Baptist Revival
That is to say a reconstruction of Baptist Mills, a small district in Bristol. I know a couple of people have noticed the slow-down in my posting pics recently and activity on Flickr, well this is why. I have been working on a reconstruction of this historic site about 2 miles from the heart of Bristol, a location that one of my own proposed designs will site on the site of. I have no idea why it has taken me so long to get absorbed in the history of this place, but it hit me hard a few weeks ago and has been diverting my attentions from Flickr ever since. However it is, at last, at a stage where I wanted to share it.
THE BRASS MILLS
The Mills were one of the largest Brass foundries in Europe at their height. Opened in 1702 it was recorded at the state shown here in 1750 close to its peak. Closed in 1814 all traces of it were virtually extinguished by the 1890's and today nothing is left at all.
The site is adjacent to the M32 motorway into the centre of the city and which roughly replaces the alignment of the river Froome shown here. In this view North is almost exactly to the left side of the frame. For those that might know this understated part of Bristol the road with the terrace of white houses is the modern day Millpond Street close to Millpond School, and the triangle of green space is roughly approximate the the rough area of grass adjacent to the Easton Way Roundabout.
The Mills are also important in the history of the UK as the starting point for experiments by Abraham Darby, Father of the industrial Revolution. In fact it was here at Baptist Mills that he first pioneered the casting of iron which he would later develop in Coalbrookdale. A great deal of secrecy surrounded these experiments, industrial espionage being rife in the period. The laboratory, the first experimental metallurgical lab was known as the Essay House.
The brass produced here was turned into pans and pots by hammering and was known as battery ware. The brass was also cast into brass Manilla's and Guinea Pans and were a staple commodity in the first leg of the Triangular Trade involving slave trafficking from Africa to the New World.
THE METHODISTS AND THE 'AWAKENING'
Another fact that has been lost from the collective memory is that the site of the green, that area shown here on the right, was, in 1739 one of the first locations that a young John Wesley began outdoors preaching. George Whitfield, an evangelical preacher turned to preaching in the fields when the doors of Bristol's churches were closed to him. Although sites in nearby Kingswood and Hanham are better known, the green at Baptist Mills has equal right to notoriety. Whitfield and Wesley preached here regularly, often twice weekly, to crowds of 3000-4000 people at a time, then almost 10% of the city's recorded population. The preferred sites were always close to working class people who were neglected by the established church and with its Brass Mill and rural location as short walk from the city it was an ideal place to preach.
REVIVAL
As the city expanded in the C18th pressure to develop the land saw the whole area swallowed up with residential terraces, but a Methodist chapel stood as monument to the early Methodists. Eventually in the 1970's the m32 motorway was driven through the area and into the City centre.
With the community largely dispersed memories faded and knowledge of the site's unlikely place in the Nation's history faded. The green has now largely returned to open space, albeit slowly with the progressive removal of derelict buildings and suffers a number of unsavory social problems. The City Council is now trying to arrest this decline and return the site to the heart of a community once more with a new learning centre, houses, flats, and commercial units around a new green space.
THE RECONSTRUCTION
The basis of this has been made from a detailed scale plan of 1750 held in the City Record office. When I say detailed, it is remarkably accurate and matches very well with modern ordnance survey maps to the same scale! Photographs of the map were stitched, imported into Sketchup and scaled to the right size.
As none of the structures still exists there has been a great deal of effort trying to source historic images of the site and it's buildings. Although there are scant illustrative sources (only one painting from when the brass mills were in operation) these have been supplemented by elaborate written descriptions of the site have been an essential resource. It is ironic that the same industrial spies of the C18th that stole the details of the Baptist Mills processes have been so useful in it's reconstruction. Finally other sites of similar age and industrial use have been reviewed to fill in the gaps in knowledge especially thee other Brassworks at Warmley whose structures were still extant until the 1960's.
The model is not yet complete, and by no means perfect, but gives a good impression of Baptist Mills in 1750 and a glimpse into how it might once have been. It is fascinating to to be working with a site with such a rich history condensed in such a small geographic area, and to be able to use the development project I am involved with to be able to disseminate knowledge of the importance of this site to Bristol and UK.
Baptist Revival
That is to say a reconstruction of Baptist Mills, a small district in Bristol. I know a couple of people have noticed the slow-down in my posting pics recently and activity on Flickr, well this is why. I have been working on a reconstruction of this historic site about 2 miles from the heart of Bristol, a location that one of my own proposed designs will site on the site of. I have no idea why it has taken me so long to get absorbed in the history of this place, but it hit me hard a few weeks ago and has been diverting my attentions from Flickr ever since. However it is, at last, at a stage where I wanted to share it.
THE BRASS MILLS
The Mills were one of the largest Brass foundries in Europe at their height. Opened in 1702 it was recorded at the state shown here in 1750 close to its peak. Closed in 1814 all traces of it were virtually extinguished by the 1890's and today nothing is left at all.
The site is adjacent to the M32 motorway into the centre of the city and which roughly replaces the alignment of the river Froome shown here. In this view North is almost exactly to the left side of the frame. For those that might know this understated part of Bristol the road with the terrace of white houses is the modern day Millpond Street close to Millpond School, and the triangle of green space is roughly approximate the the rough area of grass adjacent to the Easton Way Roundabout.
The Mills are also important in the history of the UK as the starting point for experiments by Abraham Darby, Father of the industrial Revolution. In fact it was here at Baptist Mills that he first pioneered the casting of iron which he would later develop in Coalbrookdale. A great deal of secrecy surrounded these experiments, industrial espionage being rife in the period. The laboratory, the first experimental metallurgical lab was known as the Essay House.
The brass produced here was turned into pans and pots by hammering and was known as battery ware. The brass was also cast into brass Manilla's and Guinea Pans and were a staple commodity in the first leg of the Triangular Trade involving slave trafficking from Africa to the New World.
THE METHODISTS AND THE 'AWAKENING'
Another fact that has been lost from the collective memory is that the site of the green, that area shown here on the right, was, in 1739 one of the first locations that a young John Wesley began outdoors preaching. George Whitfield, an evangelical preacher turned to preaching in the fields when the doors of Bristol's churches were closed to him. Although sites in nearby Kingswood and Hanham are better known, the green at Baptist Mills has equal right to notoriety. Whitfield and Wesley preached here regularly, often twice weekly, to crowds of 3000-4000 people at a time, then almost 10% of the city's recorded population. The preferred sites were always close to working class people who were neglected by the established church and with its Brass Mill and rural location as short walk from the city it was an ideal place to preach.
REVIVAL
As the city expanded in the C18th pressure to develop the land saw the whole area swallowed up with residential terraces, but a Methodist chapel stood as monument to the early Methodists. Eventually in the 1970's the m32 motorway was driven through the area and into the City centre.
With the community largely dispersed memories faded and knowledge of the site's unlikely place in the Nation's history faded. The green has now largely returned to open space, albeit slowly with the progressive removal of derelict buildings and suffers a number of unsavory social problems. The City Council is now trying to arrest this decline and return the site to the heart of a community once more with a new learning centre, houses, flats, and commercial units around a new green space.
THE RECONSTRUCTION
The basis of this has been made from a detailed scale plan of 1750 held in the City Record office. When I say detailed, it is remarkably accurate and matches very well with modern ordnance survey maps to the same scale! Photographs of the map were stitched, imported into Sketchup and scaled to the right size.
As none of the structures still exists there has been a great deal of effort trying to source historic images of the site and it's buildings. Although there are scant illustrative sources (only one painting from when the brass mills were in operation) these have been supplemented by elaborate written descriptions of the site have been an essential resource. It is ironic that the same industrial spies of the C18th that stole the details of the Baptist Mills processes have been so useful in it's reconstruction. Finally other sites of similar age and industrial use have been reviewed to fill in the gaps in knowledge especially thee other Brassworks at Warmley whose structures were still extant until the 1960's.
The model is not yet complete, and by no means perfect, but gives a good impression of Baptist Mills in 1750 and a glimpse into how it might once have been. It is fascinating to to be working with a site with such a rich history condensed in such a small geographic area, and to be able to use the development project I am involved with to be able to disseminate knowledge of the importance of this site to Bristol and UK.