History
World War Two On top of the walls in front of the houses along my road are stumps of old iron fences. During the second world war the British public were ordered to hand over all metal they had in and around their house to the army. It was supposedly going to be used to make emergency weaponry but there is strong reason to believe that this never happened. This is because the metal that was given in was not the right sort to make weaponry with. Across the country people were asked to hand over everything they had so that they would feel as if they were helping with the war effort. The left over iron stumps are a lasting memory of world war two.
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Mr Loader I was sent to speak to this man after asking the majority of my neighbours for information about the road. He has lived here all his life and had many stories about his life in Bristol. Unfortunately, not all of them related to Calcott Road. Mr Loader was very pleasant and showed me around his house, everything he owned seemed to have a story to tell.
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Mr. Loader spoke about being a child during the second world war. He mentioned playing in the bomb sites in Calcott road and all the surrounding roads. He would go out and play with his brother in the areas which had been bombed and make games with the debris left from the attacks. He then went on to briefly talk about the old police station in Calcott road. He said that it used to have an air raid siren on top of the building which was used to warn the whole of Bristol of an attack. He said that the people in the houses on my road and the surrounding ones would be the first to know of a bomb attack because of the time it took for the sound to travel across Bristol. The siren was later removed after the cold war as it was no longer needed. It was really interesting to hear about the significance of my road.
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Opposite my house in Calcott road there is a building. It was once a police station but has since been turned into flats. I have always thought that this property gives my road so much character. I wanted to learn more about it for this book but to little avail. I asked in our local library for information, then Bristol City library, the Bristol City Council and finally I went to the Bristol records office. Nowhere had any record of the old police stations existence. I found this frustrating and so hard to believe because I’d heard stories from neighbours about their experiences with the station when it was in use. I could not believe that a building with such significance to the city would have no evidence of existence at all. I managed to work out the rough dates that it was built and then shut down using a record of houses and residents in my road but this is all I found. 9
Timeline of The
Police & Fire station Police & Fire station Inspector: Ernest Inspector: Ashford, HY Newton Chislett, RT Sergeant: Walter Horler
1927
1925
Police & Fire station built. Inspector: Stephen Joseph O’Neil Sergeant: Thomas Davies
1934
1931
1938
Houses built up to eight.
Police Station. Inspector: Walter Hill Sergeant: Herbet Holton
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Old Police Station
Station closed and turned into care home.
1968
To present day
1983
Turned into rented flats.
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Photo taken by Mr Loader in his house. This is his pet tortoise which he was very proud of, along with his substantial collection of memorabilia from his time in the war, and growing up in Bristol.