THE HISTORY OF ASHTON COURT
(The text of a talk written and performed by the late Brother Savage Bill Thomas and kindly given to us by his widow Elizabeth) I expect that many of you have spent some happy hours in Ashton Court – that magnificent open space to the south of the city – or perhaps visiting the seventeenth century mansion, which is now open to the public for banquets, weddings and conferences. As you know, all sorts of events now take place in Ashton Park – the Balloon Fiesta, for one. They have held pop concerts there, there have been special days for Senior Citizens like us, and, of course, there are two pitch and putt golf courses and some pleasant walks where you can enjoy the views right across the village of Long Ashton, as far as Dundry. Well, it was not always so. Not always a free and open park for all of us to enjoy. Not until the City Council bought the park in 1946, and then the mansion thirteen years later. Until then, it had been known as the Smyth Estate, or even, in deference to one of the last owners, Lady Emily Smyth, simply as ‘Lady Smyth’s’. Now – is it ‘Smyth,’ or ‘Smith’? How is the name pronounced? How do you say it? What is the general opinion? Well, I mostly hear people saying ‘Smyth’. I suppose it’s logical. The ‘y’ in the middle seems to indicate that it should be pronounced like that, but what I can tell you is that the family called themselves ‘Smith,’ and they got very touchy if anyone addressed them as ‘Smyth’. Anyway, I have always said ‘Smyth,’ so that is what I am going to stick to. So, as I say it – it was not until 1959 that Ashton Court was open to us all. Until then, the common folk had been kept out by a wall, eight feet high, which was called ‘the seven mile wall,’ and it ran right round the estate. Actually, it was only five miles, but it must have seemed longer to any poacher trying to get in! Much of that wall still remains, although it was built as long ago as 1820. Actually, that wall did not enclose the whole of the Smyth property. Oh dear, no. They owned land and property far beyond that. I expect a lot of you have been in the lovely room in the house known as the Music Room? It is a long room with many windows overlooking miles of countryside. The Smyths owned most of what you can see from that room. They owned many farms, umpteen houses and cottages, acres of woodland and, very importantly, at least fifteen coal mines. South Bristol had several coal mines in Victorian times. The last one, Ashton Colliery, closed in 1907. That is by the way. The point is that the Smyths were seriously rich. Of course, there had been a house on the site of Ashton Court Mansion since Saxon times. It had been owned by one wealthy nobleman or another, but in 1549 the Smyth dynasty began. A Bristol merchant named John Smyth, who was twice mayor of Bristol, bought it as well as the manor of Ashton. And from that date, the Smyth fortune prospered. As well as the property at Ashton, they held estates in
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