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Brandon Hill, Bristol

Hills of BristolParks and open spaces in Bristol
Brandon Hill, Bristol
Brandon Hill, Bristol

Brandon Hill, also known as St Brandon's Hill, is a hill close to Bristol city centre, between the districts of Clifton and Hotwells, in south west England. At the summit is the Cabot Tower, opened in 1897 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of John Cabot's voyage from Bristol to Newfoundland in 1497. The upper part of the hill is a steep park, Brandon Hill Park, divided into informal gardens, a small nature reserve and open grassland. The two-hectare nature reserve has been run since 1980 by the Avon Wildlife Trust who have their headquarters beside the park. The wildflower meadow includes ox-eye daisies, yellow rattle and knapweed. A pond provides a breeding site for frogs, toads and smooth newts. The butterfly garden supplies food for caterpillars and many kinds of butterflies. Birds such as jay, bullfinch and blackcap are seen in the reserve. Native trees and shrubs have been planted, and the meadow is cut for hay in July.The lower slopes of the hill were developed in the 18th and 19th centuries. St George's Church lies on Great George Street on the eastern slope, Berkeley Square is on the northern edge, and the school buildings of Queen Elizabeth's Hospital are on the western side.

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Brandon Hill, Bristol

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N 51.45291 ° E -2.6068 °
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Brandon Hill, Bristol
Brandon Hill, Bristol
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Jews Acre, Bristol
Jews Acre, Bristol

The Jews Acre (alias Jews Churchyard) in Cliftonwood, Bristol, England was the burial ground of Bristol's medieval Jewish community from the late 12th century until the expulsion of the Jews from England in 1290. Bristol's jews lived a mile east in the centre of the town, initially around the head of the harbour - an area that was later known as the Old Jewry. It was one of England's smaller Jewish communities, never exceeding about fifteen households. If the average household had five people, the mean population would have been about seventy-five people. Life expectancy at birth in pre-modern societies rarely exceed forty, with at least 2.5 per cent of any community dying each year. That would imply about two internments per year in the cemetery. Jews Acre is associated with Jacob's Well, which lies about a hundred metres further down the valley. The well is believed to have been a bet tohorah (ritual bath) where corpses were washed prior to internment in the cemetery. After a body had been buried, those involved would also have used the water from the well to ritually purify themselves. The Jews Acre, sometimes called the Jews Churchyard, was known by that name until 1847, when the site was purchased by Queen Elizabeth's Hospital (also known as 'QEH'), an independent school in Bristol. Founded in 1586, the school had previously been based in the centre of the city, but decided to move to a new, greener site, on the edge of Clifton. The property known as Jews Acre became the boundary of the school. Despite its name, the actual field was 3.2 acres in size (1.3 hectares). Apart from two small additions (QEH Theatre) and a southern annex, both acquired in the later twentieth century, the school's boundary is still that of the Jews Acre.During the construction of QEH school from 1847, a number of tombstones were found. Writing in 1861, the historian George Pryce discussed 'the “Jews Acre”, or burial ground, where now stands Queen Elizabeth's Hospital, on digging the foundation for which, a few years ago, a number of gravestones were found, with inscriptions in Hebrew characters; they were, however, thoughtlessly used in the building' This became a source of humour in Victorian Bristol, it later being noted that 'Many gravestones with Hebrew inscriptions were discovered when that building [QEH] was about to be erected, which led our Wits to assert that whatever else the boys lacked, they would always have a good Hebrew foundation.'

Queen Elizabeth's Hospital
Queen Elizabeth's Hospital

Queen Elizabeth's Hospital (also known as QEH) is an independent day school in Clifton, Bristol, England, founded in 1586. QEH is named after its original patron, Queen Elizabeth I. Known traditionally as "The City School", Queen Elizabeth's Hospital was founded by the will of affluent soap merchant John Carr in 1586, gaining its first royal charter in 1590. The school accepts boys from ages 7 to 18 and, since September 2017, girls aged 16 to 18 into the co-educational Sixth Form. The school began as a boarding school, accepting 'day boys' for the first time in the early 1920s. Boarders continued to wear the traditional blue coat uniform on a daily basis until the 1980s. After that, it was only worn on special occasions. Following a steady decline in numbers QEH stopped accepting new boarders in 2004, and boarding closed completely in July 2008. A Junior School opened in September 2007 in terraced Georgian town houses in Upper Berkeley Place, adjacent to the main school.The school is located in central Bristol, near Cabot Tower which is on Brandon Hill, in a building built of Brandon stone, designed by local architects Foster and Son and dating from 1847. It has been designated by English Heritage as a grade II listed building. The terrace steps and walls are also grade II listed, as are the walls, lodge and gates. Before moving to the site on Brandon Hill, it was previously housed at Gaunt's Hospital mansion house, Unity Street (1590–1767) and St. Bartholomew's, Christmas Steps (1767–1847). QEH has had close associations with Redmaids' High School since the latter's founding in 1634.To celebrate 425 years since the school's opening, a new school song was composed in 2015.

Jacobs Well Theatre

The Jacobs Well Theatre was a playhouse in Cliftonwood, Bristol, England, which opened in 1729. It took its name from the nearby Jacobs's Well, which may have been a mikveh, a type of Jewish ritual bath. The theatre was built by actor John Hippisley, who had created the character of Peachum in the premiere of John Gay's Beggar's Opera. The stage space was so small that actors exiting on one side had to walk around the building to re-enter on the other side, often being subject to banter by spectators enjoying this free show. A hole was knocked through a party wall to an adjacent ale house, The Malt Shovel, so that actors, and audience seated on the stage, could obtain refreshments. Admission prices ranged from 1 shilling to 3 shillings, and it was estimated that a full house could earn as much as £80. Servants of patrons were admitted free of charge to an upper gallery. In later years, Thomas Chatterton described the theatre as a "hut".The journey to the theatre from fashionable areas such as Queen Square and College Green was somewhat perilous, especially on dark nights, and consequently the theatre often provided linkboys to light the way with torches. Notable actors who appeared at the theatre included Charles Macklin, William Powell, and Thomas King, who were all stars of the Georgian stage. After Hippisley's death in 1748, the business was continued by his widow. When the Theatre Royal opened in King Street in 1776 most actors left the Jacobs Well Theatre as the new venue proved to be more fashionable. The last recorded performance at Jacobs Well was a pantomime in 1779.

Jacob's Well, Bristol
Jacob's Well, Bristol

Jacob's Well in Cliftonwood, Bristol, England is an early medieval structure within a building on the corner of Jacob's Wells Road and Constitution Hill thought to be a Jewish ritual bath. The stone structure is built round a natural hot spring and on a lintel there is an inscription thought to be the Hebrew word zochalim, "flowing". This led to the theory that this was a mikveh or Jewish ritual bath. The interpretation of the inscription was challenged in 2002 and the alternative theory proposed that the bath is too deep for a mikvah and may have been used to cleanse bodies before burial in the nearby Jewish cemetery at Brandon Hill which was established after 1177. A Jewish community was known to exist in Bristol from at least 1154 until the wholesale banishment of the Jewish community from England in 1290. The spring became the property of St Augustine's Abbey in 1142 and the exterior was rebuilt in the 18th or 19th century. A Royal Commission on the Health of Towns reported in 1845 that nearly all of the water laid into Bristol came from Jacob's Wells. The Commission noted that the water, which also fed the Cathedral and the Grammar School, was of good quality but the volume was not enough to supply the city.: 12  In 1905 the natural hot spring was diverted into the Jacobs Wells Baths. Jacob's Well was rediscovered in 1987 by the Bristol Temple Local History Group, who were investigating the site during the rebuilding of a furniture workshop which had been the Hotwells Police Station bicycle shed, and a one-time fire engine house. In February 2011, the company that now owns the well applied to the Environment Agency to extract and bottle up to 15 million litres (3.3 million imperial gallons) of water a year. Water from the well was previously bottled and sold in the 1980s.