The West Street neighbourhood remained rural in character and given over to agriculture throughout the post-medieval period (16th-18th centuries).  This was reflected in the names of pubs along the street:  The Three Horse Shoes, the Plough and Windmill, the White Horse, the Lamb.   

This edition of the St Luke’s Gazette is packed with discoveries, local legends, and vivid glimpses into the lives of the people who built St Luke’s as we know it today. Our Futures Past Heritage Project has unearthed remarkable stories from St Luke’s Road and Crescent — tales of bustling pubs, bustling families, steep steps and steeper struggles, and the colourful characters who once called our streets home.

by the First ResidentsBS3 Heritage Group for Futures Past The Bedminster awaiting new residents in the early 19th century was a small community centred around an ancient parish church, overlooking fertile pastures, and orchards, through which a constant stream of water flowed. Buildings were few and fields were plentiful. Apart from East Street, a major thoroughfare giving access to Bristol to and from the west, the landscape was rural. Ashmead's Map of Bristol, 1828. The Ma

In 1644, during the English Civil War , Bedminster was sacked by Prince Rupert . When John Wesley preached here in the 1760s, it was a sprawling, decayed market town, with orchards next to brickworks , ropewalks and the beginnings of a mining industry.

by the St Luke's Heritage Group for Futures Past Far Left: Rev Dr David Daudney St Luke’s may never have become St Luke’s if it were not for this man – the Rev Dr Daudney. We have been researching who he was & how he became so pivotal in the story of the parish & the naming of our roads. David Daudney was born in 1811 and grew up in Portsea on the south coast. He left home to become a printer’s apprentice at 13. He later began his own printing and publishing house and became

by the First ResidentsBS3 Heritage Group for Futures Past Futures Past - First Residents BS3 Heritage Group Photo: Gathering Voices for Futures Past Bedminster is dramatically changing in the 21st century with new neighbourhoods and communities emerging. One of the first will see over 300 residents moving into the nearby new Stafford Yard buildings in 2025. But what of the original community living, working and playing in that Little Paradise and Stafford Street

by the West Street Heritage Group for Futures Past Bedminster – did a monk named Bede build a church here? Or, from Bede, a place of baptism perhaps in the Malago Stream? Certainly the ancient church of St. Johns was a prominent feature until the 1960’s and the Malago Stream has flowed forever albeit now, mostly covered over. Historically, an Iron Age Fort existed within its boundaries and the Romans may have marched along a route which today we might recognise as West Street

Archaeological investigations from 2015-2018 at the former Mail Marketing site on West Street revealed late Neolithic/early Bronze Age flint and pottery.  Structural features and artefacts suggested an enclosed rural agricultural settlement, established during the later Iron Age.

After being asked to describe history, Arnold Toynbee once declared – ‘it’s just one damned thing after another’. He was speaking of all history, but sometimes there are places where this statement seems to be particularly applicable.