Bristol: A loop passing a new play park

By bus: First Bus services 40 & 40A run between Cribbs Causeway and Old Market via Shirehampton High Street. First Bus service 41 runs between Avonmouth and Old Market via Shirehampton High Street. Wessex service 502 runs between Shirehampton (Dursley Road) and UWE Frenchay via Station Road and Shirehampton High Street. For all these routes, the stops nearest to the Health Centre are at Shirehampton Green.

Wessex service 501 runs between Avonmouth and Abbey Wood MOD via St Mary’s Road, Waverley Road and (part of) Shirehampton High Street. From Avonmouth, the nearest bus stop for the Health Centre is in St Mary’s Road, opposite the cemetery. From Abbey Wood, the nearest stop is in Shirehampton High Street at Priory Gardens.

By car: There is a public car park in Waverley Road (behind the Health Centre.) There is a Health Centre car park for patients, but as part of Pembroke Road is one-way, it can not be accessed from Waverley Road.

This walk starts from Shirehampton Health Centre, in Pembroke Road.

[1] Walk towards Pembroke Road and turn right to walk along the right-hand pavement, at first beside the car park of the Health Centre; continue until you reach Bradley Crescent (A).  Here, turn right and walk half way down this street of Victorian terraced houses .

[2] Half way down, turn left along a narrow footpath between 42 & 44 (opposite 59).  Follow the path which turns left to go behind three gardens, then right to reach Bradley Avenue.  

(Alternatively, if this footpath is too narrow, continue all the way down Bradley Crescent to rejoin the main route at step 4.)

[3] At Bradley Avenue, do not go across the road into the wide path, but turn right.  Walk down the pavement and follow round the sharp bend to the right until you rejoin Bradley Crescent.  Turn left into Bradley Crescent and continue until you reach Springfield Avenue.

[4] At Springfield Avenue, turn right then cross over the road and continue to the crossroads (B).  Turn left into Passage Leaze (C) and walk down the road.

[5] At the crossroads, turn right into Grove Leaze and walk along this road of inter-war and later houses. 

[6] At the crossroads with Burnham Road continue along Grove Leaze.  You may want to cross over to the left-hand pavement for a while, as a stretch of the right-hand pavement has a sideways slope which can be uncomfortable to walk along.

For a short cut, turn right up Burnham Road; at the top, cross diagonally right over Springfield Avenue to turn left into Priory Road (as step 8.)

[7] When you reach a triangle of open ground on the right, turn right and walk up along the pavement to reach Springfield Avenue.  Stay on the pavement and continue round to the right.  

Cross the road and after another 100 yards, there is a new playground on the left (D).  The playground has no formal seats, but there are some boulders to sit on.  Continue along the pavement and, just after Burnham Road comes up from the right, reach the junction with Priory Road on the left.

[8] Turn left to walk along Priory Road, and noting the blue plaque on No 34 (E), continue as far as Severn Road.  Turn right, to walk along the left-hand pavement of Severn Road to the junction with Waverley Road; keep to the pavement to turn left and walk a short distance up Waverley Road until you are beyond the car park exit opposite.

[9] Cross the road (taking care, as the road can be busy) and turn left to continue up to the junction with Pembroke Road.  Keep on the pavement, to turn right into Pembroke Road.  The Health Centre is a short distance on the right.

The village of Shirehampton grew up around the lowest safe river crossing of the river Avon, by ferry to Pill; this ran continuously until 1974, when it was superseded by the M5 bridge.

Shirehampton expanded with the construction of the Bristol Port Railway and Pier Company railway in 1865 and the opening of the first Avonmouth docks in 1877; many terraced houses and some public buildings were constructed.

(A) Bradley Crescent  - note the different styles of window in the Victorian terraced houses, including the big arched windows of 16 & 18 on the left.

(B) In 1909, the Bristol Garden Suburb Limited was set up to implement the ideas of Ebenezer Howard. These were focused on getting the environment right through good design, good public transport and providing work opportunities close to homes, leading to sociable and integrated communities. They were a reaction against industrial slums and back to back housing. All the houses around here were built in 1909-1913 in the “Garden Suburb” style.  Some houses were completed (Passage Leaze, Springfield Avenue) but work ended with the start of the First World War stopping the planned extension of this scheme across more of Shirehampton.

(C) Passage Leaze - the name dates from 1711; Passage Leaze means “the meadow (Leaze) leading to the ferry (Passage) across to Pill.

Also note as you walk down Passage Leaze the lovely views ahead looking across Pill and Easton in Gordano to the hills beyond.

(D) Springfield Park - a colourful new children's playground.

(E) Blue Plaque on No 34.  Sir Robert Stephens (1931 - 1995), early star of the National Theatre, London stage and screen actor, lived here from 1931 to 1939.

Toilets and baby changing facilities are available in the Health Centre, when it is open:

Monday - Friday 8.30am - 6.30pm; some Saturday mornings

Refreshments (cafes, pubs and shops etc) available, mainly in the High Street. There is seating (of a sort) in Springfield Park.

Some information about street names & history has come from http://www.shire.org.uk/content/history/streetnames.pdf

Text © Richard Coates 2011

The moral right of Richard Coates to be identified as the author of The Street­ Names of Shirehampton and Avonmouth has been asserted.