William Champion's Grotto at his Brass Works

I am back blipping this as we didn't return home early enough from our jaunt to Bristol yesterday. Woodpeckers intrigued me with the opportunity to take a day long educative course run by the Workers Education Association. She has been enthusing about the WEA ever since she started one of their courses in Stroud some months ago. We needed to drive to an outer suburb of north Bristol to learn about the 'Industrial Archaeology of Bristol and Avon from the Tudor period to the 19th century', and to be fair, I would rather have stayed in bed by the time had woken.

But now I'm delighted that we made the effort, as the tutor, Paul Driscoll, was an excellent educator maintaining a good balance between dry historical facts and social relevance. His two hour introduction was held within the lovely old wood panelled walls of an upstairs room in The Chantry, a community centre in Thornbury. Then we all travelled independently to Ram Hill Colliery at Coalpit Heath, which was an important coal mine of the North Bristol coalfield. After a short tour of the small site, which is now quite rightly a scheduled monument, we set off to drive a few more miles to Warmley, on the eastern side of Bristol, to explore the equally important and historic William Champion's Brass Works, which dated from the 1740s.

Woodpeckers has recounted the story well, and blipped a picture of our guide, Paul in the grotto, which William Champion had constructed between his industrial works and his adjacent house.

I decided to show the reverse shot, taken from where Paul was standing as he described the intriguing grotto to the group. Nothing about this site or william Champion is certain, as he was so secretive, and very few records remained after the collapse of his enterprise and his bankruptcy. The whole story of his inventions, his patent and the establishment of one of the very earliest industrial complexes to produce goods for consumption and particularly for export and is fascinating.

But the grotto seen here was generally thought to be for entertainment, but I felt that it was very much allied to the industrial processes. My view shows the entrance to grottos behind these other participants, which go back at leas ten yards and incorporate another huge pit, beneath an opening to the sky, covered by a grate, with pipes probably linking the ponds together. It has to be seen to possibly make sense. But since no-one so far has come up with the 'facts', only interpretations, anyone can have an honest opinion and possibly be correct.

I think I would like to go on other courses they run, and was sorry to hear that w'd missed three other courses covering earlier periods of history, the pre-Roman, Anglo-saxon and Medieval eras.

See their website for information local to your area.

The brass works at Warmley, as described on the English Heritage website.