Kingswood, South Gloucestershire
Encyclopedia
Kingswood is an urban area in South Gloucestershire
, England
, bordering the City of Bristol
to the west. It is located on both sides of the A420 road
, which connects Bristol and Chippenham
and which forms the high street through the principal retail zone. Bristol City Centre is located 4 miles to the west, and Chippenham is located 18 miles to the east, The Ring Road
also runs around the eastern edge of Kingswood. Bath is 12.5 miles away. Western Kingswood is contiguous with eastern Bristol, and although it does not lie within the city (and unitary authority
) boundary, it acts in several capacities as a suburb of the city.
In the 18th century it was a small coal mining village where George Whitefield
's open-air preaching greatly influenced John Wesley
in the founding of Methodism
. The construction of a number of chapels, Tabernacle
and schools by Whitefield, Wesley, and their associates and followers is held to be one of the factors contributing to Kingswood's growth.
and Norman
times, Kingswood Forest was a royal hunting estate which surrounded Bristol
, extending as far as Filwood
in South Bristol. "From early days the Constable of Bristol Castle, the king's officer in the area, was also the Chief Ranger of the Kingswood Forest and the first of these recorded is Ella who died in 920. At the edge of the forest, to the north of the River Froom, lay the little hamlet of Stapleton, the name of which is Saxon in origin, being held to mean 'The farm, homestead or croft - by or near the Stapol, post or pillar'".
became a partner and the name became H.H. & S. Budgett
. He turned the shop into a grocery wholesaler with a rapidly expanding sales area. This provided a source of good jobs in the area. Also Samuel and his elder brother Henry were strong Methodists and they supported all Christian denominations in the area. In 1842 there was a major fire in the warehouse and the business moved to central Bristol. Samuel developed a farm and continued to live in the area until he died in 1851.
started out making drain-covers and lamp-posts but in 1907, thanks to Bedminster designer Joseph Barter, the company fitted a unique horizontal twin-cylinder engine on to a standard cycle frame. It was the start of a legend.
During World War I
, the works was taken over by the government and turned out 300 motorcycles a week for the Army. When the war ended it was appointed motorcycle maker to King George V
. It’s doubtful whether the stout monarch ever ventured out on a Duggie but his two sons, the Duke of Gloucester and the Duke of York (later George VI
) certainly did.
The first model was a bit primitive but by 1910, Douglas had started racing. In 1912, Douglas machines took the Isle of Man TT
and Grand Prix of France titles and the company’s 20 year domination of the sport had begun. By 1923, Douglas machines held 150 British and world records.
performed. The Whit Monday parades have now stopped.
of Gloucestershire
, and Kingswood constituted an urban district
within that county. In 1974, the new Bristol-based county of Avon was formed. Kingswood UD was merged with Mangotsfield
UD to form a larger borough of Kingswood
, within Avon. The adjacent area of Gloucestershire, renamed Northavon
, was also moved into Avon. With the breakup of Avon in 1996, Kingswood and Northavon were not returned to the administrative county of Gloucestershire but were combined in a new unitary authority of South Gloucestershire. Much of urban Kingswood remains an unparished area
.
The present parliamentary constituency of Kingswood
covers Kingswood and neighbouring areas within South Gloucestershire. Its MP is Chris Skidmore.
South Gloucestershire
South Gloucestershire is a unitary district in the ceremonial county of Gloucestershire, in South West England.-History:The district was created in 1996, when the county of Avon was abolished, by the merger of former area of the districts of Kingswood and Northavon...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, bordering the City of Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
to the west. It is located on both sides of the A420 road
A420 road
The A420 is a road between Bristol and Oxford in England. Between Swindon and Oxford it is a primary route.-Present route:Since the opening of the M4 motorway, the road is in two sections. The first section begins on Old Market Street near the centre of Bristol, it passes through Kingswood before...
, which connects Bristol and Chippenham
Chippenham
Chippenham may be:* Chippenham, Wiltshire* Chippenham * Chippenham, Cambridgeshire-See also:* Virginia State Route 150, also known as Chippenham Parkway, USA* Cippenham, Berkshire, UK...
and which forms the high street through the principal retail zone. Bristol City Centre is located 4 miles to the west, and Chippenham is located 18 miles to the east, The Ring Road
A4174 road
The A4174 is a major road in England which runs around the northern and eastern edge of Bristol, mainly in South Gloucestershire, and through the southern suburbs of Bristol...
also runs around the eastern edge of Kingswood. Bath is 12.5 miles away. Western Kingswood is contiguous with eastern Bristol, and although it does not lie within the city (and unitary authority
Unitary authority
A unitary authority is a type of local authority that has a single tier and is responsible for all local government functions within its area or performs additional functions which elsewhere in the relevant country are usually performed by national government or a higher level of sub-national...
) boundary, it acts in several capacities as a suburb of the city.
In the 18th century it was a small coal mining village where George Whitefield
George Whitefield
George Whitefield , also known as George Whitfield, was an English Anglican priest who helped spread the Great Awakening in Britain, and especially in the British North American colonies. He was one of the founders of Methodism and of the evangelical movement generally...
's open-air preaching greatly influenced John Wesley
John Wesley
John Wesley was a Church of England cleric and Christian theologian. Wesley is largely credited, along with his brother Charles Wesley, as founding the Methodist movement which began when he took to open-air preaching in a similar manner to George Whitefield...
in the founding of Methodism
Methodism
Methodism is a movement of Protestant Christianity represented by a number of denominations and organizations, claiming a total of approximately seventy million adherents worldwide. The movement traces its roots to John Wesley's evangelistic revival movement within Anglicanism. His younger brother...
. The construction of a number of chapels, Tabernacle
Whitefield's Tabernacle, Kingswood
Whitefield's sometimes Whitfield's Tabernacle is a former Calvinistic Methodist and Congregational church in Kingswood, a town on the eastern edge of Bristol where George Whitefield preached in the open air to coal miners...
and schools by Whitefield, Wesley, and their associates and followers is held to be one of the factors contributing to Kingswood's growth.
Royal Forest
In SaxonSaxons
The Saxons were a confederation of Germanic tribes originating on the North German plain. The Saxons earliest known area of settlement is Northern Albingia, an area approximately that of modern Holstein...
and Norman
Normans
The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They were descended from Norse Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock...
times, Kingswood Forest was a royal hunting estate which surrounded Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
, extending as far as Filwood
Filwood
Filwood is a council ward of the city of Bristol in the United Kingdom. It lies in the south of the city and covers the suburbs of Filwood Park, Lower Knowle and Inns Court.-Filwood Park:Filwood Park is a primarily residential area of Bristol...
in South Bristol. "From early days the Constable of Bristol Castle, the king's officer in the area, was also the Chief Ranger of the Kingswood Forest and the first of these recorded is Ella who died in 920. At the edge of the forest, to the north of the River Froom, lay the little hamlet of Stapleton, the name of which is Saxon in origin, being held to mean 'The farm, homestead or croft - by or near the Stapol, post or pillar'".
Coal mining
The Kingswood area first came into industrial prominence in the late 17th century, because of coal mining. Typical of these were coal fields in the Easton and Coalpit Heath/Yate areas. The coal mining history still affects the town with gardens occasionally opening up. The local MP has petitioned in Parliament for full surveys of the coal mines under the town.H.H. & S. Budgett
Budgetts started in Kingswood around 1800 as a grocery shop. Around 1820 Samuel BudgettSamuel Budgett
Samuel Budgett was an English merchant.Rising from humble origins, Budgett built up a wholesale grocery business called H.H. & S. Budgett, based in Kingswood Bristol, covering a large area of Southern and Western England and South Wales, which outlasted him by over a century...
became a partner and the name became H.H. & S. Budgett
H.H. & S. Budgett
H.H. & S. Budgett was a leading wholesale grocer covering South-West England, South Wales and the London area. It began about 1820 when Samuel Budgett became a partner of his half-brother Henry Hill Budgett in the latter’s small shop in Kingswood, Bristol. Samuel had a passion for trading...
. He turned the shop into a grocery wholesaler with a rapidly expanding sales area. This provided a source of good jobs in the area. Also Samuel and his elder brother Henry were strong Methodists and they supported all Christian denominations in the area. In 1842 there was a major fire in the warehouse and the business moved to central Bristol. Samuel developed a farm and continued to live in the area until he died in 1851.
Boot and shoe manufacturing
In the early period Kingswood boot factories tended to be small, family-run units relying heavily on outwork, for example the Pow family (Pow's Road). The various parts of the boots were collected by the outworkers from the factory and made up at home, the boots being returned to the factory to be 'finished'. This type of production which was later superseded by larger, more mechanised factories better geared to mass production, such as GB Britton on Lodge Road (now closed).Douglas Motorcycle Company
DouglasDouglas (motorcycles)
Douglas was a British motorcycle manufacturer from 1907–1957 based in Kingswood, Bristol, owned by the Douglas family, and especially known for its horizontally opposed twin cylinder engined bikes and as manufacturers of speedway machines...
started out making drain-covers and lamp-posts but in 1907, thanks to Bedminster designer Joseph Barter, the company fitted a unique horizontal twin-cylinder engine on to a standard cycle frame. It was the start of a legend.
During World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, the works was taken over by the government and turned out 300 motorcycles a week for the Army. When the war ended it was appointed motorcycle maker to King George V
George V of the United Kingdom
George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936....
. It’s doubtful whether the stout monarch ever ventured out on a Duggie but his two sons, the Duke of Gloucester and the Duke of York (later George VI
George VI of the United Kingdom
George VI was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death...
) certainly did.
The first model was a bit primitive but by 1910, Douglas had started racing. In 1912, Douglas machines took the Isle of Man TT
Isle of Man TT
The International Isle of Man TT Race is a motorcycle racing event held on the Isle of Man and was for many years the most prestigious motorcycle race in the world...
and Grand Prix of France titles and the company’s 20 year domination of the sport had begun. By 1923, Douglas machines held 150 British and world records.
Kingswood Temperance Parade
For many years Kingswood was the focus of an annual temperance parade featuring musical bands and 'floats' with local children and church groups on board. The parades attracted crowds numbered in the thousands and were hugely popular. With the demise of the temperance league participants dramatically reduced. The parades, which were always held on Whit Monday, were supplemented by evening fireworks in the early 1990s and re-branded as the Kingswood Festival. At one festival the pop band Worlds ApartWorlds Apart (boyband)
Worlds Apart were a multi-national boy band of the 1990s that featured Marcus Patrick in the original group and Totally Scott-Lee's Nathan Moore in one of the later incarnations of the band...
performed. The Whit Monday parades have now stopped.
Governance
Though the town is now viewed by many as a suburb of Bristol (hence the common reference to it as Kingswood, Bristol, which is also its postal address), It has always been outside the boundaries of the city. Before 1974 it was in the administrative countyAdministrative counties of England
Administrative counties were a level of subnational division of England used for the purposes of local government from 1889 to 1974. They were created by the Local Government Act 1888 as the areas for which county councils were elected. Some large counties were divided into several administrative...
of Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....
, and Kingswood constituted an urban district
Urban district
In the England, Wales and Ireland, an urban district was a type of local government district that covered an urbanised area. Urban districts had an elected Urban District Council , which shared local government responsibilities with a county council....
within that county. In 1974, the new Bristol-based county of Avon was formed. Kingswood UD was merged with Mangotsfield
Mangotsfield
Mangotsfield is a village in South Gloucestershire, England, situated north of the Bristol suburb of Kingswood, bounded to the north by the M4 motorway and to the east by the Emersons Green housing estate....
UD to form a larger borough of Kingswood
Kingswood (borough)
Kingswood was, from 1974 to 1996, a non-metropolitan district of the County of Avon, England.It was formed on 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, by the merger of the Kingswood and Mangotsfield urban districts with Warmley Rural District from the administrative county of...
, within Avon. The adjacent area of Gloucestershire, renamed Northavon
Northavon
Northavon was a district in the English county of Avon from 1974 to 1996.The district was formed by the Local Government Act 1972 on 1 April 1974 as part of a reform of local authorities throughout England and Wales. Under the reorganisation, the area surrounding the cities of Bath and Bristol was...
, was also moved into Avon. With the breakup of Avon in 1996, Kingswood and Northavon were not returned to the administrative county of Gloucestershire but were combined in a new unitary authority of South Gloucestershire. Much of urban Kingswood remains an unparished area
Unparished area
In England, an unparished area is an area that is not covered by a civil parish. Most urbanised districts of England are either entirely or partly unparished. Many towns and some cities in otherwise rural districts are also unparished areas and therefore no longer have a town council or city...
.
The present parliamentary constituency of Kingswood
Kingswood (UK Parliament constituency)
Kingswood is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election...
covers Kingswood and neighbouring areas within South Gloucestershire. Its MP is Chris Skidmore.
See also
- Whitefield's Tabernacle, KingswoodWhitefield's Tabernacle, KingswoodWhitefield's sometimes Whitfield's Tabernacle is a former Calvinistic Methodist and Congregational church in Kingswood, a town on the eastern edge of Bristol where George Whitefield preached in the open air to coal miners...
- H.H. & S. BudgettH.H. & S. BudgettH.H. & S. Budgett was a leading wholesale grocer covering South-West England, South Wales and the London area. It began about 1820 when Samuel Budgett became a partner of his half-brother Henry Hill Budgett in the latter’s small shop in Kingswood, Bristol. Samuel had a passion for trading...
- Samuel BudgettSamuel BudgettSamuel Budgett was an English merchant.Rising from humble origins, Budgett built up a wholesale grocery business called H.H. & S. Budgett, based in Kingswood Bristol, covering a large area of Southern and Western England and South Wales, which outlasted him by over a century...
- Kingswood (UK Parliament constituency)Kingswood (UK Parliament constituency)Kingswood is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election...
- Kingswood, GloucestershireKingswood, GloucestershireKingswood is a village and civil parish within the Stroud district of Gloucestershire, England. It is southwest of Wotton-under-Edge and has a population of 1,290....
a village near Wotton-under-Edge - Kingswood SchoolKingswood SchoolKingswood School, referred to as 'Kingswood', is an independent day and boarding school located in Bath, Somerset, England. The school is coeducational and educates some 950 children aged 3 to 18. It is notable for being founded by John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, in 1748...
- John Cabot Academy
- Bristol Community ChurchBristol Community ChurchBristol Community Church is a charismatic church located in Kingswood, Bristol, England.- History :...
- Batman rapistBatman rapistThe Batman rapist is an English serial sex offender who has committed at least 17 attacks on women in the city of Bath, Somerset. He is the subject of Britain's longest–running serial rape investigation, codenamed Operation Eagle, and has eluded capture since 1991...