of support for the Brabazon Arena project proposed by YTL”.

The council has no one working in the same way for the Temple Island scheme, she said.

On April 26, another email states: “We agreed that BCC would work with us on the sequential test… (which) will require the TQ (Temple Quarter) option to have been eliminated.”

This implies the council would be helping YTL to overcome the planning rule which stands in its way, said Ms Combley. from rental fees – not by Bristol taxpayers.

CITY BENEFITS Mr Rees says more jobs and revenue will come from an alternative use. Mr Sharkey says arena-goers will spend money in shops, bars and restaurants, helping the troubled retail sector.

PARKING Mr Rees says 3,500 cars would come to each sell-out gig.

Mr Sharkey says it would be 2,000.

LEGAL CHALLENGE Mr Sharkey said: “We are spending our time trying to make sure it happens, not working out what happens if it goes the other way.”

A THIRD ARENA SITE? ALL parties are staying tightlipped on a claim that Bristol Fruit Market in St Philip’s could be a bigger, better site for an arena. The Voice understands that it has been considered for use for arena parking in the past.

First look: Ten towers of up to 24 storeys from Legal & General. Bristol university’s proposed 21-floor tower is is behind the rightmost block

WHAT YOU THINK OF THE LEGAL & GENERAL PLAN Comments on South Bristol Voice Facebook page “I think this is a better use of the site than an arena that’s going to be too cramped and doesn’t have car parking capacity. The idea that everyone is going to use public transport to get to the arena is a joke.” DW “Interesting to compare the infrastructure impact of 12,000 people at regular arena events vs 550 new households + 345 room

hotel + large conference centre + 2 x office buildings. Mostly I think arena attendees don’t need doctors, schools, shops quite in the same way as residents and workers do, and in no way does this tackle the car parking or other transport issues.” LL “Lots of high rise concrete.

Lovely, that’ll improve the view across Bristol no end.” GD “What a load of nonsense this proposal is! Pie in the sky. It’s a disgrace!” AC “UGLY!” JW

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Got a story or any other inquiry? Call Paul on 07811 766072 or email paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk

September 2018

southbristolvoice

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n NEWS Homegrown stars come out to shine

Kala Chng: Launching new EP at Knowle West Fest HOMEGROWN talent will be on show when the Knowle West Fest takes over Filwood community centre on Saturday September 22.

Stars of the day include X-Factor star Daniel Quick, the young singer who works at Iceland in the Broadwalk Centre and won praise from hard-toplease Simon Cowell when he appeared on the show last year.

An EP, Knowle West Girl, will be launched at the event by Kala Chng – one of Bristol’s best-known musical artists, formerly known as Makala Cheung, who is also the driving force behind the festival.

Other musical acts include DJ Bunjy of Laid Blak, and DJs and rappers performing “a true Knowle West sound” from hip hop to drum and bass.

“All the main acts and activities are from Knowle West, bringing people together to celebrate their neighbourhood,” said Kala.

Activities from 1-10pm include an outdoor play zone, sports, arts and dance workshops, local film screenings and a market selling items made in Knowle West.

Activities for older people include a singalong supported by Link Age. The full line-up is at Facebook: Knowle West Fest Tickets are only £1 from tinyurl.com/knowlewestfest

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Get ready for charging zone to reduce traffic pollution

Call for museum to mark city’s role in ending slavery – twice

A CLEAN Air Zone which excludes Totterdown, Knowle and Windmill Hill, but includes most of Bedminster, is on the cards.

Pollution has breached EU limits in many UK cities since 2010 but only now is the Government forcing councils to take action.

Levels of the worst pollutant – nitrogen dioxide or NOx – are predicted to be illegal at Parson Street, Bedminster Down Road and West Street, Bedminster by 2021 if no action is taken.

Limits are also broken along the M32 and at many places in the city centre. In South Bristol, other black spots include York Road, the Three Lamps junction, Bath Road, St John’s Lane and Bedminster Parade.

Bath Road, Three Lamps and all the Bedminster locations are in the proposed Clean Air Zone (CAZ) but St John’s Lane isn’t.

Cllr Jon Wellington, Labour member for Windmill Hill, told the Voice: “I get a lot of complaints about air quality on St John’s Lane.” He is disappointed the road is not included in the CAZ, and thinks there would be support to extend the zone throughout the Windmill Hill ward (which includes Totterdown).

However, the CAZ starts at Parson Street, at one end of St John’s Lane – so drivers may be deterred from entering the area if they have to pass through the CAZ anyway.

“My concern is that there will

CAMPAIGNERS are calling on Bristol city council to back a proposal to turn the last undeveloped buildings on the harbour into a memorial to the abolition of the slave trade.

The idea is for two empty warehouses, known as O and M sheds on Welsh Back, to be renamed Abolition Shed, to commemorate the campaign to abolish the slave trade, which gained wide support in the city from the 18th century.

The buildings are owned by the council, but campaigners fear they will be sold off to the highest bidder – probably to become another harbourside bar or restaurant.

Campaigner Mark Steeds says the Welsh Back location is unique because it has been the scene of activity for and against slavery for more than 1,000 years.

“Nowhere else in the world can offer this combination of history and locale,” he said.

“Liverpool’s International Slavery Museum gets 500,000 visitors a year. We don’t want to replicate that, we want to concentrate on the banning of the trade – hence Abolition Shed.”

Not only were Bristol campaigners instrumental in getting the West African slave trade banned in 1833, but the city was also crucial in the abolition of a less well-known market in slaves in Anglo-Saxon times.

Enslaved people from all over England were shipped from

WHY IS ACTION NEEDED? Air pollution – especially NOx and particulates (soot and small particles) – damages health. About 300 people a year die early in Bristol from air pollution. That’s about nine per cent of all deaths in Bedminster and Windmill Hill, and eight per cent in Knowle.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN? It seems probable that: • Cameras will monitor all vehicles entering the charging zone; • Polluting vehicles will pay a fee.

HOW LONG WILL THE CHANGES TAKE? By law, they must be in place by 2021 – but Bristol councillors have voted to act by 2020.

A plan will be presented to the council in the autumn. A decision will be taken in December.

Metrobus, which starts in January, will run on biogas; bus, rail and cycle use is rising – but traffic is still not reducing.

WHICH VEHICLES ARE AFFECTED? • Diesels not to Euro 6 standard (mainly those sold from 2016); • Petrol vehicles not to Euro 4 standard (mainly sold from 2005); The council has not decided if the CAZ charge will apply to cars or only to commercial vehicles. But as 40 per cent of Bristol NOx comes from diesel cars, they look likely to be charged.

WHERE CAN I FIND OUT MORE?

The city council is buying electric vehicles; the city’s bus fleet is being modernised; the M1

The council’s Clean Air website has a map of the proposed zone and FAQs, including: • How do I find out what Euro standard my vehicle is?

• What are you doing to support businesses?

• Will there be a discount for local residents? cleanairforbristol.org

be displacement of traffic, and people will get caught up [in hold-ups]” Cllr Wellington said.

Highways officials appear to back a medium-sized CAZ extending to Bedminster. A smaller, city-centre zone would have less impact on pollution, while a larger, whole-city zone would take too long to implement and cost too much. The medium zone will cost about £60 million

– the main cost being for almost 1,100 cameras.

Confusingly, St John’s Lane, and Wells Road up to the Airport Road junction, are in Bristol’s Air Quality Management Area.

Within this area households can only burn smokeless fuel or must fit low-emission stoves.

Vehicles, however, account for 80 per cent of local air pollution.

• My Councillors: Page 25

WHAT ELSE IS BEING DONE?

ASK A VET: Help! My pet has a tick – what should I do?

ITH the tick season in full swing in this warm humid weather, it’s important that you check your pets daily for these nasty little critters.

Ticks are wingless, bloodsucking insect-like creatures that feed on warm-blooded animals. They can be found anywhere on your pet’s body (usually where there is less fur – most commonly on the face and front part of the body or under the belly) and they appear like a big wart or beauty mark.

Your pet is most likely to come

September 2018

into contact with ticks in woods and fields. The ticks climb up to the tips of grass and wait for a host (like your pet) to pass by so that they can attach themselves and burrow close into the skin.

If you find that your pet has a tick, don’t panic! You can remove it using a tick remover, which you can get from your vet practice. Do not use tweezers as this can result in the tick’s legs being left behind.

Slide the tick remover around the tick and turn it anticlockwise until the tick is no longer attached.

Most practices offer appointments with a veterinary nurse who can show you how it’s done.

Ticks can carry bacteria or viruses; in the UK the most common one is Lyme’s disease and it is important to note that people can also become infected. For a tick to be able to infect your pet it needs to be attached for 36-48 hours. The risk is therefore minimal as long as you remove the tick as soon as you spot it.

Ticks can be prevented using various products – tablets, spot-on

Empty: The council can’t say what its plans are for O and M sheds Bristol to Dublin, where they were traded to the Vikings.

The trade was stopped in 1090 by the persuasive preaching of St Wulfstan, who saw the slaves lined up on the Bristol dockside and persuaded William the Conqueror to ban the trade.

Mark said the Welsh Back sheds are ideally positioned, sitting on the path of the signposted Treasure Island Trail, which links Bristol’s maritime past with piracy and slaving (as does a new walking tour, Blood, Booze and Buccaneers, by Bedminster’s Show of Strength theatre company – see page 42).

The Abolition Shed museum could include displays about slavery, its abolition, and links to art and literature such as Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver’s

Travels and Treasure Island.

A petition calling for the council to support the idea states: “Abolition Shed will be a learning centre for children and adults, schools and universities, locals and visitors, acknowledging Bristol’s development and the actions of all its citizens.”

The idea is supported by Cllr Cleo Lake, the current Lord Mayor, as well as Hotwells councilllor Mark Wright, and Cllr Paul Smith, who represents the central ward, which includes the harbour.

The council was unable to state what its plans for the building are. It is sympathetic to the idea of a memorial to the slave trade, but it is unclear how it would be funded.

The petition is at: tinyurl.com/abolitionshed

7

Park festival has something for everyone THERE’S fun for everyone at the Victoria Park Festival on Saturday September 15 from 126pm, with live music, children’s entertainment and a barbecue.

The Shakespeare pub will be providing live bands and a beer tent, and there will be craft stalls, a dog show and a fun run.

In a new activity this year, young people aged 7-12 are invited to join in with free singing and poetry workshops set up by the organisers of the Windmill Hill art trail, Art on the Hill (which is on October 6 and 7).

The singing sessions are led by musician and choir leader Kate Fletcher, and poetry by poet Spikey Tim Vosper.

There is no need to book, timings will be on information boards. For details, email juniornearlyunplugged@ virginmedia.com.

HISTORY SPECIAL: The links between pirates and slavery, pages 35-39

FIRST CLASS IS FREE – NO NEED TO BOOK!

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n NEWS

Protest over feared closure of blind people’s centre VISUALLY impaired people in Bristol have formed an action group because they say they are being denied a voice over the loss of their purpose-built centre in Bedminster.

The centre in Stillhouse Lane was opened in 1993 and for the past 25 years has provided a social gathering place for people with sight problems, as well as training facilities. It won a Bristol Civic Society award for its disabled access.

It was run first by the Bristol Royal Society for the Blind, which merged with the RNIB (Royal National Institute for Blind People) in 2001. But the RNIB has been plagued by

What’s the point?

financial problems. It posted a loss of £12.6 million in 2016-17, and last April it sold the building – built for £2.7m – for a reputed £700,000.

So far Stillhouse Lane remains open – though the resource centre, for the supply of gadgets such as kitchen aids – has shut.

But a number of visuallyimpaired users of the centre claim they have been left wondering what will happen next and have formed a pressure group, Bristol and District Visually Impaired (VI) Voice.

“The group is insisting that the RNIB honours a commitment it gave when it announced the sale of the Bedminster building,

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Purpose-built: The £2.7m centre in Stillhouse Lane, Bedminster to provide an alternative space that is as good, if not better, than the Bedminster building,” said Paul Sullivan, its secretary.

“Our real beef is that we have lost a community hub and place that people can make contacts and find support.”

The Guide Dogs charity, which can sometimes be seen training its assistance animals on quiet back streets in South Bristol, told the Voice it will convert the Bedminster building to a training centre next year.

Mr Sullivan believes the puppy-training will leave little room for other activities at

RNIB CENTRE Stillhouse Lane. He fears visually-impaired people will be offered shared facilities, perhaps at the Vassall Centre in Fishponds, which he says is much less easily accessible on public transport.

The RNIB has promised a centre with a staffed reception, meeting rooms, facilities for courses and training, and IT facilities, Mr Sullivan said.

Stephen Weymouth, RNIB network manager for the South West, said the charity wants to help more blind and partially sighted people, and it will do this by using shared locations that will provide “a safe and accessible space ... to meet for social events, training and other activities”.

RNIB will use Stillhouse Lane as tenants until March 2019, and will look for new premises to be ready to move in April.

The RNIB is consulting with local people with sight loss in September through its Locations Working Group, which includes “many members” of the VI Voice group, Mr Weymouth said.

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September 2018

n NEWS Plenty of ideas for the over 55s IF YOU’RE over 55 and at a loose end, the Bedminster Social Club has some suggestions.

The group is a loose one

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which meets for coffee and chat several times a month and plans various activities for those who are interested.

On the agenda are swimming sessions at Horfield Leisure Centre on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9am to 12 noon at a cost of £2.50 if you register

9

as over 55.

Members also visit the Friday Lunchtime Concerts being held at St Francis Church, North Street (see advert on page 4 and What’s On, page 44 for more details).

The September dates for Coffee&Chat meetings are

Council insists weedkiller is safe despite US court ruling THE COUNCIL is not planning to phase out the use of glyphosate, the pesticide recently linked to cancer in a multi-million dollar US court case.

Before he was elected, mayor Marvin Rees said he pledged “to work to ensure that we move towards a glyphosate free city and invest in alternatives”.

However, the council says that since Mr Rees was elected in May 2016, its research has not found any alternatives to using the chemical.

Debate was sparked on social media during August when council workers were seen spraying weeds with what is assumed to be glyphosate, on Totterdown streets.

Several residents chimed in with objections, some upset that the chemical is being used at all, and some protesting that workers were spraying it carelessly and allowing the chemical to be blown about on the wind.

“Spraying at all with the wind today and the last few days is irresponsible,” said one.

Others were alarmed because

‘Glyphosate is safe and we use the minimum amount’ they thought Bristol had already stopped using glyphosate.

However, a trial in Cotham of an alternative method of weed control – spraying acetic acid, or vinegar – was unsuccessful.

Weeds grew back more quickly and more spraying was needed, the council said.

Using vinegar would cost 3.6 times more than glyphosate, the council said. Another alternative, spraying hot foam, would cost 6.5 times more.

A council spokesperson said: “Glyphosate has been fully licensed for use in the UK and is therefore considered an approved, safe product. As with all chemicals, the council’s policy is to reduce use where it can and we would always use the minimum amount possible, applied in a safe way. The situation in America is very different as they use aerial

WHATYOU IS GLYPHOSATE DID KNOW ...

Monsanto says it will appeal. It says its product is safe, and many experts agree. But the advice is to avoid contact – including for pets ESPITE a California jury – until it has dried. awarding a groundskeeper The US court was told that the $289 million (£227m) the World Health Organisation’s because it was judged glyphosate •has Including Malago, Gaywoodinternational House, Southville, agency for research given him terminal cancer, on cancer (IARC) found glyphosate there is still fierce argument over Bedminster Family Practice, Wedmore Practice whether the pesticide is harmful to was “probably carcinogenic to humans” in 2015. But this finding humans. has since been disputed by the Glyphosate is the world’s most European Chemicals Agency, widely-used weedkiller, and its which says it is safe if used maker, Monsanto, markets it as responsibly.

RoundUp. Objectors also protest that Part of the huge award by the where the chemical is used US court was damages for repeatedly, plants and crops can Monsanto’s actions in hiding the develop resistance. possible dangers of its product.

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spraying on a mass scale.

“In order to explore reducing the use of chemical weed control, the council carried out research into alternative solutions, and did not find any that were cost effective or did not have adverse environmental impacts. As a result, there are no current plans to use alternative methods.”

A few UK councils have banned glyphosate, including Glastonbury, and Hammersmith & Fulham.

Tuesday September 4, 2pm; Friday 7, 10.30am; Monday 10, 2pm; Thursday 13, 10.30am; Tuesday 18, 2pm; Friday 21, 10.30am; Wednesday 26, 2pm; Friday 28, 2pm.

All the coffee meetings are at Mezzaluna Café, West Street, Bedminster.

Ahoy, it’s time for the art trail THE STREETS will abound with pirates, parrots and buried treasure this autumn, when Totterdown’s Front Room art trail takes on a nautical theme, from November 23-25.

Organisers are hoping for a record-breaking number of artists wanting to exhibit in venues ranging from front rooms to schools and cafes across Totterdown.

There is still time for artists to register – details can be found at frontroom.org.uk or get in touch via social media at #frontroomarts2018

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Got a story or any other inquiry? Call Paul on 07811 766072 or email paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk

n NEWS ARCHITECTS OFFER TO DRAW UP A VISION A PROMINENT firm of architects which has made Bedminster its home has offered to come up with a vision to revive East Street.

The Purcell architecture practice says the prospect of thousands of new homes and new residents presents a golden opportunity to revive the tired East Street shopping area.

“There is the potential to achieve something extraordinary,” Purcell associate Dan Talkes told a meeting of Bedminster Town Team, the traders’ group.

Purcell will work for free, drawing on ideas from residents and businesses to come up with a vision for the shopping area.

“We want to give you something you can hold in front of developers to say, this is what we want to achieve,” said Dan. So far there are no promises from any of the developers around Bedminster Green to pay for any improvements to the shopping area.

September 2018

September 2018

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n NEWS

WE’RE BACKING BEDMINSTER

Plan for Green may be close Framework deal nears for vital site A FRAMEWORK plan which will show all five major building sites proposed at Bedminster Green may be close to being unveiled.

Discussions between the council and the four developers hoping to build up to 1,500 homes are thought to be close to reaching an agreement which will mean that the plan can be seen by the public for the first time.

Nicola Beech, the cabinet lead for city design, said discussions with the developers are edging closer to a deal which people “will be proud of when they look back in 10 years time”.

Change is scary, she said, but she encouraged traders at a meeting of Bedminster’s Town Team to take an objective view of what the scheme could do for East Street. She said the council

Cllr Nicola Beech: Change is scary, but plans for the Green could bring real benefits to traders, she says is working hard with developers to get the best possible deal: “It must be a good design,” she said.

She added that it won’t be easy to to provide the high density housing that is needed while making sure the different buildings fit together as a jigsaw, not as one block after another.

It’s not clear whether the council has managed to negotiate down the size of some of the high-rises proposed. Developer Firmstone wants to build a 22-storey tower at St Catherine’s Place. Next door at Plot 4, around

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A NEW CAR PARK? A NEW three-storey car park is a possibility in Little Parade as part of the Bedminster Green rebuild.

Bryn Howells, the project manager for Bedminster Green at Bristol city council, told the Town Team that a new car park is being

Stafford Street, Dandara has shown sketches of an 18-storey tower and two smaller blocks.

Dandara is also talking to the council about building on the council-owned Plot 5, which includes Bedminster railway station. Its drawings appear to show a 14-storey tower.

The NCP car park on Dalby Avenue, known as Plot 3, is owned by Deeley Freed, which has yet to reveal its plans.

A planning application by Rollo Homes for 215 flats in up to eight storeys on Plot 1, along Malago Road, has been awaiting a decision for more than a year.

Traders hope the new developments will provide easy and attractive access to the shopping area. They want the framework – being drawn up by the Nash partnership – to look at how it fits in with East Street.

But there’s no sign that the shopping area has been included in Nash’s brief.

considered to replace parking that will probably be lost.

The NCP car park in Dalby Avenue is expected to be redeveloped by developer Deeley Freed. The council-owned car park in Little Paradise could be replaced by a multi-storey parking facility. It

Traders fear losing trade if they go MOVING bus routes away from East Street could be a crushing blow to shops in the troubled shopping area, traders warned.

Retailers are worried that if the Metrobus route is diverted from East Street onto a widened Malago Road, it will make passengers much less likely to get off and use the local shops.

Bristol city council has not yet decided on its approach but transport officials are known to

want to widen Malago Road to as much as 25m to allow for bus lanes both sides.

Traders fear that this could eventually see all buses, including routes such as the 75 and 76, diverted away from East Street.

“People who come to my café and soft play area love the fact that the bus stops right outside, and they don’t have to drive,” said Olivia Navaratnam, owner of the Bubble Play Café at the top of East Street. “Having the bus stop in East Street is a positive thing for small businesses like ours.”

If the bus routes are moved, the shops will lose visitors who

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WE’RE BACKING BEDMINSTER would still be council-owned but could be part of a spin-off paid for by another developer, Dandara, which wants to build homes nearby in Stafford Street.

The NCP car park is charged for but the council car park allows up to three hours free. The council will

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catch the bus there from places such as Ashton, she said.

George Grace, manager of the Town Team, said it was possible traders would agree to seeing the buses moved – but only after East Street has got back on its feet. The Town Team hopes that building between 1,000 and 2,000 flats around Bedminster Green will rejuvenate the area.

The new M1 route, which will pass through central Bedminster, from Hengrove to the city centre and on to Cribbs Causeway, will start running in January 2019.

The M2, from Long Ashton, starts on September 3 (see page 3).

listen to traders’ views before deciding what any changes might be, said Mr Howells.

There is also potential for more car parking in some of the streets behind North Street and East Street, according to Dan Talkes, of architects Purcell.

Traders – don’t forget to vote TRADERS are being urged to get their votes in on whether to revive the BID team, which uses a levy on business rates to fund improvements for the Bedminster shopping area.

A ‘no’ vote by Asda torpedoed the scheme in the spring, but supporters on the Town Team are hoping a new vote will help unlock hundreds of thousands of pounds to be spent improving and promoting the area.

Votes must be made by September 13. bedminster.org.uk

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September 2018

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n NEWS Tell us what the community wants to see ACTION Greater Bedminster will host a series of Community Conversations through October and November to gather views to help form a Community Plan. Members want to hear opinions on topics such as parks and green spaces, traffic and related issues, air quality, the street-scene, and local amenities.

The first Community Conversation is on Saturday October 6, from 10am-5pm at North Street Gallery, 135 North Street. The AGB team will be on hand all day to talk about the Community Plan and why it’s important. From 2pm, Bristol Print Collective will hold a family workshop where participants can make mini-prints showing what they like or don’t like about life in Bedminster, to add to a map.

An online survey is at: greaterbedminster.org.uk

WE’RE BACKING BEDMINSTER

Don’t forget West Street when plans are being made There are three major streets here!

WHILE hopes are high that new homes and investment can help lift the fortunes of Bedminster’s important shopping area, a plea has gone out not to forget West Street.

With most of the area’s mainsteam shops being on Bedminster Parade and East Street, and North Street becoming a byword for independent traders, West Street can tend to be forgotten.

Members of campaign group Way Out West (WOW) say the council fails to recognise it as a residential centre despite the fact that more properties have been built or developed on West Street

over the past 10 years than anywhere else in Bedminster.

West Street’s fortunes declined during the 1970s and 80s with the loss of factories and the subsequent closure of shops.

Members of WOW believe that since then bad planning decisions and uncaring developers have contributed to a mish-mash of poorly designed residential properties, deteriorating historic buildings, and too much traffic – air pollution is above legal limits at several points.

A major problem until nine years ago was that West Street had no collective voice: while North Street was re-generating, West Street was largely ignored by decision-makers and local campaigners. In 2009 WOW was established as the West Street neighbourhood group. The name

was suggested by a Bedminsterborn resident who said the name expressed what it felt like “living over this side”. WOW organised a pop-up museum, and a Facebook page West Street Stories brought the street to life by sharing people’s memories and photos.

WOW’s secretary Stef Brammar said: “We like the social mix in our neighbourhood – many older people born and bred here, lots of younger families, the different cultures in our food shops. However we also have to deal with fly-tipping dumped along pavements, scruffy shopfronts, too much traffic, and concerns about road safety and air quality.”

Facebook: WOWBS3 and West Street Stories Twitter: @WestStreetBS3.

Email: info@way-out-west.org

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Write to paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk LETTERS or to 18 Lilymead Avenue, BS4 2BX

It’s not just the posh shops that avoid plastic IN YOUR list of shops which offer plastic-free packaging, you only include the more expensive, high-end ethical/organic shops.

This is all very well, but it could give the impression that reducing plastic is only for people with more money to spend.

In fact there are plenty of greengrocers in BS4, for example Banana Boat, that don’t use plastic and have reasonable prices. It would be a shame if people think you have to be rich to be green. I think Banana Boat is a great, friendly, value local shop, that deserves to be included in a BS3 and 4 list of shops where you can get fruit and veg without packaging. They’re closed for a holiday as I write this and I am really missing them!

Katherine Jacob Arnos Street, Totterdown • Editor’s note: That’s an excellent point and one that we’ll remember next time we list plastic-avoiding businesses.

There are also traditional greengrocers in Knowle, Southville and Bedminster. Readers can let us know about other businesses that are doing their bit to cut down on single-use plastic.

We didn’t avoid Windmill Hill I’M SORRY that Di Weston thinks that front gardens in Windmill Hill and Victoria Park have been missed from this year’s Good Garden Awards – that isn’t the case. This year our longstanding volunteer coordinator for Windmill Hill stepped down but, thanks to lots of new volunteers, all of the Windmill Hill area rounds were covered by the middle of July when judging ended.

The very warm weather this summer has made it challenging for our volunteer judges, but our thanks go to them all for giving their time to make sure we covered over 250 streets in just six weeks. We always try not to miss anyone out, and if Di or anyone else thinks they have been overlooked, if they get in touch with us (via Blooming Bedminster on Facebook or by

phoning the Southville Centre), we’ll be happy to send a judge to have another look. Perhaps Di would like to volunteer as a judge herself next year.

In her letter last month, she mentioned disappointment at an award being given to someone with a paved front garden. Please remember that some houses are divided into flats. While one person might have sadly turned a garden into a driveway, the other occupant might be doing their bit with pots and hanging baskets.

The Good Garden Awards are not a competition, but rather a thank-you for everyone who’s helping to brighten and green up our neighbourhood. Di felt that there were more awards in Southville, but not everyone who is given a certificate displays it.

Matthew Symonds Front Garden Awards Volunteer Coordinator

Colston is a mass murderer THE LETTER “Colston move is divisive” made for fascinating reading in the August SBV. I can’t comprehend the case for celebrating Colston. I don’t care if he spent his money on altruistic endeavours or down the bookies.

The money was raised through the forced trafficking of human beings, enslavement and the death of millions. Does that make Colston a mass murderer? I’d say so.

Sam Meadley Windmill Hill

Witch is talking otter nonsense REGARDING the letter “Witches don’t like otters” in August’s SBV, can we please leave information on otter behaviour to the experts rather than the opinions of the Witches of Knowle?

The return of otters is not encouraged because of their cuteness, but for the benefit of a healthy and balanced eco system and a richer environment for us all. Yes, they hunt and kill, they are top predetors in their habitat and, as with many animals, they display some behaviour that we may find hard to understand, but we should not anthropomorphise them and give them human characteristics such as being evil.

R Buckley Bedminster

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n NEWS

EXAM RESULTS

Pupils celebrate despite exams getting tougher IMPROVED results in GCSE exams show that South Bristol’s troubled Bridge Learning Campus is on the road to recovery, according to its boss.

The Hartcliffe school was judged inadequate by Ofsted in June, but in August 55 per cent of GCSE entrants achieved Grade 4 (standard pass) or better in English and Maths, up from 36 per cent in 2017.

Mark Davies, chief executive of Trust in Learning Academies, said: “It has been widely publicised the difficulties that the Bridge Learning Campus has had over recent months, but this year’s GCSE results demonstrate that actually what we have done last year to turn the campus around is having an impact.”

Both GCSEs and A-levels have been changed in recent years to make them more challenging.

Meanwhile at Bedminster Down school, GCSE grade 4s or higher in English and maths leapt from 57 to 65 per cent.

Fourteen students achieved the top grade 9 result, only expected for a small percentage of pupils across the country.

Bedminster Down headteacher Gary Schlick said part of the improvement was down to a new system this year called Assess, Plan, Teach, which puts emphasis on live feedback

rather than traditional marking.

At St Mary Redcliffe and Temple School, 82 per cent gained at least one GCSE Grade 4 and above, and 34 per cent Grade 7 or higher.

Seventeen students gained six or more Grade 9s.

Headteacher Elisabeth Gilpin said: “These are one of our best ever sets of results.”

Oasis Academy Brislington secured its best results with 61 per cent attaining a grade 4 or above in English and Maths.

In English, 70 per cent gained Grade 4 or above. In art, 100 per cent of students achieved a C grade equivalent or better.

Merchants Academy acclaimed its best English and Maths GCSE results in five years, with 50 per cent achieving grade 4 or above, an improvement of 16 percentage points on 2017.

At A-level, Merchants’ Academy celebrated its best ever results: 75 per cent of students passed, with 30 per cent gaining A-B grades and 38 per cent A-C. Ashton Park School said almost all its sixth form students secured their first choice university places, not only via academic routes but also through vocational programmes in IT, sport, and health and social care.

Results were not available for all schools.

www.doorexpresssouthwest.co.uk

Got a story or any other inquiry? Call Paul on 07811 766072 or email paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk

September 2018

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n NEWS

September 2018

southbristolvoice

n NEWS

Now LED sign in West St is rejected ANOTHER digital billboard has been turned down by planners in a prominent Bedminster location because of fears it would have distracted drivers.

A planning application to replace a static, illuminated hoarding of 6m by 3m at 267 West Street was refused on grounds of safety and appearance.

The advertisement is on the end of a house next to the corner of Temple Street, and faces traffic queuing on the Parson Street roundabout.

The plan brought 10 objections from residents, anti-hoarding campaigners Adblock, and community group Action Greater Bedminster.

Highway officials said the advert, which would display a new image every 10 seconds, was

“prejudicial to road safety” and added: “Where a driver is already experiencing significant demand through challenging road layouts or other additional demands on their attention, it is important not to add any further unnecessary distraction, particularly where there are vulnerable road users present.”

The hoarding would also be highly visible, especially to residents in Temple Street, said planners. The “illuminated nature and motion capabilities” of the advertisement would intensify the harm to the visual amenity of the area, they added.

Last month the Voice reported that a digital advert of a similar size had been refused at 5 Winterstoke Road, also close to the Parson Street gyratory.

15

Measles: Plea to parents PARENTS in South Bristol have been urged to make sure their children are up to date with their MMR jabs after a surge in cases of measles.

The disease usually only makes child feel very unwell for a few days, but in about one case in 1,000 it can be fatal. There have

been 86 cases of measles in Bristol since January, a huge rise.

Rates of MMR vaccination fell after a scare that it might be linked to autism. This was disproven, and doctors warn that not having the jab can be deadly.

There have been 37 measles deaths in Europe this year.

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Office: 01173 215 815

Mobile: 07572 412 600

Got a story or any other inquiry? Call Paul on 07811 766072 or email paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk

southbristolvoice

16

n NEW SEASON

September 2018

ADVERTISING FEATURE

As the season turns, we think about making changes

Whether your next move is a new family member, or you want to bring about some physical change in yourself, these local businesses can help Bump to Cradle

Courses at St Paul’s Church, 2 Southville Road BS3 1DG 07870 803950 bumptocradle.com OLLOWING the success of the courses running in Redland, Bump to Cradle are thrilled to announce the arrival of their expert-led antenatal classes in Southville.

As a parent-to-be you’ll want to team up with a local tribe of fellow expectant parents, to provide on-going support during the challenging fourth trimester.

Booking a spot on a Bump to Cradle course will deliver that in

F

September 2018

southbristolvoice

Pay a visit somewhere new

n NEWS

Open Doors offers 101 places to be explored

All worth it: But before your get there, every parent could do with some support

spades; the social aspect of antenatal classes is high on the agenda, facilitated by the proximity of the venue, St Paul’s

ANTENATAL CLASSES DELIVERED BY THE EXPERTS

CALLING ALL MAMAS TO BE IN SOUTH BRISTOL Meet other new parents to be, learn from our team of experts.

5 WEEKS. 9 SPECIALISTS.

Virginia Harvey: ‘It took me three months to pluck up the courage to join, but the welcome was amazing” she says of her introduction to Slimming World Church, to some of the finest eateries in Bristol.

But Bump to Cradle also believe that at this potentially overwhelming time, you should have unparalleled access to specialists hand-picked for their expertise in every aspect of pregnancy and early parenthood.

That’s why they have created a course delivered by a range of experts, covering everything from women’s health during and post-pregnancy, the birth – including medical intervention, your emotional health, how to soothe your baby, how to feed your baby – whichever way you choose, and more. Did we mention nursery advice and pampering events at John Lewis? No queuing to try out buggies! Book your spot at bumptocradle.com

Slimming World

Virginia Harvey 07938 567886 slimmingworld.co.uk IRGINIA HARVEY has been a Slimming World consultant for 2½ years but still remembers how terrified she was walking through the doors as a brand new member.

“It took me three months to pluck up the courage to join, because I felt stupid for not being able to lose weight by myself,” she said.

“But the welcome I received was amazing, and that’s something I want everyone to feel in my groups.”

Virginia runs four classes every Tuesday at the Salvation Army in Bedminster – see advert (below) for details.

V

be inspired with Slimming World Every Tuesday with Virginia

INVALUABLE SUPPORT

9:30am, 11.30am, 5.30pm & 7.30pm

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07938 567886

To advertise, contact sales@southbristolvoice.co.uk or Ruth on 07590 527664

17

AMAZE yourself by visiting somewhere in Bristol you’ve never been before – that’s the challenge for Bristol’s Open Doors weekend, organised by Bristol Architecture Centre, in which 101 premises throw themselves open to visitors.

If you wonder what happens to your rubbish once it goes in the dustbin or recycling bin, a tour of the Bristol Waste centre in Albert Road will be of interest.

Like many venues, it’s open on the Saturday and Sunday, but visits must be booked.

Bristol’s (and possibly the world’s) only Berry Maze is open all over the weekend, from 10am-4pm each day.

The soft fruit maze, conceived and planted by volunteers, is at the bottom of Novers Hill, where Parson Street meets Lynton Road. You can explore the maze and try to identify the many different fruit bushes. There will be refreshments and games for children.

At Marwood Road in Filwood, you can visit a house that’s been

Straw home: The Filwood house built by a community. The “We Can Make” home, built in conjunction with Knowle West Media Centre, is clad in wood on a frame of straw bales. The aim is “that real people can become the developers of their own affordable homes”. It’s open on Sunday only, from 10am-4pm. In

SOUTH BRISTOL VENUES Creative Workspace Queens Road, Withywood. Community art centre, local history workshops and activities for all ages.

Arnos Vale cemetery Bath Road.

Tours and a new education centre.

UWE Film Studios Bower Ashton.

Tour of animation and film facility.

Bottle Yard Studios Whitchurch Lane, Hengrove. Sunday tours of the home of Poldark, Wolf Hall and the Crystal Maze.

Ashton Gatehouse Blackmoors

contrast, the Create Centre in Smeaton Road looks unexceptional – just like the other harbourside warehouses.

But it was the first building in Britain built of Coignet reinforced concrete, and it also houses one of the first 1990s eco-homes.

One venue hasn’t even been built yet – the £300m new campus for Bristol university next to Temple Meads. A talk at 2pm on Saturday in the Engine Shed will examine the design and the social impact of the new campus, set to be a keystone of the Temple Quarter enterprise zone, one of Europe’s largest regeneration projects. bristolopendoors.org.uk Lane, Bower Ashton. Recentlyrestored 18th C gatehouse.

Filwood Green Business Park Hengrove Way. Eco-friendly centre for small businesses.

Light Vessel 55 Bathurst Basin.

Board this 1855 wooden lightship.

Paintworks Bath Road. A tour at 10am on Friday explains the site’s progress from paint factory to home and business venue.

Robinson Building Norfolk Place, Bedminster. Former paper bag factory, now flats.

Walking and watching SOUTH Liberty Lane is the target of the September walkabout and litter pick by members of Ashton Vale Together.

The group will be looking out for litter and dog mess, as well as any problems with pavements and roads, and cutting back brambles and overhanging bushes to make the route safer for pedestrians and wheelchair users.

Anyone interested can meet at Parsons Bakery on South Liberty Lane at 10am on Thursday September 6.

The group’s next meeting to air local concerns is at Ashton Vale Young Persons Club, Silbury Road, on Tuesday September 11, from 6.30-8pm.

Facebook: Ashton Vale Together

Fiddlers group IF YOU play the fiddle and you’d like to play better, Southville Strings is starting a new season.

The group meets every Monday from 7-8pm at the Hen & Chicken in North Street. A new tune is learned each week. It’s nor for complete beginners, but the pace is gentle, says organiser Vivienne Baker. For details email viviennefbaker@gmail.com.

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18

September 2018

September 2018

n THE PROPERTY PAGE STUDY/ 3RD BEDROOM

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SHOW HOME LAUNCHES 22ND SEPTEMBER

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Register today: banksidebs3.co.uk Call the Agents on:

juniperhomes.co.uk

19

NEWS ABOUT SOUTH BRISTOL HOMES

BS3 is one of the hottest spots for homes under offer

High living: the fourstorey houses commercial lender for 75 per cent of the home price. The remaining 20 per cent is covered by a Help to Buy loan. You can’t use the scheme to buy a home to rent out, or for a second home.

As an example, on the asking price at Bankside of £394,950, a five per cent deposit would be £19,747.50; the 20 per cent Help to Buy loan would be £78,990;

and a 75 per cent mortgage would be £296,212.50. You could expect to pay about £981 in monthly payments on the mortgage.

After the fifth year, interest is payable on the Help to Buy loan.

You can find out more about Bankside from estate agents Ocean on 0117 946 9838 or Savills on 0117 910 0360.

THE BS3 postcode is one of the hottest in England and Wales for home sales, according to property forecaster PropCast.

It says 69 per cent of homes for sale in BS3 were under offer in August – a figure equalled by BS5, the Easton and Barton Hill area.

They are not far behind the hottest postcodes for selling – BH17 in Dorset, which registers 74 per cent, with three Birmingham postcodes, B25 (72 per cent), B67 (70 per cent) and B42 (69 per cent) following on.

The BS4 postcode is also performing well, at 64 per cent.

The coldest spots according to PropCast are in London: in NW8, only seven per cent of homes are under offer.

Alpine LANDSCAPING Selling with integrity

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Mews home available with Help to Buy scheme A NEW show home opens in September offering South Bristol home buyers the chance to buy a mews home with assistance from the Government’s Help to Buy scheme.

Bankside off Coronation Road in Southville is offering eight three-bedroom mews houses starting at £394,950.

Each one has a garage, private third-floor terrace and a “Masterclass” kitchen (does it help you to cook better?) with quartz worktops.

Help to Buy is open to all buyers seeking a new-build home. You must be able to provide a five per cent deposit, and get a mortgage from a

southbristolvoice

0117 946 9838

To advertise, contact sales@southbristolvoice.co.uk or Ruth on 07590 527664

- Experience, the kind that comes with 20+ years in the business - No kickbacks for referrals - A long-term local resident with a genuine interest in the local community

Laurence Irvine Owner, Urban Lighthouse

If you would like to sell, want genuine value for money, and a refreshingly different approach, please get in touch.

homes@urbanlighthouse.co.uk

|

07576 648422

Urban Lighthouse are proud sponsors of Help Bristol’s Homeless helpbristolshomeless.co.uk

H Senior Citizens Special H Garden Clearance — Regular or one-off H Patios H Fencing H Tree Work H Turfing H Hedgecutting H Planting (Shrubs etc) H Organic manure delivered — Also applied H Professional and guaranteed work H Brick & Blocklaying

CALL JOE FOR A FREE QUOTE

Tel: 0117 959 2143 Mob: 07891 253 122

www.alpine-landscaping.co.uk

Got a story or any other inquiry? Call Paul on 07811 766072 or email paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk

20

n NEWS

September 2018

southbristolvoice

Share your joy with children WOULD you like to share your love of reading or maths with children? Two charities are asking for volunteers to help out in South Bristol schools.

RSVP (Retired and Senior Volunteer Programme) offers training and references to people over 50 who can help pupils one-to-one with their reading.

Email sue.andresen@rsvp-west. org.uk to find out more or visit rsvp-west.org.uk Another charity, Action Tutoring, works with schools including Parson Street, Hareclive, Perry Court and Oasis Connaught primaries and Bridge Learning Campus.

It offers pupils help with English and maths. It’s looking for volunteers with an A-level at A or B grade in their chosen subject, and provides training and travel expenses. actiontutoring.org.uk

Plastic attacks going global SHOPPERS around the world will be encouraged to hand back unwanted plastic packaging at their supermarket on Saturday September 15, as part of a global movement which was nurtured in South Bristol.

Activists from Pakistan to Belgium, Australia to the US, are joining forces to coordinate World Plastic Attack Day at hundreds of supermarkets.

The idea has snowballed since it began with a few activists in South Bristol and Keynsham earlier in the year.

Organisers are delighted with how receptive shoppers are to the message that single-use plastic packaging is damaging the planet, and is often unnecessary.

“A few of us standing outside a supermarket, like we did at Lidl in Bedminster in July, can talk to around 200 shoppers in an hour, and we find that most of them support what we’re doing,” said

Personal Assistants/Carers wanted To help young independent disabled lady in the Whitchurch area with personal care, daily living including cooking, and transport.

Interest in animals preferred Able to drive automatic car.

Pay: £10.00 per hour, paid four weekly.

Monday evening plus approx 8-hour shifts Saturday and Sunday. Some flexibility required.

Call WECIL Ltd, 0117 947 9911, ref. BFW17785

PLASTIC ATTACKS IN SOUTH BRISTOL

Worldwide fame: A story on US news network CNN featuring one of the South Bristol plastic attacks and quoting Alex Morss

Saturday September 15 To find out which stores are being targeted by local members of One

by One Conservation, Greenpeace and other groups, go to: Facebook: PlasticAttackGlobal Countries taking part include: Germany, Belgium, England, Portugal, Mozambique, Ireland, Brazil, US, Sweden, France, Corsica, Spain, Australia, Wales, Norway, Ukraine, Netherlands.

Plastic Attack co-founder Alex Morss, the Voice’s nature writer.

“We always ask permission from the supermarkets we visit – we stand outside with a banner and a trolley, and we ask people leaving the store to give us the plastic wrapping they don’t need.

“They are often angry at how much packaging supermarkets use, even on things that have their own natural protective covering, like coconuts!

“Often single-use plastic could be replaced with reusable, sometimes with biodegradable, and often with no packaging.”

It was Alex’s tweet of a plastic-wrapped coconut seen in Sainsbury’s that helped kickstart the movement. The tweet went viral and the issue was featured in every national newspaper and mainstream TV channel.

Green councillor Martin Fodor, who has a petition calling for the council to play its part in

eliminating single-use plastics, said: “I was saddened by the mounds of rubbish on the streets following St Paul’s carnival and shocked to hear that much of the litter picked up after the event wasn’t even recycled. We need proper licensing to reduce waste at events, larger recycling points and more resources.”

Some Bristol parks, including Perretts and Victoria parks, have recycling bins with a section for plastic. This waste is now recycled, the Voice understands – though until recently all the litter was mixed together and not sorted for recycling.

The damage that plastic waste does to the environment has become a hot issue since Sir David Attenborough highlighted it on the Blue Planet II. Proposals by the Government for a possible plastic tax have drawn 160,000 comments from the public – a record.

September 2018

southbristolvoice

n THE MAYOR

MARVIN REES Mayor of Bristol

We recognise that the holidays are not the easiest time for every family

I

’M SURE most of us were ready for a well-earned summer break, hopefully making the most of the weather and Bristol’s busy cultural calendar. In particular College Green was a great place for family fun with games and activities when we hosted the 16th annual Playday at the start of August.

The green space outside City Hall and Bristol Cathedral was alive with the sounds of play and excitement as the biggest free play event of the summer saw hundreds of excited families join in.

This year’s event also featured the unveiling of the new Bristol Children’s Charter. The Charter, a set of 10 pledges that

21

align with the principles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, sets out the city’s aspirations for all children without discrimination.

The Playday’s central theme was Every Child’s Right to Play, highlighting the importance play has on the lives of all

children and families But we know that for some families, filling their days with activities can be a challenge. Even more concerning is the critical need to address the issue of holiday hunger.

Many of our children in Bristol receive a free school meal Monday to Friday during term time, but there is currently no such provision over holidays, meaning that our children and young people are at risk of holiday hunger.

My cabinet lead for education, Cllr Anna Keen, has been leading on work which attempts to address this through holiday clubs. Feeding Bristol is a collaborative charity which strives for a city where no-one goes hungry. It works on a range of projects, from cooking and nutrition, to growing local food, and even raising awareness towards key political issues surrounding food poverty.

There are a number of initiatives happening across Bristol to provide free activities for children and we have ensured that food is provided as part of this offer.

These include Fit and Fed, which operates in parks across Bristol; Unique Voice, which runs creative courses over the summer; and Break Free, a programme run by Youth Moves in secondary schools across South Bristol, which reaches some of our most deprived communities.

FREE FIRST CONSULT FOR NEW CLIENTS* When you register with Ashton Veterinary Surgery

Come and meet our friendly vet team!

Find out more by visiting us Juniors – 2 October / 10 November Seniors – 29 September / 16 October Sixth Form – 18 October / 21 November

Ashton Veterinary Surgery 0117 953 0707 15 Duckmoor Road Bristol BS3 2DD

Book your appointment with us today!

Ashton Veterinary Surgery is a trading name of CVS (UK) Limited: a company registered in England and Wales. Registered number: 03777473. Registered office: CVS House, Owen Road, Diss, Norfolk IP22 4ER Terms and conditions* Please present this advert to reception on arrival. One pet per consultation. This offer applies to the consultation fee only. This offer does not include any other services, any medication prescribed or products purchased which are chargeable and must be paid in full. The offer has no other monetary value. No cash alternative. This offer cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer or scheme, including The Healthy Pet Club.

SA027 18

To advertise, contact sales@southbristolvoice.co.uk or Ruth on 07590 527664

Got a story or any other inquiry? Call Paul on 07811 766072 or email paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk

September 2018

southbristolvoice

22

n MEET THE HEAD

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE

An atmosphere where every child is treated as an individual “

Justin Humphreys

St Katherine’s School

St Katherine’s School

S

T KATHERINE’S is a thriving, diverse school community that has educated pupils from all over Bristol for many years.

Indeed, Year 7 pupils from over 50 primary schools are joining us this September.

So why do so many parents and carers choose St Katherine’s for their child’s secondary education?

I believe it’s because our approach is based on the belief that, as individuals, we all perform at our best when we feel confident, secure and valued.

Along with my committed team, I am passionate about giving every pupil an environment where they feel safe and happy so they can achieve their full potential.

We do this through our exceptional pastoral care and absolute commitment to wellbeing which makes St Katherine’s such a happy, thriving school.

We also take full advantage of St Katherine’s size to create a friendly atmosphere where every child is well-known and cared for as an individual.

Like our pupils, our staff are energetic, passionate and committed professionals, who stretch and challenge our young people both inside and outside of the classroom – we all learn

something new every day and it enriches and improves us all.

Besides our track record of academic success – our GCSE, A level and vocational subject results have improved every year for the last six years – we offer a broad curriculum and extracurricular activities designed to develop our pupils into young adults equipped socially and academically to take on the opportunities and challenges of life.

Above all, a St Katherine’s education is busy, inspiring, ambitious and great fun!

Come along to our September open evening or one of our autumn open mornings (details below) to experience it for yourself.

You and your child are guaranteed a warm welcome.”

‘We all perform at our best when we feel confident, secure and valued’

September 2018

southbristolvoice

n FEATURES A MUSICIAN from Bedminster has created an app to enrich the lives of people living with dementia after experiencing the effects of the illness first-hand.

Producer and bass player Mark Smulian helped develop the Lydian MindHarp, which allows non-musicians to create their own music on an iPad, alongside fellow musician Stewart Redpath.

The Mindharp helps people with dementia engage with music and interact with people around them, having a long-lasting effect on their emotional well-being.

Mark, who has played at Glastonbury and all over the world, and created platinum and gold albums in Israel, said: “We are excited by the MindHarp as we know it can enrich lives for both those affected by the condition and their carers.

“When people can make their own music, it brings them into the present moment. The impact on the mind is much stronger than simply listening to music.”

The MindHarp enables users to enjoy making music without the fear of getting it “wrong”.

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Musician Mark Smulian, right, took his MindHarp invention to a day centre in Bath, above

Mark’s app wakes music in people with dementia Mark, who has also used music and the MindHarp as part of a peace-making approach in Northern Ireland and the Middle East, saw how music helped his own father, who had Alzheimer’s.

He said: “We played my dad’s favourite music and saw him become more animated. He

started talking when he heard the music, which was fascinating.”

Mark’s father, a navigator for the Royal Air Force during World War II, died at the age of 80 after a 10-year battle with the disease.

But Mark hung on to his conviction that his passion for music could help others. After

THE MINDHARP teaming up with guitarist Stewart Redpath, he worked on the MindHarp for nearly four years.

They visited the Peggy Dodd day centre in Bath for seven months to develop the app with carers and clients.

The MindHarp includes eight different coloured buttons, each for a carefully composed musical sound. It also includes atmospheric sounds, such as a horse trotting or bells ringing.

Several buttons can be pressed at once, and it can be played alone or as part of a group – providing an endless range of music.

Mark’s father, Leon Alexander, was a gifted high-flier who after the war became head of telecoms for the European Commission and spent the rest of his life in Belgium.

It was devastating to Leon and his family to learn he had Alzheimer’s.

Mark said: “My dad called and told me ‘I have a disease, but I can’t remember its name’. He kept his sense of humour and resilience.”

St Katherine’s School A dynamic aspirational school with excellent transport links

OPEN EVENING: Thursday 20 September, 6.00-9.00pm OPEN MORNINGS: 25 September, 2 October and 9 October, 9.00-11.00am St Katherine’s is a thriving, diverse school community where pupils enjoy an education that is busy, purposeful and ambitious but also great fun.

We warmly invite you to visit, meet pupils and staff and experience our positive, engaging environment that helps every individual perform at their best.

“St Katherine’s brings my passions to life” (Year 7 pupil)

Book your place at ww.stkaths.org.uk or call 01275 373737.

St Katherine’s School, Ham Green, BS20 0HU www.stkaths.org.uk

PEOPLE

•

COMMUNITY

Buses run from all over Bristol to the school.

St Katherine’s School •

@stkathsschool

EXCELLENCE

To advertise, contact sales@southbristolvoice.co.uk or Ruth on 07590 527664

There are more than 11,800 people living with and beyond their cancer diagnosis in Bristol and this will double by 2030.

Therefore we’re looking for volunteers to be a buddy to someone who is currently undergoing cancer treatment in the Bristol area. Volunteers visit their buddy once a week for 3 months to provide emotional and practical support, such as taking someone out for a coffee or putting out their bins.

“Every day I see people living with cancer who are a shadow of their former selves as they get to grips with the emotional and physical trauma that cancer leaves behind.

“Very often those who have had

cancer don’t want to burden their family, or their family lives far away,” says Clare Davies, Macmillan Volunteering Services Coordinator.

“Consequently they have no one to talk to about their experiences, leaving them to feel isolated. Our volunteers can offer invaluable support and can help clients to get back their confidence, as well as linking them into activities in their local area.”

Macmillan provides training and support to all its volunteers, as well as covering expenses. If you can spare a few hours on a weekday and would like to help, then we would love to hear from you.

For more information please contact Clare Davies, 07458 127754 email: bristolbuddies@macmillan.org.uk website: https://volunteering.macmillan.org.uk/Opportunity/Details/834 Got a story or any other inquiry? Call Paul on 07811 766072 or email paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk

September 2018

southbristolvoice

24

n PICTURE SPECIAL

September 2018

southbristolvoice

n THE 10th UPFEST AND 40th BALLOON FIESTA

25

Inkie’s ‘Bristol Born and Bred’ was a popular draw in Gathorne Rd The Simpsons were the Upfest stars: ‘Be More Lisa’ by Nomad Clan Balloons had a tough time with winds, and had just one fine day

Mr Burns from the Simpsons pops up

PHOTO: RT

Distinctive: The London Police

Ceramic by China Girl

Live art: Diego Godoy at St Francis church

Why are values so important?

With few takeoffs, not many balloons were seen over South Bristol, so we’re grateful to Roger Turner for taking these shots at Ashton Court

MATHS AND ENGLISH

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To advertise, contact sales@southbristolvoice.co.uk or Ruth on 07590 527664

www.kipmcgrathbristolcentral.co.uk

Got a story or any other inquiry? Call Paul on 07811 766072 or email paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk

southbristolvoice

26

85%

September 2018

ALREADY RESERVED

September 2018

n NEWS

southbristolvoice

A community of 26 new apar tments, duplexes and houses.

Bars or restaurants include the old manager’s house, top right

The brewery gates will lead to a courtyard with new blocks behind

Old brewery is set for transformation High levels of thermalinsulation Triple glazed windows Insulated doors & heat recover y ventilation system Solar thermal panels Single phase 7.4kw electric car charging point to most houses

ONE BEDROOM APARTMENTS

ALL RESERVED

TWO BEDROOM APARTMENTS £239,950 ALL RESERVED

TWO BEDROOM THREE STOREY HOME

with courtyard gardens, top floor terrace and parking £334,950

ALL RESERVED

Bridges

THREE BEDROOM THREE STOREY HOUSES with parking

from £369,950

LAST ONE

FOUR BEDROOM FOUR STOREY HOUSES

with courtyard gardens, top floor terrace and parking from £409,950

LAST THREE

FOUR BEDROOM FOUR STOREY HOUSES with garden and integral garage

ALL RESERVED

Please contact Ocean to register your interest and reserve newhomes@oceanhome.co.uk / 0117 9469832 or visit

www.picturehousecourt.co.uk To advertise, contact sales@southbristolvoice.co.uk or Ruth on 07590 527664 Fund Management

AMBITIOUS plans have been unveiled to revive the site of the old Ashton Gate brewery with 94 flats and provide up to 200 jobs.

The brewery was founded in the 1820s and stands opposite the Grade II listed toll house on North Street.

A planning application for the £30 million scheme shows it will preserve two old courtyard areas and will effectively extend the commercial area of North Street, with new bars and restaurants.

Ron Persaud, director of Bristol developer Change Real Estate, said that the first proposal was for a lower design, but after lengthy talks with council planners, the firm decided to preserve several old but non-listed buildings, including the Byzantine gatehouse, and build higher towards the rear of the site. New residential blocks of up to nine storeys are designed to mirror the area’s warehouses and former tobacco buildings.

About 25 jobs will be displaced at Bristol Auction Rooms on Baynton Road, and a handful of businesses in small industrial units. They will be vastly outweighed by new jobs created in 2,000 sq m of workspace – up

to 150 in co-working spaces and up to 50 more in catering.

The homes will consist of 51 one-bedroom, 36 two-bedroom and seven three-bedroom homes.

The developer is offering 15 per cent affordable housing.

There will be 41 parking spaces, accessed from Baynton Road, and 202 cycle spaces. Most of the people working there are expected not to drive – though there will be fears from neighbours that so many homes and jobs can only increase demand for parking.

Mr Persaud said the proposals “reflect the rich industrial heritage of the site”, adding: “With the Old Brewery we want to help create a community that stands the test of time.”

It will include a restaurant in the old brewery manager’s house, whose facade will be preserved.

Cllr Charlie Bolton said he would not make objections.

The aim is to win planning permission within months and start work next year, to complete the scheme by the end of 2020.

• Bristol Beer Factory – former mayor George Ferguson’s brewery – occupies a separate part of the site, and is unaffected.

Plan shows the new blocks in brown, with two new houses in Baynton Road, on the right

27

THE OLD BREWERY

SCHEME BACKED BY A BEDMINSTER BOY CHANGE Real Estate’s partner in the scheme is Cannon Family Office, controlled by Bedminsterborn multi-millionaire Michael Cannon, 79. Mr Cannon, reputed to be worth £170 million, is said to have left school barely able to read and write. He was a poultry farmer before buying a stake in a city centre pub, and later bought and sold four pub chains and the US burger chain Fuddruckers.

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Got a story or any other inquiry? Call Paul on 07811 766072 or email paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk

28

n DOG SPECIAL

September 2018

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September 2018

southbristolvoice

29

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE

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Stanshalls Drive, Felton BS40 9UW 07711 092727 Open 8am-5pm Facebook: FreshPawsofFelton IF DOGS could talk, many of them would tell us that a trip to the groomer is not their favourite thing.

But at Fresh Paws of Felton, everything is done to set the pet at their ease and make it as enjoyable as possible. The five-star reviews on Facebook indicate owners agree with her approach!

Groomer Chelsea Garden spends a few minutes bonding with each animal before starting the groom, helping her to assess the dog, its coat condition and temperament by reading the dog’s body language.

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Dogs Trust Classes in Bedminster, Bishopsworth, St George and Westbury-on-Trym 07393 140406 or 07393 141746 dogstrust.org.uk/help-advice/ dog-school HOW many dogs do you see that won’t come when they are called, whose owners can’t control them? Badly-trained and misbehaving dogs are a

From the Dogs Trust • Relationships built on trust are a solid foundation; • Become a body language expert to understand your dog; • Always reward behaviours you want to see more of; • Misbehaving? Think about the reasons why – getting annoyed never helps!

• Consistency, patience and positivity are key. frustration to their owners and an annoyance to people and other dogs they meet.

But there is a solution: modern methods of dog training use kind, fair and effective means to reward good behaviour, and avoid punishment.

The Dogs Trust runs classes across Bristol to help owners to form a better relationship with their dog. All coaches are qualified members of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers.

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Got a story or any other inquiry? Call Paul on 07811 766072 or email paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk

September 2018

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30

ADVICE FROM A PHARMACIST quickly from contact with clothes Time to set and bedding, and you can also catch it from someone with shingles. Alongside helping to treat yourself up it, we now offer the chicken pox vaccination for children and adults for a healthy at the lowest price.

A healthy diet helps growth and development, reduces sick days off autumn school but also improves academic

L

IFE is an adventure, lived out with memories created in places and seasons.

So after weeks of summer fun, it is time to go back to school, college, university, pack up for a gap year trip abroad or even go back to work!

What help can your local pharmacy offer to make sure you have a healthy start and keep well through the year?

Chicken pox usually starts off as small red itchy spots. It spreads

results! If your child is a picky eater, we can discuss options to support them with multivitamins. Our popular children’s probiotic also helps improve immunity over the winter months.

Head lice or nits affect one in three school children and their families. Nits can survive in long hair for a long time if untreated.

From performing a weekly comb detection check to cost-effective treatment options, the pharmacy team can help. We also have

n FEATURES non-chemical natural treatment products.

Warts or verrucas tend to affect children more than adults. These small lumps on hands or feet are caught by close skin-to-skin contact, such as sharing shoes, socks and towels as well as areas surrounding a swimming pool.

Pharmacists can help in diagnosing correctly and with treatments including freezing therapy.

We provide the meningitis B vaccination to help protect against the life-changing or fatal effects of the disease. It can strike at any age, but babies and young children are most at risk, followed by teenagers and young people. Many universities, colleges and schools increasingly now recommend vaccination and we offer it at the best prices in the South West. Every jab contributes to our supporting

Down on the Farm News from Windmill Hill City Farm with Beccy Golding

the work of the charity Meningitis Now. If you have a vaccination query, call us on 0800 7723575.

Moreover, for those whose next adventure is not in a playgroup, school or campus but involves a gap year abroad, we offer cost savings and peace of mind. Our low-cost travel clinic will let you know what is available free on the NHS while our jabs come at unbeatable prices.

To make sure the stress of daily life is not silently damaging your health, September sees the return of our free blood pressure check campaign, Know Your Numbers.

Do come in.

• This article by Ade Williams of Bedminster Pharmacy aims to show how all pharmacies can help people with a variety of health conditions and ease pressure on other parts of the NHS.

windmillhillcityfarm.org.uk

Do us a flavour

Natural affinity: School groups can learn a lot at the farm

F

ARM Flavours is a handson food experience for under-5s. Little ones get to pick vegetables grown on the farm, prepare them, play with them, and then eat them! This month the farm is holding special sessions for children going into reception this school year, on September 13 and 20, from 10-11.30am. Preschool and toddler sessions continue on September 27, and on October 4, 11, 18 and 25. It’s £2 per session – the first child must be over 2 years, maximum two children per family. Booking is essential – contact Nicky Orr on 0117 947 1180 or email pgo@windmillhillcityfarm.org.uk

PHOTO: Beccy Golding

Autumn fair THE AUTUMN Fair on 29 September is one of the farm’s big events of the year. There will be live music from a great line-up of local bands and musicians, food, of course – with the farm team running a barbecue and bar – plus a host of outdoor activities and family fun, and a market selling local products. All money

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September 2018

raised at this event goes to support the work the farm does for the local community.

There are still stalls available for local producers: email info@ windmillhillcityfarm.org.uk for more information.

Savings for schools THE FARM’S education team are experts in supporting teachers through their experiential learning sessions. Farm and Garden Explorers is an interactive farm tour, schools without a pond or nature area can enjoy Mini Beast Madness, while Pick It, Cook It, Eat It sessions are opportunities for food discovery. A year-long seasonal programme allows schools to visit four times over the academic year - children witness the changing seasons and produce, embed their learning, and really get to know and understand the farm.

The farm is offering a 10 per cent discount for visits booked this month. For more information email julie.thorpe@ windmillhillcityfarm.org.uk or call 0117 963 3252.

Friendly society FANCY supporting the farm, meeting like-minded folk and having your say? For £10 a year you can become a Farm Friend, entitling you to attend quarterly meetings – usually held in the outdoor kitchen, with free farmmade pizza and cake – meet other Friends and share your views with the chief executive, staff, trustees and volunteers.

Other benefits include a 10 per cent discount in the café and on room bookings (including the football pitch and outdoor kitchen), a quarterly newsletter and reservations for farm meat.

The next Farm Friends meeting is on Tuesday September 18, 5.30-6.30pm. You can sign up as a Friend on the day.

Sign of the times THERE is still time to sign up for this autumn’s WEA courses, including the new accredited BSL Sign language course. Other courses include art, stained glass, yoga, jewellery making and poetry. Details on the website, and in What’s On.

To advertise, contact sales@southbristolvoice.co.uk or Ruth on 07590 527664

southbristolvoice

31 PROFILE: ANDY HAMILTON, URBAN FORAGER

Stilton vodka, anyone? Beccy Golding meets a man who wants to broaden our taste

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NDY Hamilton is a forager and author. At least that’s how the world sees him. If you ask him to describe himself it’s more complicated. “It changes quite a lot,” he says.

“My Twitter profile has a photo of me drinking gin from the bottle – which I don’t do! I play with that character who’s quite drunk – it’s quite useful, so you keep your real self for family and friends. But I’m becoming more me. My new website – the Wild Gentleman – fits in with who I am as a person.

“At the moment I say I’ve got a book coming out, I do foraging walks and wild cocktails. I’m an author that does other things to survive.”

How did you learn about plants and foraging?

“During my childhood in Northampton my Nan and Grandad lived across the road.

They knew about plants, we used to go blackberry and strawberry picking. In the days when you could just jump on a bike and go to the park, me and my twin Dave used to play in this swampy wood area – now it seems tiny, back then it was another world.

“I was a scout and liked being outdoors. In my early 20s I sought out every opportunity to learn. I was inspired by books including Food for Free by Richard Mabey, the Bush Tucker Man and Ray Mears. Also Fergus Drennan aka Fergus the Forager – who became a friend of mine.

“I wanted to get out of Northampton – I felt like I wasn’t going to achieve anything there.

So I went to Nottingham. It was a bit overwhelming and big – I felt like a fish out of water.

“I moved to Bath as it seemed like the polar opposite.

“I met my partner Emma in Bath. She got a job in Bristol and we were ready for a change. We moved to Barton Hill. We were down the road from Beeses tea rooms – it was an escape, really lovely. Anyone that reads my book Booze for Free will see that all the plants can be found within a two-mile radius of Barton Hill!

“Our website Self Sufficientish

Come hither: Andy in Arnos Vale, good for foraging PHOTO: Beccy Golding

Andy’s foraged a career out of wild ideas about flavour stared mine and Dave’s career.

We created it in 2004, as an urban guide to being self-sufficient. The internet was quite small then, we were top of the searches for wild food, foraging, and so on.

“By December 2005 we had a book deal, for the Self Sufficientish Bible. One day, hungover, I sent a badly constructed email to a literary

WIN The Perfect Pint book

A

NDY’S currently working on an updated edition of Brewing Britain – called The Perfect Pint. “It’s easier to navigate, with a separate brewers guide and drinkers guide – there’s more beers, and contributions from beer journalists – including the first female beer sommelier in the UK, Sophie Atherton, and Nick Moyle, the Independent’s beer reviewer.”

Everyone is welcome to the book launch on October 2, where people can get a signed copy.

agent. I had an A-Z of agents and had got as far as AM Heath, George Orwell’s agent! We got a £100,000 advance – after splitting it between me and my brother, taxes and agents fees etc, I got £36,000. It confirmed to me – OK, you can write.

“We came to South Bristol in 2011 – we wanted to buy a house and it was the most affordable Andy has chosen all the beers at the Drapers Arms, Gloucester Road, for the whole week.

To win a copy of Andy’s new book, tell us: How long did Andy manage to go without drinking the same beer twice? Answers to paul@ southbristolvoice.co.uk or 18 Lilymead Avenue, Bristol BS4 2BX

by September 14.

place – but Arnos Vale cemetery – the green space – is what keeps me here.

“I started working on the next book in 2011 – after I’d spent the money! Booze for Free is about turning wild food into booze. I like drinking, and enjoyed finding out I could make something I liked to drink.

Brewing taught me the complexities of spirits and ales, and taught me to have a palate.

“The next book was Brewing Britain, in 2012. The book’s for someone who likes beer, to learn to taste and appreciate a decent pint, and to get to know the process of brewing. You can go from beer fan to beer nerd!

“It came from an apocalyptic idea. I like the idea that at the end of civilisation someone finds my book and brews some beer – it would be good for society!

“I’ve always been that person who wanted something different – I’d drink Newquay Steam beer or Campari. On trips to Germany and Prague I discovered how great lager could be. It became an obsession. When Brewing Britain came out I didn’t have the same beer twice for two years – and that was with two beers a night!

My first child came along – I was brewing, drinking, writing, fathering – quite a feat!”

Andy’s websites have details of his cheese and cocktail matching evenings (I’ve been to one of these – recommended) and gin safaris, where you gather wild ingredients to create gin.

“It’s me sharing what I do in the kitchen, getting people to drink something they wouldn’t normally, and surprise them – like Japanese Knotweed tequila margueritas, stilton vodka, or a beer that’s brewed without hops.”

You’ll find his videos online: “they’re an avenue for me to share what I’ve learnt”. They vary from the very personal, to comedy, to a character called Nigel Forage (he’s xenophobic against plants not grown in England), to how-to videos and booze hacks (including opening a bottle with a tea towel, and turning a £5.50 bottle of supermarket merlot into something that tastes like Châteauneuf-du-Pape).

What’s the best thing about living in South Bristol? “Arnos Vale cemetery.” He’s not saying any more: “I don’t want anyone else to come here!” theotherandyhamilton.com thewildgentleman.com selfsufficientish.com

Got a story or any other inquiry? Call Paul on 07811 766072 or email paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk

September 2018

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32

n YOUR COUNCILLORS

S

Islington Road OME of you may remember the old Woodside Press building on Islington Road (I Charlie used to get leaflets Bolton printed there for Green many a year). It Southville shut five or six years ago, and has since been subject to various proposals.

Sadly, they have all revolved around building something with a much larger footprint, which looks out of keeping.

I’ve been contacted on a number of occasions by people living nearby, expressing various concerns on the most recent plans, possibly the worst being those on Allington Road having to look up at this building which would clearly block out what little light they get now.

Anyway, the council planning committee recently rejected the plans. I gave the residents a bit of support, but I must say, they largely did it themselves. They

Southville

certainly made an excellent set of speeches at the meeting – and I’d say they are an example of the difference local people can make if they are determined enough.

Nursery at Denny’s A SECOND plan which has just gone through is the proposal to open a nursery in the old Denny’s bakery. Adam – who wants to open the nursery – contacted me over various difficulties with the planning process, and I think I’ve helped overcome them – although again, it’s overwhelmingly due to his efforts. I wish him all the best.

Arena AS I WRITE (mid August), we still don’t know what our mayor is doing about the arena. But he does seem to be getting mired in all sorts of accusations of inappropriate behaviour. I retain the view that if we are to have an arena, by a main line train station has clear benefits in terms of sustainable transport, and benefit to the city centre. So I can’t help wondering why he has become so bogged down and seemingly is so intransigent.

B

How to contact your councillor: p2

Y THE time you have read this the decision on the location of the arena will probably have Stephen been announced; Clarke from what I have Green heard to date Southville from Marvin it is unlikely to be anything other than “a tin shed by the motorway” (as Massive Attack put it); in other words Filton. I certainly don’t agree with that decision and think it could have terrible long-term consequences for central Bristol’s vibrancy and vitality, especially if the Cribbs Causeway expansion also gets the green light from the Government.

What may also be damaging in the longer term is the way the decision has been made. Marvin seems to have decided to listen to nobody (including many of his Labour councillors) except his friends at YTL in Malaysia. I suppose the bigger point is that it shows the unhealthy concentration

of power we now have in one person, and that is a real problem if (like me) you start to doubt the reasons for his decision making.

On my summer holiday reading I came across a scary report by eminent climate scientists, led by Professor Will Steffen. I know some of you want to stop reading at this point but don’t! The report identifies climate feedback loops, which are basically natural forces that have helped us by storing carbon – an example is the methane stored in Siberian permafrost. Unfortunately, as the temperature rises these natural positive assets will start tipping over like dominoes as they release their stored carbon, which could mean that their effect becomes magnified.

Myself and other Green councillors have been shouting about this stuff for years and whenever we see plans being drafted for Bristol’s future we make sure that environmental aspects are given the priority they deserve; please support us in any way you can.

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n YOUR COUNCILLORS Ashton Gate – new season and hopefully progress on traffic ITH the new season under way for both football and rugby, it was good to see a list for all matches as this will help residents to plan for when traffic and parking pressures will be at their greatest. You can sign up for a community newsletter at: ashtongatestadium.co.uk/ residents-newsletter As Bedminster councillors, we continue to work with our Southville colleagues to seek answers from the city council about what action they will take, with Ashton Gate Ltd, to control obstructive parking which affects buses and emergency services.

While we understand fresh proposals are being discussed, action is needed more urgently.

For example, how soon will Long Ashton Park & Ride be available on matchdays, together with better options to use local transport services (including the new Metrobus routes) and rail at Parson Street?

Bedminster

W

Mark Bradshaw Labour Bedminster

Celia Phipps Labour Bedminster

24 bus: route changes CHANGES have been made to where the 24 bus stops in the centre and the timetable. Please see: tinyurl.com/new24route Bedminster gets new Metrobus THE NEW m2 metrobus service will operate from Monday September 3 and will run between Long Ashton P&R and the city centre, serving Ashton Gate stadium, SS Great Britain, Wapping Wharf, Temple Meads Station and Cabot Circus. It replaces the current 903 service between Long Ashton P&R and the city centre.

From Monday to Saturday the M2 will run from 6am, with the

33 How to contact your councillor: p2

last bus leaving Long Ashton P&R at 9.30pm. During peak times it will operate every 10 minutes, every 12 minutes during the off-peak, and three times per hour after 7pm. On Saturdays the service operates every 12 minutes between 10am and 6pm, and three times hourly at other times.

This is positive news for our area, providing another connection to the centre and, as part of the wider network, to the north fringe. The M2 guide, route and timetable can be found at: metrobusbristol.co.uk/m2 The Arena – again

BY THE time this edition goes to print, there might even be a decision on the Bristol Arena, but no guarantee of this. Our position is clear and well-known.

However, people need to have confidence in a decision based on full, accurate and unbiased information.

Building new homes IT’S GREAT to see further announcements on building new affordable homes in Bristol.

Our colleague, Cllr Paul Smith,

the cabinet member for homes, is leading this work, including the planned 133 new homes in Ashton Vale (the former Alderman Moore’s site, off Silbury Road), of which 53 will be council-owned.

Community matters ACTION Greater Bedminster is making great strides and is asking people on priorities for a community plan, so do please take part: greaterbedminster.org.uk The Bedminster Town Team is consulting on its Business Improvement District. Local businesses have a vote by September 13 on whether this should be renewed. If you want to see more vibrant, cleaner, and safer local retail streets, then please encourage the traders you visit to back the BID. As local councillors and residents, we consider the BID has been effective and hope it gets backing from local traders. We would want to see more support for West Street too. Details at: tinyurl.com/Bedsbidvote

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n ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE The Bed Workshop

The Old Bus Depot, 206 Avonmouth Rd Avonmouth Village, Bristol BS11 9LP 0117 982 1706 Email: thebedworkshop@aol.com thebedworkshop.co.uk frenchfarmhousefurniture.co.uk

September 2018

New home for the Bed Workshop

T

HE BED Workshop, established in 1984 in Bedminster, has moved from its home in the old pickle factory in Braunton Road.

Access issues at the Bedminster site led the company to relocate earlier this year.

Their new home is the formerly derelict Grade II-listed Old Bus Depot in Avonmouth. The old ticket office entrance now provides the first showroom and leads to ground floor workshops and three first floor showrooms.

The Bed Workshop have produced a varying range of contemporary beds in sustainably sourced pine and oak for more than 30 years. Beds are easily modified or designed by customers and can be stained, painted, distressed, lacquered, oiled or waxed. Styles are essentially simple and timeless.

With a large range of mattresses up to super king-size in stock, beds can be made, delivered and assembled in 1-2 weeks.

With two staff based in Brittany, the Bed Workshop also offers a fantastic range of functional antique French furniture. Prices are often comparable with new high street offerings. Large beds are a speciality, with many dozens of king-size, super king-size and larger models.

Currently the earliest on sale is an incredible 17th C Catalan marriage bed from Givenchy’s chateau – but most date from the late 19th C. Fin de siecle Paris produced many incredible unique beds, often specifically ordered by sumptuous Maison Clos (don’t ask!) Suitable for homes from crofts through to chateaux, beds can be in natural wood, painted, gilded or upholstered in a style to suit every taste.

Farmhouse tables have always been sought-after, with zinc-topped and industrial and dressmakers models gaining popularity. Regional armoires are the flagships of French furniture, from tiny maids wardrobes to highly-carved or painted and gilded masterpieces. Empire, Louis XV or XVI chests of drawers look stunning below a period mirror.

Regional pottery and vintage posters help complete the display.

With friendly, knowledgeable staff, easy access from junction 18 of the M5 or A4 Portway, parking and a railway station nearby, a visit to the Bed Workshop at the Bus Depot is well worthwhile.

September 2018

n HISTORY Pirate tales: What’s behind the racy stories of adventure on the high seas?

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HAT does a pirate read below decks? No, it’s not a pirate joke, it’s a serious question.

Like a lot of things related to piracy, the answer leads back to Bristol. From the fictional Long John Silver to the real Blackbeard, from the real-life island castaway Alexander Selkirk to the storybook Robinson Crusoe, from the high officials who were sent to stamp out piracy, to countless pirates and privateers – many began or ended their voyages in Bristol.

This feature was inspired by a walk around the harbourside on a guided tour called Blood, Booze and Buccaneers, an exploration of places associated with piracy (see review, page 42). The tour is devised by Sheila Hannon of South Bristol’s innovative theatre company Show of Strength, and presented with aplomb by either Gerard Cooke or Kirris Riviere, with interjections from Ted, a parrot with a sceptical view of the taller pirate tales.

We’re not trying to duplicate this excellent tour – if you want to learn more of the many Bristol places with a part in the pirate story, there’s no substitute.

The questions we ask here are: where does the truth lie between the children’s book adventures of Long John Silver and the terrifying image of the real Blackbeard, with smoke pouring from his hair?

What’s the connection between pirates and slavery?

And should we laugh about pirates, or think of them as murderous criminals?

S

O what does a pirate like to read? Stories about piracy, that’s what. Early in 2018, the 300th anniversary of the death of Blackbeard, the most famous real pirate of them all, a surprising secret emerged from beneath the waves.

The wreck of the ship thought

To advertise, contact sales@southbristolvoice.co.uk or Ruth on 07590 527664

southbristolvoice

We’re close to the 300th anniversary of the death of the most famous pirate of all, Bristol-born Blackbeard. But were pirates rogues or heroes?

And what was their relationship to slavery? to be Blackbeard’s, the Queen Anne’s Revenge, was discovered by private researchers a mile off Atlantic Beach, North Carolina, USA, in 1996. It was close to where the infamous pirate was known to have run the vessel aground – supposedly by misfortune but, according to some of his own crew, in reality to scatter his pirate band and leave himself a greater share of the treasure.

It wasn’t until 2011, though, that the ship was officially recognised by the state of North Carolina as the Queen Anne’s Revenge. The proofs were small but they mounted up. The discoveries included a brass coin of Queen Anne’s reign, which ended in 1714, and part of a wine glass embellished with small crowns, made when King George I was crowned in 1714. There was also part of a French sword, dated around 1715, and a syringe used to treat venereal disease, thought to have been made in Paris between 1707 and 1715.

And there were several cannon – more than would be

35

PIRATES, BRISTOL AND SLAVERY

Your guide: Gerard Cooke is one of the leaders of Blood, Booze and Buccaneers, a new tour of sites around Bristol harbour with links to piracy. Ted, the parrot, is sceptical about some of the taller tales expected on a naval ship of this size. Of an estimated 44 cannon, 18 have been found, some of them loaded as if ready for use, and of different sizes, made in different countries – England, Sweden and possibly France. All these factors point towards a pirate ship.

But it is what was revealed in January 2018, found inside one of the cannons that was most surprising. Preserved for 300 years, stuffed as wadding in one of the gun barrels, were 16 scraps of paper, the largest of them an inch across. The marine archeologists found only a few words they could read: “South of San,” “fathom” and “Hilo”. Hilo was a city in Peru. Eventually, after a year’s research in libraries, the scraps were identified as being from the book A Voyage to the South Seas and Round the World, by Captain Edward Cooke.

This was a best-selling account of the real voyage of two ships, the Duke and the Dutchess, which sailed from Bristol in 1708.

It was headed by Captain Woodes Rogers, who lived in Queen Square (where his old house today bears a blue plaque).

Woodes Rogers was a respectable figure; yet he had also been a kind of pirate, an officiallysanctioned privateer – and a slave trader.

Why was Blackbeard, or a member of his crew, reading about Woodes Rogers? Perhaps for the thrill of his real-life adventure in the little-known South Seas – and perhaps to find a few tips for high-seas robbery.

Rogers’ expedition had made him famous, partly for the plunder he stole from Spanish ships. As a privateer, he had the backing of the Crown, as long as he only robbed England’s enemies.

Rogers was the first British commander to return from a circumnavigation of the world with both his ships intact, and most of his crew. But by the time the Queen Anne’s Revenge was wrecked, Rogers was no privateer. He had been sent to the Bahamas as governor of the new British territory, with a brief to clear the seas of pirates.

And who would the main beneficiary be if the pirates were defeated? The slave traders.

It’s well known that in the 17th and 18th centuries Bristol Continued overleaf

Got a story or any other inquiry? Call Paul on 07811 766072 or email paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk

n HISTORY Continued from page 35 was one of the main centres of the transatlantic slave trade.

Between 1698 and 1807 about 2,100 ships sailed from Bristol to pick up men, women and children from Africa and transport them into forced labour on the sugar plantations in the Caribbean.

Recently the debate has focused on Edward Colston, the most prominent of the Bristol traders, who made a fortune from transporting about 80,000 slaves across the Atlantic.

But Colston was one among hundreds of Bristolians who invested in the slave trade. Many more benefited from the wealth that slavery, and the sugar plantations, brought to the city.

When we tweeted about the tour Blood Booze, and Buccaneers, this question came in: “My housemate told me pirates used to free slaves & kill/ capture those holding them on slave ships (not saying pirates are a Good Thing). Hope it’s true.”

So what was the relationship between pirates and slave traders? Were pirates freedom fighters who only wanted to set slaves free? Or did they view them like any other kind of cargo on the ships they boarded, as a commodity to be used or sold?

The truth, as Blackbeard’s own story shows, is complicated.

BLACKBEARD AND THE GOLDEN AGE OF PIRACY

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OR THE most famous real pirate of all time, surprisingly little is known for certain about Blackbeard.

He’s thought to have been born in 1680 in Bristol, but there is no record of his birth.

Local legend has it that the family lived in Guinea Street, Redcliffe, looking down on the bustling harbour. It’s likely that a seafaring life appealed to the young Teach – though even the surname isn’t certain and many historians think he may have been called Thatch, or something similar. He seems to have been an intelligent, educated man, and the Guinea Street address suggests some wealth, so he may have changed his name to avoid shame falling on his family.

One story says that he fled to the docks after a disagreement with his stepfather turned into a fight. He’s thought to have served on the transatlantic trade, which

PIRATES, BRISTOL AND SLAVERY

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makes it likely he joined a slaver.

If so, he experienced a working life of incredible challenges, facing the harsh seas in a wind-tossed ship, at risk of malaria and dysentery from the bad food and insanitary conditions. As many as one in five crew members could die on slaving ships – though this was much better than the conditions suffered by those enslaved. They were chained head to toe on the cramped lower decks, confined in hideous conditions. Sometimes half would die on a single voyage.

Would Teach, or Thatch, have found a natural sympathy for the plight of the slaves? Might he have felt that he wasn’t treated that much better himself?

Perhaps. What is known that it was quite common for pirates to invite the crew of any ship they captured to join them. Sometimes this included people who had been enslaved, but presumably only if they could show the ability to learn seamanship, and to fight.

Was Teach on a ship that was

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PIRATES, BRISTOL AND SLAVERY

appearing on each Side of his Face, his Eyes naturally looking fierce and wild, made him altogether such a Figure, that Imagination cannot form an Idea of a Fury from Hell to look more frightful.”

BLACKBEARD’S FEARSOME REPUTATION LACKBEARD wanted to be seen as terrifying, with his overlong beard and slow-burning fuses in his hair that made his head appear to smoke.

Yet there is no eyewitness account that he ever killed anyone by his own hand. He caused death, certainly, and his treatment of women was appalling: he is said to have forced his teenage wife into bed with members of his crew.

But he kept his word when he said he would release hostages.

Did he calculate that it was far more effective to inspire fear than to waste energy in violence? Did he, in effect, spread fake news about himself?

Here is one of his exploits, as related in A General History of the Pyrates by Captain Charles Johnson: “Come, says he, let us make a Hell of our own, and try how long we can bear it; accordingly he, with two or three others, went down into the Hold, and closing up all the Hatches, filled several Pots full of Brimstone, and other combustible Matter, and set it on Fire, and so continued till they were almost suffocated, when some of the Men cried out for Air; at length he opened the Hatches, not a little pleased that he held out the longest.”

In another incident Johnson

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Dressed to kill: Blackbeard lit fuses in his hair to look as fearsome as possible PICTURE: Engraving from the 1726 edition of A General History of Pyrates relates, Blackbeard was in his cabin with his assistant Israel Hands, drinking, when, for no reason, he drew two pistols and fired them under the table. Hands was hit in the knee and maimed.

“Being asked the meaning of

this, he only answered, by damning them, that if he did not now and then kill one of them, they would forget who he was.”

Yet Blackbeard had deliberately shot low, where any injury would be unlikely to be fatal.

raided, and decide to join the other side? Or did he serve on one of many privateers, the state-sanctioned raiders that helped the English cause in the War of the Spanish Succession?

This conflict pitched England against Spain and France from 1701-1714. After the war, some of the privateers turned to freelance piracy – and by 1716, that is certainly what Teach was doing.

Parts of the Caribbean were almost lawless. There were British colonies in Virginia and Carolina but the Royal Navy had only a handful of ships there.

When the war ended in 1714 some of the privateers, like Woodes Rogers, returned to England and respectability.

Others, including Teach, made a base on the island of New Providence. Here they founded the Pirate Republic of Nassau – a lawless place where they traded their booty and spent much of it on booze and prostitutes. Much of the legend of Blackbeard came from one book – A General

History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates, written by “Captain Charles Johnson” and published in 1724. The name Johnson was a pseudonym – some say it was the writer Daniel Defoe, author of Robinson Crusoe, although several historians dispute this.

The book drew on accounts of mariners and others who encountered Blackbeard and other pirates – though some of the conversations must be at least partly embellished.

The description of Blackbeard in the General History made him the book’s most memorable figure: “This Beard was black, which he suffered to grow of an extravagant Length; as to Breadth, it came up to his Eyes; he was accustomed to twist it with Ribbons, in small Tails … and turn them about his Ears. In Time of Action, he wore a Sling over his Shoulders, with three brace of Pistols, hanging in Holsters; and stuck lighted Matches under his Hat, which

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UR FIRST knowledge of Teach as the pirate Blackbeard is in 1716, when he was given command of a sloop and about 80 men, taken as a prize by Captain Benjamin Hornigold.

Hornigold was one of the ex-privateers who took over the ruined town of Nassau in 1713. At first a few dozen renegades lived in a tent city of outlaws, which soon was home to hundreds.

Hornigold – possibly with Teach as one of his lieutenants – used three large sailing canoes to raid Spanish ships on the nearby Florida coast. In just eight months they stole a haul worth a reputed £13,175 – a staggering fortune, equal to £1.8million at today’s values, when a sailor made £12 a year (£1,700 today).

Soon they graduated to larger sloops, stolen from the Spanish, and ranged as far north as New England. Merchants of all the trading nations began to fear the pirates, who were in league with dubious English business figures to fence their plunder.

Hornigold and Teach prowled the Caribbean in two ships, seizing cargoes. Then in August 1717, Blackbeard acquired a formidable fighting vessel, the Revenge. It wasn’t stolen, but had been built to order by the eccentric Stede Bonnet, a wealthy plantation owner who decided to try his hand at piracy.

According to Johnson’s General History, Bonnet wanted to get away from his nagging wife, but was ill acquainted with the sea, or piracy. For one thing, he paid wages to his 126 crew, when the other captains preferred to give their men a share of the spoils – making them more eager to fight.

Bonnet’s crew were far from happy after he launched a raid on a Spanish warship which fired back, killing a third of the pirates and severely injuring Bonnet.

Teach suggested himself as a more able captain of the Revenge.

The crew agreed, and Bonnet, swathed in an expensive dressing gown in his book-lined cabin, gave way.

Meanwhile Hornigold left the

The final battle: Blackbeard prepares to strike Lt Maynard before he is overcome PICTURE: Capture of the Pirate Blackbeard by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris Caribbean to ask for the King’s pardon. He had never attacked British ships, not wanting to face trial for piracy, but this caused tensions with his crew, who voted to replace him with Captain ‘Black Jack’ Bellamy.

Teach now mounted raids from the Caribbean up to New York. In one three-week period, he captured 15 vessels and Blackbeard became the most feared name on the seas.

Ship captains began to arrive in Philadelphia and New York telling how they had been left in their ransacked ships, run aground without sails; and how entire cargoes were ether stolen or tossed overboard. Not only were enslaved people stolen, and sometimes accepted into the pirate crew, but also indentured workers and seamen, who saw piracy as a better option than a life of toil.

One merchant in Philadelphia wrote to a friend in London, describing the chaos caused by Blackbeard and his friends: “Pirates ... now Swarm in America and increase their numbers by almost every Vessel they take. If speedy care be not taken they will become formidable … and [they] know our govt. can

make no defence.”

On November 17, 1717, near the Windward Islands, Blackbeard came upon his greatest prize.

This was the Concorde de Nantes – a large frigate of 250 tons, big enough to mount 40 guns. But most of its cannon had been taken out to make room for a cargo of more than 560 slaves, being transported from French West Africa to the Caribbean island of Martinique.

As often happened, the French ship’s master, Capitaine Dosset, gave up without a fight.

Blackbeard’s reputation may have been enough, but the laden Concorde could not outrun its pursuers. Plus, it had lost 16 crewmen on the journey, and the rest were weak with scurvy and the “bloody flux”.

Those enslaved, of course, had suffered worse: more than 100 had died, leaving 455 survivors. Almost 400 were given back to Capitaine Dosset, along with a sloop to take them back to Martinique to be sold. So much for pirates as liberators – except for the 61 ex-slaves who it seems stayed with Blackbeard and joined his lawless gang.

Slaving ships were ideal for

the raiders – they were large, fast, and could mount many guns. They had room not only for plunder but for the large crew needed to hijack a vessel.

The ship was renamed Queen Anne’s Revenge and it made Blackbeard’s fleet – now three vessels and 150 men – able to take on any naval frigate.

Some believe the Concorde had actually been made in Bristol – which would make it the first Concorde to cross the Atlantic as a French and English endeavour!

The two years of Blackbeard’s rampage across the Caribbean were the high point of the so-called Golden Age of Piracy, which lasted from the antiSpanish buccaneers of the 1650s to the pacification of the Caribbean in the 1720s.

Next, Blackbeard raided and burned a town on the island of Guadeloupe, set a merchant fleet ablaze under the noses of the British fort on St Kitts, and scared the governor of the Leeward Islands into sailing away, even though he was protected by a naval frigate.

Blackbeard continued to St Croix, where they set fire to an English sloop.

Then, shortly after learning that King George I had announced a pardon for all piracy committed before January 1718, Blackbeard went missing.

He was thought to be lying low, but recently-found papers of a naval captain show that Blackbeard was hunting a big prize – the Royal Prince, carrying treasure from the South Seas.

Captain Thomas Jacob of HMS Diamond, whose job was to guard the Royal Prince, wrote that Blackbeard had good intelligence: he knew that Diamond’s crew was stricken by disease, and that another navy ship was easy prey because she was undermanned.

By chance alone, Blackbeard didn’t find his prey. Brazenly, he then blockaded Charleston, Carolina. When he found nothing of value on the ships leaving the port, he kidnapped the merchants on board and ransomed them.

One of his demands was for medicine. The dissolute life of the pirates meant that many had venereal disease, mainly syphilis – though the current treatment with mercury was often more dangerous than the disease. (As Continued overleaf

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n HISTORY Continued from page 37 we have seen, a syringe used for treating venereal disease was found in the wreck of the Queen Anne’s Revenge.)

Perhaps Blackbeard’s now 400-strong crew was not such a formidable force any longer. It may not have mattered – most of the time they had no need to fight. The threat of a broadside from 40 cannon and Blackbeard’s reputation were enough to make most merchant ships surrender.

In any event, Blackbeard’s next action was to reduce his fleet dramatically. Seeking a hiding place in North Carolina in June 1718, he steered Queen Anne’s Revenge into the creek of Topsail Inlet. The big ship ran aground under full sail. Blackbeard got his sloops to try to pull her off, but this only managed to sink one of the ships. Blackbeard took all the loot and 100 men – 60 said to be black – and sailed off in the surviving sloop, Adventurer.

The rest of his men were left on a sandbank. Hardly honour among thieves, some of them

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PIRATES, BRISTOL AND SLAVERY

THE REAL CASTAWAY: Alexander Selkirk

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Vile trade: This plan shows how people were crammed in to slave ships PICTURE: Bristol Archives PicBox/5/Doc/56a said, believing that Blackbeard had run aground deliberately to reduce his crew and avoid sharing the plunder.

Marine expert Mike Daniel, who found the wreck in 1996, believed it was a genuine accident. “He hit the sandbar at the shallowest part as you enter.

She was just too big to get in there,” he told Smithsonian.com.

Yet the result may have suited

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Blackbeard just fine. He knew that Woodes Rogers was about to reach Nassau to reclaim it for the Crown. The Royal Pardon for pirates would expire in September. Blackbeard had asked the foppish pirate Stede Bonnet to test the water by seeking a pardon from Charles Eden, the governor of North Carolina.

Bonnet was returning with his pardon when he found the Queen Anne’s Revenge abandoned.

Furious and betrayed, he set off to find Blackbeard, though he never did. Bonnet began pirating again, and was caught and hanged by December 1718.

Meanwhile Blackbeard also obtained a pardon from Governor Eden, who seems to have been taking bribes from the pirates. Blackbeard set up home in the tiny state capital of Bath but also kept a base on Ocracoke Island. This was a handy offshore sandbank where he could sort his loot, and hold raucous parties.

The pirates carried on marauding in a quieter way. They even convinced Eden – probably for a share of the loot – that a French ship they raided had been found abandoned. But just to be sure, Blackbeard set fire to the vessel, to remove the evidence.

In fact, Blackbeard had caught the Rose Emelye and another vessel far out to sea. The crew were dumped on the other ship and told to head to France.

THE FINAL BATTLE

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OVERNOR Eden may have been bought off – North Carolina was a powerless, impoverished state.

But to the north, Governor Alexander Spotswood of Virginia had been hearing complaints for months about Blackbeard, who had been arrogantly stopping

ships and picking out liquor and supplies as he pleased.

The theft of the Rose Emelye was a step too far for Spotswood. He had no authority in North Carolina, but he didn’t let that stop him. He summoned the crews of two navy frigates and sent them to Ocracoke.

Blackbeard and other pirates had often escaped the navy by hiding in shallow inlets where warships could not follow. But Lieutenant Maynard and his force of 57, on the small sloops Jane and Ranger, found the Adventurer upstream in Ocracoke, where Blackbeard and 20 crew had spent the night of November 21 drinking.

Maynard would have caught Blackbeard unawares if the Ranger hadn’t run aground and alerted the pirates. Blackbeard set sail and fired a broadside at the sloop, killing several of its officers and crew. The Adventurer had almost escaped to the sea when a lucky shot from the Navy men cut one of its sails loose.

The Ranger got alongside, only to receive a broadside from the pirates. More than 20 of the Ranger’s crew were hit. Seeing no resistance, Blackbeard and his men boarded the Ranger.

But Maynard had hidden beneath deck with 12 men, who rushed up and caught the pirates by surprise.

Maynard and Blackbeard each fired a flintlock pistol at the other, but with no effect.

Blackbeard swung his cutlass and broke the lieutenant’s sword, but it was his last blow. Surrounded, a sailor slashed him across his neck and he was assailed by swords and bullets. When he fell he was found to have five gun wounds, and 20 cuts to his body.

The Jane arrived to restrain

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HEN Woodes Rogers, the Bristol sea captain, set off from the city’s harbour in 1708 on his privateering expedition (mentioned on page 35) he had with him one William Dampier as navigator. Dampier had convinced Rogers to sail the ships Duke and Dutchess to the South Seas in search of Spanish gold. The expedition was backed by wealthy Bristol merchants, including the prominent Quaker Thomas Goldney, to the tune of £11,695 (equal to £23m at today’s values).

Dampier was famous as a writer of books about his expeditions to the South Sea, both as pirate and privateer. What he didn’t tell Rogers was that his last trip, in 1703, had been a disaster. He hadn’t protected either of his two vessels against the tropical worms which ate shi timbers. He also failed as a commander, accused by his crew of cowardice, drunkenness and indecision.

The rows had got so bad that the two ships separated. While Dampier’s vessel was fumbling an attack on a Spanish galleon, the other was moored at Juan Fernandez, a remote uninhabited island 600 miles from Chile.

Alexander Selkirk, an outspoken but competent seaman, fell out

the remaining pirates: 14 were caught, nine white and five black.

Edward Teach, or Thatch, the infamous Blackbeard, had his head cut off. Governor Spotswood stuck it on a pole at Hampton Roads, at what is now called Blackbeard’s Point.

Three hundred years after he died, Blackbeard is celebrated far more in the US than he is in his home city of Bristol – Google “Blackbeard 300” and you will find that almost every article is American.

FREE TO EXPAND THE SLAVE TRADE

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IRACY did not die with Blackbeard. But the anarchy that afflicted the Atlantic shipping lanes did not last long. Despite a threat of rebellion, Woodes Rogers repaired the defences of Nassau and captured and hanged several more pirates. He did not catch the Welshman Black Bart, born Bartholemew Roberts – the most successful of all pirates,

Fending for themselves: Contemporary illustrations of Alexander Selkirk, left, and Robinson Crusoe, right with his captain over the state of his ship, which he said was too worm-ridden to be safe. His reward was to be abandoned with a few belongings on the island, which he shared with rats, cats and goats.

Selkirk was resourceful. He made himself clothes from goat skins and a raft to catch fish from.

He also did unspeakable things to the goats. He escaped an attack by Spanish sailors, and survived more than four years, until February 1709, when who should turn up but Dampier and Rogers?

Selkirk might not have chosen to be rescued if Dampier had been the master of the Duke and Dutchess expedition, but as Rogers was in charge, he got on board.

Selkirk spent several years as a privateer before returning to England in 1711. His castaway years were made famous in two books, one by Rogers, and one by crew member Edward Cooke, A Voyage to the South Sea and Round the World. This was the book found this year in fragments stuffed in a cannon from

Blackbeard’s ship, the Queen Anne’s Revenge. Most famously, Selkirk is believed to be the model for the fictional Robinson Crusoe in Daniel Defoe’s novel of 1719.

Bristol legend says Defoe met Selkirk to talk about his adventures in the Llandoger Trow, the harbourside inn. There’s no proof of this, but it does seem that Bristol was a place were Selkirk once again lost his temper: he was accused in September 1713 of attacking a shipwright in the city, and he may have been jailed here for two years.

who captured 400 ships. More ruthless than Blackbeard, he was finally killed in a broadside from HMS Swallow off Cape Lopez in West Africa in February 1722.

Anyone who thinks pirates were always friends to slaves should study Black Bart’s career.

He once found 11 ships at anchor laden with enslaved people. Ten of them lowered their flags to surrender. Black Bart was so enraged at the sole vessel to defy him that he had the ship set on fire. There were about 80 slaves on board; it’s thought all of them died, some by shark attack after they jumped overboard.

Yet the decline in piracy after 1722 was the slave traders’ biggest boon. There were about 2,000 pirates at large in 1722; two years later, it’s estimated there were only about 500. By 1726 there were none left.

The slave ships were free to sail. In 1720 almost 25,000 slaves were transported across the Atlantic. Five years later, the figure had doubled. In the period

1750-1775, the average number of slaves carried was 66,000.

Sources • Selkirk’s Island Diana Souhami, Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 2001 • Last Days of Blackbeard Colin Woodard smithsonianmag. com/history/last-daysblackbeard-180949440/

• Blackbeard: Dastardly Sea-Devil or Kind Pirate? Pat Kinsella m.historyrevealed.com/ article/people-history/legendblackbeard • Pirates and the Middle Passage Richard Sanders, Times Higher Education Supplement, 2007 timeshighereducation.com

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104 Chessel Street BS3 3DJ Single storey rear extension to extend beyond the rear by 6m, of maximum height 3.7m, with eaves 2.95m high. Refused

15 Brighton Terrace BS3 3PS Rear roof extension. Granted subject to conditions

20 Ruby Street BS3 3DY Single storey rear extension.

10 Derry Road BS3 3JB Extension to office; construction of new store.

10 Tregarth Road BS3 2QS Single storey rear extension to extend beyond the rear by 4m, of maximum height 4m, with eaves 2.6m high.

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77 West Street, Bedminster BS3 3NU Change of use from health clinic (Use class D1) to more flexible use including offices (Use classes D1, D2, B1a, A1, A2).

J Sainsbury, Winterstoke Road BS3 2NS Installation of ANPR (automatic number plate recognition) camera and pole. One variable message sign (VMS), one entrance sign, eight Terms and Conditions signs, 18 1.5 Hour Stay signs, six Blue Badge and Parent & Child signs; one No Parking sign.

4 Bartletts Road BS3 3PL Single storey side infill and first floor rear extension.

177 Ashton Drive BS3 2PU Two storey detached rear annexe.

95 Ruby Street BS3 3DW Side extension.

38 Hebron Road BS3 3AE Single storey rear infill extension and replacement rear extension, internal alterations.

23 Cannon Street, Bedminster BS3 1BH Two storey building to accommodate two bedsits. Refused Advertising next to 267 West Street, Bedminster BS3 3PZ Replacement of internally illuminated 48-sheet backlight advertising display with an internally illuminated 48-sheet digital display. Refused Imperial Tobacco, 121 Winterstoke Road BS3 2LL High level externally-illuminated signage. Granted subject to conditions 123 Winterstoke Road BS3 2NS High level wallmounted externally-illuminated sign. Granted subject to conditions 11 Banwell Road BS3 2DW Rear conservatory. Granted subject to conditions 165 Luckwell Road BS3 3HB Two storey single bedroom dwelling. Withdrawn 49 North Street, Bedminster BS3 1EN New dwelling and landscaping. Granted subject to conditions 6A Duckmoor Road BS3 2BY Retention of boundary fences and installation of garden store. Granted subject to conditions 4 Banwell Road BS3 2DW Single storey rear extension, two storey side extension and attic conversion. Granted subject to conditions

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This month: Battles

Can you find 57 famous battles vertically, horizontally or diagonally?

V L Z M A L T A V N A S E B Y O C B D

D I E P P E G Q R S B W E V E R D U N

C G T T O B R U K M C O O L E R N M N

P A T T R A V E N N A R Y C B K L C Y

L J S U O B B B G B N D Y N I Y S I W

A V H S S R N E D U N B A R E U C R N

S R K P I O I C T M A C K A S O M M E

S A R A T O G A G W E B S S U R A T T

TXT PERT

E B G B H K F L G Q A C A N L V R N O

Y N J U T L A N D L A D I N U S S V U

T O U R S Y L O A L O N D O N C T M L

C B S M F N K K O W E I P M D A O A O

O A Z A Y I L N A V T L S J I L N R N

R S K N N A A C A M D E N E R V M N I

U T R A V Y N H V T Y J U N O I O E M

N I W A I P D H B U L G E A D M O D P

H A H P B R S M O H A C S W A T R G V

A L A M O E W V F Z D F A H A T T I N

B L I T Z S F P A T A Y A N Z I O E E

This month: Cooking

Down 1 743 (3) 2 8463 (4) 3 2328 (4) 4 929 (3) 7 74733 (5) 8 6836 (4) 9 92837 (5) 10 645 (3)

2 is A, B or C 3 is D, E or F 4 is G, H or I 5 is J, K, or L

6 is M, N or O 7 is P, Q, R or S 8 is T, U or V 9 is W, X, Y or Z

HAVE YOU GOT A PROBLEM WASP NEST? ‘I called Adam in a panic for a pest problem and he was out in a few hours. Other companies couldn’t come out until the next day plus they were more expensive.’

WHICH DOG HAS A DOUBLE? Two of these dog pictures are identical – but which ones?

The numbers point you to the letters on a phone keypad

Across 1 748 (3) 3 2695 (4) 5 423 (3) 6 73786 (5) 10 68374328 (8) 11 5273 (4)

PUZZLES

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SUDOKU

EASY for children

Each horizontal row, each 2x2 square and each column must contain all the numbers 1-4.

1 3

SOLUTIONS

3 2

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September 2018

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September 2018

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Thursday August 30 -Friday August 31 n The Renegade Fabulon Loco Klub, Temple Meads The Invisible Circus presents a bedazzling circus show with live musical score. The Renegade Fabulon tells the gritty urban tale of our time, where communities are forgotten and profit is king.

The show embraces urban mythology, new rituals, circus, dance, and song. £15/£12, 6,30pm, bar and garden open till midnight. locobristol.com Saturday September 1 n Mile Roses Saltcellar Folk Club, Totterdown Baptist church, entrance off Cemetery Road.

Contemporary British folk music with a nod to Nashville from Mile Roses with original songs and close harmonies. 7pm, £5, or £3 for floor singers. Refreshments available or BYO alcohol. saltcellarfolk.org.uk Monday September 3 n SouthBank Film Club SouthBank centre, Dean Lane, Southville. A different film shown every Monday for all over-55s.

This week: The Little Shop of Horrors. 2pm, tickets £2, includes tea or coffee.

Facebook: Southbankbristol Thursday September 6 n Murderers, Mafia Hitmen & US Prison Arnos Vale cemetery, Bath Road. A second outing for this no-holds-barred talk about life in a maximumsecurity Arizona prison – the first event in July sold out. Shaun Attwood tells how he survived a six-year sentence for drug

Tall pirate tales kept in check by the parrot n Blood, Blackbeard and Buccaneers walking tour Bristol harbourside

W

HAT could be better than a piratey pub crawl through the history and fiction of Bristol on a balmy summer’s evening? Show of Strength have done it again – a marvellous interactive experience with laughs and learning.

As we arrive at the Golden Guinea in Redcliffe we’re greeted

by Gerard Cooke (his real name but suitably piratey) dressed in full costume – brocade frock coat, breeches and buckled shoes, tricorn hat and, of course, a parrot on his shoulder.

The parrot, called Ted, is clever – he calls the narrator out when a fact might be ‘possibly’ or

dealing, protected by Two Tonys, a mass murderer. A Funzing talk; £12, 7pm. Bar from 6.30pm. arnosvale.co.uk/events n Locust The Thunderbolt, Bath Road, Totterdown. Locust are an alt-rock project of Bristol musicians Sion Rain, Arthur Cauty and Heather Taylor and Isle of Wight musician Pete Starr.

A concept album of love, loss and civilisation over 3,000 years is due later in 2018. £5, 7.30pm. thethunderbolt.net Friday September 7 n Oasiz The Tunnels, Temple Meads.Oasiz aim to recreate the complete Oasis live gig

A history play for our times n Henry V Tobacco Factory theatre September 12-October 6 HAKESPEARE at the Tobacco Factory, the nationallyacclaimed theatre company, return to their home venue with Shakespeare’s greatest history play.

Henry V portrays a divided nation. An ambitious young prince emerges from his wild youth with a sense of purpose and adventure, waging war on France with devastating efficiency. But at what cost? How can he be a good leader

S

Pirate guides: Gerard and Ted ‘probably’ rather than for sure.

There’s a lot of research gone into this story of Blackbeard – Edward Teach (or was it Thatch?) - and his Bristol connections.

Gerard weaves together the fact and fiction of history, Treasure Island and more – tells us when one has influenced the other, and back again, and when fact is stranger and more unlikely than fiction – and Ted lets us know experience. As well as the biggest hits, they play forgotten gems. £8.50, 7.30pm. thetunnelsbristol.co.uk n Bridget Christie: What Now? Comedy Box at the Tobacco Factory, North Street.

“Brexit. Trump. Nuclear apocalypse. Environmental catastrophe. Is rolling news affecting your ability to enjoy the simple things? Like baking, gardening and autoerotic asphyxiation?” Bridget’s last show was the Guardian’s No 1 Comedy of 2016. Also on September 8. 7.30pm, £19. thecomedybox.co.uk Henry V: The myth of heroism PHOTO: Craig Fuller

and a good man? What compromises must be made in the name of victory?

“Shakespeare’s play is a thrilling examination of the nature of power. It explores the burden of leadership and explodes the myth of heroism. It depicts the powerful and the powerless fighting side by

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n WHAT’S ON

n WHAT’S ON Your event could be highlighted like this for just £5. Email sales@ southbristolvoice.co.uk

September 2018

side. With characters drawn from across the United Kingdom, the play is a democratic portrayal of the ruler and the ruled,” says the Tobacco Factory.

This production was first performed at Bath Theatre Royal earlier this year. From now on, Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory performs in Bristol every autumn. Tickets from £12 (limited number). Shows at 7.30pm (7pm on September 18). Matinees on September 27 and October 4 at 2.30pm. No show on Sundays. tobaccofactorytheatres.com

when the lines get blurred. From the Golden Guinea we stop to survey the marvellous vista of the harbour from up high on Redcliffe Parade, then go for an amble – an opportunity to share some pirate jokes – we all join in and there are plenty of groans – before arriving at the Hole in the Wall to stop again for drinks and a tale or two – and inspect the spyhole from which the pub earned its name.

The tour would usually include the Llandoger Trow. However, as Gerard tells us, it’s been open for 300 years but tonight it’s shut. No matter, we are welcomed by Graze (the old post office) for our next stop, then across to the Merchants Almshouses before our final call at the bar and a wrapping up of tall tales, and true, at the Volley (Naval Volunteer) where Ted the parrot calls bull**** for one last time.

Beccy Golding • Tours at 7pm Wednesdays and 3pm Saturdays; £10 (advance bookings only), buy your own drinks. Lasts 2-2.5 hours. showofstrength.org.uk Saturday September 8 n Ceremonial Way Tour Arnos Vale cemetery, Bath Road.

This guided tour is accessible for all – it’s on the flat and has rest points on the way. Explore the architecture, graves and stories of Bristol’s past and people. £5, 10.30am-12 noon. arnosvale.co.uk/events Sunday September 9 Open Day, Bristol Indoor Bowls Club South Liberty Lane (access from South Bristol Link road), 10am-4pm. Try bowls for free at this indoor centre where you can enjoy bowling throughout the winter. All equipment provided. A warm, friendly environment, meals from the Hungry Bowler and drinks from the bar. For details email bristolbowls@btconnect. com or call 0117 963 3460. bristolindoorbowls.org.uk

show to share with friends and family in November. Cost £75 per term (email bryony@ tobaccofactorytheatres.com if you would like help with the fee). tobaccofactorytheatres.com Wednesday September 12 n Mr Gotalots Pop-Up Shop Zion, Bishopsworth Road.

Interactive storytelling adventures for 2-5 year-olds with Mr Gotalot, who needs some help at his shop. With puppets, games, singing and dancing from Monkey Trousers Theatre.

11am-12noon. zionbristol.co.uk Walking Netball The Park centre, Daventry Road, Knowle.

Have fun and meet new people, no running or jumping. Suitable for over 50s and beginners.

Free taster session 1-2pm on September 12; regular price £3.50. Details from Cressida, 07808 581739 or 0117 939 1672.

Friday September 14 n Yes Man Jellyfish The Thunderbolt, Bath Road, Totterdown. Powerful grooves of house, garage, and drum and bass are fused with uplifting piano, dynamic guitar, vibrant synths and soulful vocals. £5, 7.30pm. n History of Arnos Vale cemetery Knowle and Totterdown Local History Society. The Great and the Not So Good: a talk by Alan Bambury.

Redcatch community centre, Redcatch Road, Knowle, 7.30pm, £3 non-members, £1.50 members. knowleandtotterdownhistory. org.uk Saturday September 15 n Our Tools Our Senses Knowle West Media Centre, Leinster Avenue. Artist Hannah Perner-Wilson explains how we could attach tools to ourselves to

experience the world with new senses. From 10.30am-4.30pm.

Explore how digital sensors can add to activities such as cooking, woodwork or writing. Details from martha.king@kwmc.org.uk. £5 suggested donation. kwmc.org.uk

CAN WE RESCUE YOU?

Saturday 15 September, Portishead Quays In aid of Bristol Animal Rescue Centre – let a 14-stone gentle giant Newfoundland dog ‘rescue’ you from the water! For 8yrs+, 10am-4pm, £30 registration & £100 sponsorship.

0117 980 3901 ) fundraising@bristolarc.org.uk Sunday September 16 n Jazz night with Mark Randall Six Windmill Hill Community Centre, Vivian Street. Live jazz on the third Sunday of every month, 8.30-10.30pm. whca.org.uk Monday September 17 Cultivating Emotional Balance Totterdown Centre, 142 Wells Road BS4 2AG Four Monday sessions on September 17 and 24, October 1 and 8, 7-9pm.

Cost £60.

A secular course inspired by the Dalai Lama and created with Western psychologists. Includes emotional skills training and meditations to use every day. ) erikauridge@hotmail.co.uk 07487 647990 cultivatingemotionalbalance.org

Wednesday September 19 n The Science of Consciousness Arnos Vale cemetery. A Funzing talk with University of Cambridge neuroscientist Daniel Bor. Philosophers have argued over whether our minds are separate from our bodies, or if we are just a kind of computer. Daniel Bor argues that science is starting to unlock this important mystery. 7.30pm, £12. arnosvale.co.uk/events n Pamper Night Zion, Bishopsworth Road. Sample treatments such as reiki, Indian head massage, reflexology, feet and nail treatments, and more, from £5 per session. Early entry advisable. Women only.

6.30-9.30pm, £3 entry fee includes a glass of bubbly. zionbristol.co.uk Friday September 21 n DragonBird: Theatre for 0-5s Tobacco Factory theatre, North Street. A new show every month this autumn from DragonBird Theatre, aiming to instil in the very young a love for theatre, play and imagined worlds. £3.50, shows at 10.30am and 1pm. Also on October 19 and November 13. tobaccofactorytheatres.com n Jamali Maddix: Vape Lord Comedy Box at the Hen & Chicken Studio, North Street.

The critically-acclaimed host of Viceland’s Hate Thy Neighbour, Maddix brings personal tales from his travels around the world of hate and moral confrontation. 7.30pm, £14. thecomedybox.co.uk n SMäLL Zion, Bishopsworth Road. SMäLL are “the cassette compilation of your younger days”. Expect anything from

Siouxsie and the Banshees to Velvet Underground to the Breeders to the Violent Femmes, sometimes all at the same time. Bar, DJ, over 18s only. £6 on the door, 7.30pm. zionbristol.co.uk Saturday September 22 n Pin Puppet Workshop Zion, Bishopsworth Road. Two hours of pin puppet making with Dixon Does Doodles. Children doodle part of a giant humananimal-monster-robot hybrid and then help make it into a puppet. Then there’s a chance to make their own puppet, too. £10, 10.30am-12.30pm. zionbristol.co.uk Monday September 24 n Yoga for All Windmill Hill City Farm, Philip Street, Bedminster. Have you ever been put off trying yoga by thinking you are not flexible enough or good enough? Gentle yoga in a relaxed and fun environment with Georgia. Every Monday, 6-7.30pm. Cost: £55 (may be reduced for those on an income-related benefit). Call the WEA on 0300 303 3464 to enrol, or 0117 916 6500 for more information. windmillhillcityfarm.org.uk Tuesday September 25 n Pattern making and sewing Windmill Hill City Farm, Philip Street, Bedminster. Learn how to design patterns, cut out fabrics and sew a range of items from clothing to craft objects, by hand and machine. 10-week course on Tuesdays: beginners 10am-12 noon, intermediates 12.30-2.30pm. Cost: £74 (may be reduced). Other details as for September 24. windmillhillcityfarm.org.uk Continued overleaf

Monday September 10 n Young Theatre Makers Tobacco Factory Spielman theatre, North Street. Learn all the skills that go into putting on a stage show. Sessions for 11-13 year-olds on Mondays from 6-7.30pm, and for 14-19 year-olds on Tuesdays 6-8pm.

Sessions for 7-10 year-olds are from 4.30-5.45pm on Tuesdays.

All age groups will help devise a

To advertise, contact sales@southbristolvoice.co.uk or Ruth on 07590 527664

Got a story or any other inquiry? Call Paul on 07811 766072 or email paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk

September 2018

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Noisy and demanding: The Young Vic company make a stand as they insist on the audience’s attention

n Make More Noise Bristol Old Vic Young Company

T

HE CAST of over a dozen girls and women arrive on stage in swimwear. “Look at us,” they demand. And for the next hour or so they continue to demand our attention. They are furious, and optimistic, and tender, inspired by the women of history and today who have fought for equality and justice for all.

The cast have clearly bonded as an ensemble and unite in dance

Continued from page 43 Wednesday September 26 n Art for All Windmill Hill City Farm, Philip Street, Bedminster.

Start of a 10-week course guiding you through a series of simple colour-mixing exercises and experiments with acrylic painting techniques, providing you with tools to unlock the magic of colour. Every Wednesday, 10am12.30pm. Cost: £91.50 (may be reduced). Other details as for September 24 course. windmillhillcityfarm.org.uk n Bill Boler – Angry Black Yank Zion, Bishopsworth Road.

In June 2018, a jury awarded $4 in damages to a Florida family for a wrongful death, in which a policeman shot a father of three through a door. The jury found that the police were only one per cent liable and the victim 99 per cent responsible. Bill Boler, New York community activist and now a UK advocate for regeneration, asks, how did we get to this?

“Come listen to the rant of an Angry Black Yank.” Free entry. zionbristol.co.uk Friday September 28 n Bedminster Winter Lanterns fundraiser St Paul’s Church, Coronation Road, Southville. The Troy Ellis Band featuring the Lantern Parade’s very own Mr Alan May on sax, with support from the Brass Disciples. Doors 7pm, pay bar.

Tickets £10 in advance from Eventbrite or £12 on the night.

Saturday September 29 n Autumn Fair Windmill Hill City Farm, Philip Street, Bedminster. Enjoy an autumn day out at the farm with

PHOTO: Jana Rumley

sequences and set pieces, including a powerful stylised moment depicting the forcefeeding of suffragettes in prison, which gave me goose bumps.

Each person has a vignette of their own: Frida Carlo is strong and articulate, John is a cartoon macho

man, younger members relay stories of harassment to strong effect. A joke about period dramas falls perfectly, and the lyrics of a particularly disrespectful gangsta rap are sweetly sung with angelic harmonies – my favourite part of the show. The whole thing,

something for everyone to enjoy! There will be a great line-up of local bands and musicians, a barbecue and bar, outdoor activities and family fun – plus a market selling local products. Email info@ windmillhillcityfarm.org.uk if you would like a stall at the fair. windmillhillcityfarm.org.uk

n BS3 Repair Café Repairs for a donation, plus cream teas and home-made cakes. September 29 is their first birthday celebration, with jewellery and bike repairs added to the usul offering. Plus face painting and craft activities for children. 1.30-4.30pm, last Saturday of every month United Reformed Church Hall, West Street, Bedminster.

Facebook: BS3 Repair Café

Regular events

To advertise your event here from just £5 per month, contact Ruth at sales@southbristolvoice.co.uk n Danceblast “Bristol’s most exciting dance school.” Every Saturday and Sunday at St Francis Church Hall, North Street, Southville. Saturday: juniors, 3-4 years 10-11am, 5-6 years 11am-12 noon, 7-9 years 12 noon-1.30pm, 10-11 years 1.303pm, 12-13 years 2.15-4.15pm.

Sunday: seniors 14-18 years 1.304.30pm, Tobacco Factory studio.

Call Anne on 07984 069485. danceblast.co.uk n Every Friday: Lunchtime Live St Francis’ Church, Ashton Gate, near the Tobacco Factory. Weekly performances in a variety of genres. September 7 Accordion and flute; September 14 Piano recital, Débussy; September 21 Double bass and piano; September 28 Jazz quintet.

Tea and coffee available before each performance. Free entry, retiring collection. Fridays 1.101.50pm. lunchtimelive.co.uk

southbristolvoice

n THE CITY PAGE

n WHAT’S ON Look at us: furious and inspirational

September 2018

n A unique form of dance exercise using Margaret Morris Movement and inspiring music from around the world. Dance Studio @ Workout, Baynton Road, Ashton, BS3 2EB. Mondays 11.15am-12.15pm, £4 drop-in. Contact Tricia Mason, qualified teacher, 07896 346486.

BS3 Community events

For the young and older members of our community and everyone in between AS PART of our charitable aim to improve the lives of people living in BS3 and the surrounding areas, creative and cultural projects have always been a central part of our community development. In this month’s news we have an arts opportunity, an update about our craft gift shop and a delicious new food event… n Bunting Galore If you fancy trying your hand at a craft project, we are currently looking for artists to create beautiful bunting to hang outside the front of the Southville Centre. We pay £100 on completion. For further

performed by members of Bristol Old Vic young company and adult company, is a rallying cry for feminism and an inspiration for younger and older members of the audience and cast alike.

The only drawback was the sound levels – sometimes dialogue was lost due to the over-loud background music.

It’s a pleasure to be in Bristol Old Vic again, I haven’t been for years, though it was a small challenge to get in – hoardings at the front weren’t quite clear enough but we found the backstage door – the temporary entrance – in the end. Building work is due to be completed this autumn.

Beccy Golding bristololdvic.org.uk information contact Nadine Bright via email at info@bs3community.org.uk n Gift Shop refit Our little shop in the Southville Centre reception that showcases very local artists’ work (cards, gifts, jewellery, handmade toiletries…) has had a refit and we have some beautiful new work available to purchase. Do pop in to have a look when you are next passing. n Dates for your diary A Chocolate Festival will be taking the place of the Christmas Craft Market at the Southville Centre. Usually on September 1 we start taking bookings for stalls at our Christmas Craft Market but this year (like Glastonbury!), we are taking a year off. Instead, we will be holding a Chocolate Festival on Saturday December 8. We are working with the fantastic Jo Harrington who will be showcasing a fabulous collection of chocolatiers, artisan cake makers, raw chocolate experts, confectioners and liquor makers.

Expect chocolate bars and truffles galore, plus unusual gifts and seasonal delights. n Book your playscheme place BS3 Community’s half term playscheme will be running from October 29-November 2. For information email family. services@bs3community.org.uk n Annual General Meeting Our AGM is on Friday October 5, from 6.30-8pm, in the Jasper Room at the Chessel Centre, Chessel Street, Bedminster. All welcome.

To advertise, contact sales@southbristolvoice.co.uk or Ruth on 07590 527664

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Cup is an unnecessary distraction Two goals in the first two by crashing out in the first round games from the Austrian striker, against Plymouth Argyle. who joined City in the summer, We are yet to see whether new provides hope to fans worrying signings such as Marley Watkins, about what the season holds.

Mo Eisa and Chelsea loanee Jay With £25 million coming in Dasilva can lighten the mood at from sales of some favourites of Ashton Gate, Certainly most fans the last few seasons – including need to be convinced that two local lads now plying their progress has been made. trade in the Premier League – the Every game is a tough game in pressure is on the newcomers. the Championship, and the Weimann’s goals against margin between winning and Nottingham Forest and Bolton losing is often very small, with an are the most encouraging sign extraordinary number of goals that the club can still compete in every week in the dying seconds what must now be one of the of matches. It means players toughest leagues in the world. have to keep their concentration Weimann isn’t a massive unit of in every second of the match. a striker, he doesn’t seem Those small margins were particularly quick, but maybe he visible in the opening game against has that essential element needed Nottingham Forest, which would – he knows where the back of the have ended in victory if the City net is and pops up unexpectedly, players had come out for the like edelweiss, to provide some second half with determination pleasure in a rocky landscape.

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Govt should step in to sort out delays on our trains

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LONG with housing and education, transport is a common subject I encounter as MP for Bristol South. It’s mostly buses that people have issues with, from the disappearing Metrobus service to cancellations and timetable changes, but in recent months I’ve been hearing more from people who are having problems with the trains – concerns over frequent delays and cancellations and issues with refunds.

You may have seen the chaos with Southern Rail in the South East, and perhaps with Northern Rail too, but we’ve also got our fair share of issues here in Bristol with Great Western Rail (GWR). The latest Department for Transport figures reveal that one in three GWR services are overcrowded, with delays on the rise due to staff shortages. I’ve been

contacted by several people living in Bristol South affected by this, so have raised this with the Department for Transport.

Some, who rely on local train services to get them to work, have been repeatedly let down by a service which is often late and, even when on time, is so busy that there’s little chance of getting a seat.

Others have been waiting months for compensation for severely-delayed services on a scheme which falls short of that of most other train operators. While many offer at least a partial refund on services that are

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September 2018

KARIN SMYTH

delayed by 30 minutes, GWR’s compensation policy states that a train must be delayed by an hour or more before they offer a refund.

GWR’s managing director Mark Hopwood has written to me to apologise for the delays, acknowledging that the train service has not been meeting expectations; he says he shares in the frustrations of people living in Bristol South who have had issues with the service and assures me that GWR has plans to alleviate this. He adds that they will be working more closely with Network Rail, which maintains the nation’s railways, to avoid unnecessary delays due to engineering works. He also says they will be holding on to some older trains to provide back-up when needed.

They have also pledged to increase efforts in tackling the complaints backlog – by bringing part of the outsourced service back in-house to the company HQ in Plymouth.

While this is encouraging to hear, I do think the Government needs to intervene to ensure that quality train services are being delivered across the country, with consistent compensation packages for when the service is below par.

I’d be interested to hear your experiences of trains in Bristol South and beyond, and will continue to push GWR and the Government for improvements.

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All Garden Works Undertaken All Foliage Removed – Roots Destroyed Patios Laid – Slabbing – Decking Block Paving – Graveling – Wood Chippings Fencing – All Clearance Jobs Undertaken General Building – Garden Walls etc Drives & Patios Jetwashed & Resealed

One-off maintenance Regular or one-off garden or bigger re-designs maintenance Specialists in wildlife ponds Specialists wildlife gardening andingardens Call & towildlife discussponds your garden’s needs work Private & commercial

07923 447362

• FULLY INSURED • LICENSED WASTE CARRIER

07923 447362 info@goodgroundsandgardens.co.uk info@goodgroundsandgardens.co.uk www.goodgroundsandgardens.co.uk

For a FREE quote call 07960 681 921 d.attwellgardenservices@hotmail.co.uk

PET CARE

www.goodgroundsandgardens.co.uk PET PORTRAITS

Advance Pest Control

Off the Page Pet Portraits

ALSO•Pigeons •Moles •Squirrels •Gulls •Bed-bugs •Ants •Fleas •Flies •Moths •Wasps

Immortalise your furry friend with one of my drawings or colourful Rachel Heaton 07776 206002 paintings www.offthepageportraits.co.uk with

Prices from £20 – a perfect gift

HAVE YOU GOT RATS OR MICE? WE’LL SORT THEM OUT

www.theaerialman.co.uk

• Digital Aerials • Fully Guaranteed • Repairs • Satellites • Free Quotes • OAP Discount • Additional TV Points • Humax Recorders

CARPET CLEANING

September 2018

07817 495008

southbristolvoice

46

Sully CYCLES

• BACK TO WORK ON YOUR BIKE? • We’ll check it over for you and give you a 10% discount!

306 Wells Road, Knowle BS4 2QG

0117 980 3337

COMPLETE RENDER SYSTEMS & BEADS GRAB ADHESIVES INTERIOR/EXTERIOR SCREWS HAMMER FIXINGS • CONCRETE SCREWS CONCRETE BOLTS • FASTENERS SCRATCH BEADS • SILICONE MASTIC • WALL STARTER KITS SKIM BEADS • TAPES PROTECTION • EXPANDING FOAM PPE AND MUCH MUCH MORE

LOWEST PRICE AROUND FREE NEXT DAY DELIVERY 30 DAY ACCOUNTS EXPERT ADVICE LOCAL FAMILY BUSINESS OPEN: MON-FRI 8-5PM UNIT 10 YELVERTON ROAD BRISLINGTON BRISTOL BS4 5HP TEL: 0117 937 3910 www.wbconstructionsupplies.co.uk

To advertise, contact sales@southbristolvoice.co.uk or Ruth on 07590 527664

07771 503107

www.advancepestcontrolbristol.com BEST IN BRISTOL says threebestrated.co.uk SASH WINDOWS

PLUMBING

LOCAL PLUMBER • TAPS • WASHERS

SnugSash.co.uk

ALL4PAWS Aug 2011.indd 1

••REPAIRS/BURSTS REPAIRS/BURSTS • STOPTAPS STOPTAPS • DRIPS • LEAKS • REPAIRS •• TANKS, TOILETS TANKS, • TOILETS • BALL VALVES TAPS, WASHERS VALVES ••TAPS, WASHERS • BALL VALVES • LEAD PIPES ETC LEAD-PIPES •• LEAD-PIPES

0117 9564912 0117 **NO VAT** **NO VAT** **O.A.P. DISCOUNTS** DISCOUNTS** **O.A.P.

gorgeo be us!! eous be gorgwith geous!

Slimming be gor SLIMMING Slimming with

30/06/2011 15:43

Sash window specialist

World Slimming World Slimming World with Virginia World

Every Tuesday at 9.30am, 11.30am, 5.30pm and 7.30pm at the Salvation Army, Dean Lane, Bedminster

• Renovation • Draughtproofing • Double glazing • Repairs • Painting We can fit double glazing to your sash windows!

Call 07938 567886

www.snugsash.co.uk

or just come along

07736 229727 SnugSash

slimmingworld.co.uk

co.uk 0344slimmingworld.

897 8000 0344 897 8000

Got a story or any other inquiry? Call Paul on 07811 766072 or email paul@southbristolvoice.co.uk slimmingworld.co.uk

0344 897 8000

southbristolvoice

T: 07811 766072

www.southbristolvoice.co.uk

September 2018

INVITATION

CJ Hole Southville invite you to accept our offer of a free sales or lettings valuation.

To arrange an appointment, please telephone the office or call in personally.

If you have instructed another agent on a sole agency and/or sole selling rights basis, the terms of those instructions must be considered to avoid a possible liability to pay two commissions.

MEDIUM SOUTH WEST

268 North Street, Southville, Bristol BS3 1JA

t: 0117 963 4373 southville@cjhole.co.uk With 17 offices covering Bristol, Gloucester and Somerset

OPENING HOURS Monday - Friday 9am - 7pm Saturday 9am - 5pm

SOUTH WEST

MEDIUM AGENCY ESTATE AGENCY YEAR 2011

The Multi Award Winning Agent