At the meeting on 27th April 2010 Andrew Chugg gave a fascinating talk on the history of Henbury ( Blaise ) Hill. He has kindly agreed that we may publish the summaries of the chronology he detailed during the talk. They may be viewed by clicking here

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Notes of meeting from 19:00 on 27th April 2010

in Henbury Village Hall

Present: Chris Carroll (Chair) and 26 members for main meeting

Pre-meeting on Blaise Garden Project

Mark Weston summarised the results of his findings on the fourteen matters he had agreed to investigate. He proposed that the HCS bid for a community garden to be established in the Blaise Kitchen Garden be part of the Blaise Space Review to be complete by 2012. Thus the HCS bid should be assembled by January 2011.

Chris Carroll asked members present to add their signature to the Signature Sheet in support of the project which had already acquired 80+ names including many youngsters. She had also had an enquiry from the Henbury Youth Inclusion Project

Mark Weston said he would set up a tour of the gardens for four persons with Martin Harris. The prime purpose would be to examine the state of the walls of the garden which, apparently, would be the responsibility of the garden project.

Tanker and other Traffic through Henbury

Chris Windows reported on the inconclusive meeting with South Gloucestershire Council and Officials. Also a meeting with Bristol Airport had established that the numbers of projected passengers was well below the 15m level at which a new pipeline from the Hallen Depot became feasible. He was keen to promote the use of an existing 2nd World War pipeline to Flax Bourton.

Tim Parkinson demonstrated that most of the Henbury routes used by the tankers were not included in the 2003 Atlas of Commercial Vehicle Drivers routes.

Two further suggestions made were that the Society should make a Statement to the Bristol City Council ( Derek Little has done this previously ) and also that a speaker on the Twenty is Plenty campaign be asked to address the Society

History of the Hill in Blaise

Andrew Chugg gave a fascinating talk on the history of and around the Blaise Castle Hill from Roman times onwards. It was illustrated with some 34 slides and featured, in particular, the chronology of the small Roman Temple which became St. Werbergh’s then St. Blaise Chapel before some of the stones were used to build Lady Astry’s Summer House.

After some questions to Andrew the meeting closed at 9:25 pm

PS Andrew Chugg has kindly provided copies of his slides summarising dates and chronology and they can be viewed by clicking here

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Notes from a recent meeting of the ‘Hazel Brook group’

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Initial ideas from the ‘Garden Group’

Our Conservation Area would be greatly enhanced by using Blaise Kitchen Garden as a Community Garden.The area presently contains several greenhouses in various stages of repair and a victorian fernery’ in a huge walled space, with a building previously used for horticultural education and could possibly be used again for the same purpose. The greenhouses were used to grow bedding plants for the whole of Bristol for the latter part of the last century and then by a college Horticultural Department.We discussed how wonderful this would be for our Community, to encourage people to work together producing fresh food and growing plants to sell.We often talk about vandalism in our area. By encouraging a wide age group of people to work together, exchanging skills and enthusiasm, the energy of our youth could be diverted into something positive and creative.The possibilities of positively changing people’s lives could be immense. To get this project off the ground we know will be a huge upward battle,but we are prepared to try.Areas to investigate before the next meeting are :history and conservation within the site;FUNDING!; visit to a local Community Garden for ideas and inspiration.The lease on this site comes up for review in 2011 so we need to have an excellent proposal together by then.

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The notes relating to each meeting may be viewed by clicking on the date of the meeting below: -

19th May 2009

22nd September 2009

19th January 2010

27th April 2010

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In 2007 Geoffrey Jones carried out an informal survey to evaluate to what extent decisions on planning applications where influenced by the subject buildings being in Henbury Conservation Area.

The document available by clicking here contains a brief historical description of the Henbury area, history of conservation area legislation and the setting up of Henbury Conservation Area and the survey itself. The Survey is not comprehensive in that it does not deal with all applications in the conservation area and it, necessarily, reflects the findings of the author.

It contains a number of excellent photos and is well worth a study.

NB The document takes some time to load as it is a large one.

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1.Tankers and Dumper Lorries to the Hallen Fuel Depot and a site beyond the M5

Report of discussions at meeting held 19/1/2010 written by Andrew Chugg

Derek Little is clearly the expert on this issue. He showed us some of his data, including the many routes through Henbury that have been exposed to this problem. He explained that it had been caused by weight restrictions on roads near the motorway, which have the effect of forcing this traffic onto longer routes through the middle of Henbury and other heavily populated areas.

I live in the one-way section of Hallen Road (running past Blaise Hamlet). We have the special problem that these large vehicles are causing a succession of booms as they run downhill over a succession of imperfectly repaired works to the road surface. Since the vehicles operate continually throughout the night, it is like a thunderstorm every night for residents with bedrooms facing the route.

Solutions discussed: remove weight restrictions on the country roads; build a pipeline from the fuel depot to a lay-by on the motoway itself (comment: probably expensive); relocate fuel depot (comment: very difficult, because nobody wants a fuel depot on their doorstep – conversely, most of the aviation fuel goes to Bristol Airport, so the current location is not good – it seems to be in Hallen because Filton was the main airport when it was constructed); re-surfacing one-way section of Hallen Road

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The following concerns were identified at a meeting of HCS members on 22/9/2009: -

• Motorway Diversion / Rat Run
• Station Road – 2 way for cars
• Hallen Road – 2 way or 1 way – strong feelings
• Less distance driven yields less pollution
• Battersby Road exit is dangerous
• Traffic calming at junction of Hallen and Kingsweston Roads
• Speed cameras / speed of traffic
• 60-80 mph along Henbury Road!
• Work with Hallen on lorry routing

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Since 22nd September 2009 this society has a new chair in Chris Carroll and the  secretary is Tim Parkinson.

This category will be used to record notes and outcomes of meeting held.

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