Bristol Information

Bristol's history dates back hundreds of thousands of years. 250,000 years ago people were drawn to the area because of the River Avon, which today runs through the city, and then provided abundant wildlife. You can see archaeological remains of these Palaeolithic people at the Cheddar Showcaves. By Anglo-Saxon times, people were living here trading wine, fruit and olive oil, and the settlement was known as ‘Brigstow', meaning ‘place of a bridge'.

By the 14th century Bristol was an important place for importing and exporting. Despite the Black Death in 1348 killing around a third of its inhabitants, the city and its merchants became rich, their wealth growing during the next 400 years. It has to be said that much of this prosperity was due to the city's participation in the slave trade - ships would sail back and forth between Bristol and Africa, exchanging slaves for wine, tobacco and chocolate, which still remain big industries in today's modern city. Coal was also an important industry, as was high-quality ship-building (hence the expression, ‘shipshape and Bristol fashion').

The early 1800's saw Bristol's prosperity start to decline, with the abolition of the slave trade, and the growth of Liverpool as the UK's major port. Isambard Kingdom Brunel was the key figure of this time, and was responsible for the organisation of the city's waterways, as well as for the creation of the famous Clifton Suspension Bridge in 1831 and the beautiful Temple Meads railway station, which today is the home of the British Empire and Commonwealth exhibition as well as a train station. He was a major player in the Great Western Railway, and also formed the Great Western Steamship Company which enabled people to travel to New York in just 15 days.

More recent industry has included aerospace, and Concord was built in Bristol.
There is lots for today's visitor to see. Explore the city's maritime history down at the docks and harbourside, which also has some excellent leisure and tourist attractions, entertainment and shopping.. You can see a couple of important ships - The Matthew, on which John Cabot and his crew sailed to America, and the famous SS Great Britain, the first iron, propeller-driven ship in the world.

You can find out all about Bristol and the slave trade at Bristol Industrial Museum. And visit the Bristol Blue Glass factory to see glass being made by hand.

More modern attractions include @Bristol, a world-class leisure and learning experience, with Wildwalk for the natural world, Explore for science, and Open Spaces with shops, cafes, sculptures and live entertainment and workshops.

Children will love Bristol Zoo, and Aston Court and Oldbury Court are beautiful estates well worth a visit. Shopping and nightlife in Bristol are pretty much unrivalled.