Orchards, Brickworks and Coal

by the West Street Heritage Group for Futures Past

The Spotted Horse, West Street painting by Ernest Parkman (1856-1921), image courtesy of Bristol Museum and Art Gallery

Historically Bedminster was an important settlement in North Somerset. The name points to Saxon origin and is supported by documentary sources including the Domesday Survey (1086).  West, East and North Streets are derived from the three open fields arranged around a triangular green or market place situated in the heart of medieval Bedminster.

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.

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