Place:Brislington, Somerset, England

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia Brislington (#1 on map) is now an area in the southeast of the city of Bristol, England. It is on the edge of Bristol and 10 miles (16 km) from Bath. The Froome, locally nowadays called the Brislington Brook, runs through the area in the woodlands of Nightingale Valley and the ward of West Brislington. It is also the location of the historic Arnos Vale Cemetery. The present population of the two wards making up Brislington is over 22,000. The parish of Brislington was historically part of the Keynsham Hundred in Somerset. In 1866 Brislington became a civil parish. From 1894 until 1933 it was a parish in the Keynsham Rural District. But, by the early 20th century it was encompassed by Bristol, and much urban housing and industry developed. In 1933, the civil parish was abolished and the area absorbed into Bristol. [edit] History Brislington is also near to the site of the now demolished chapel of St. Anne's-in-the Wood, erected by one of the Lords de la Warr, whose family held the manor of Brislington from the late 12th to the mid-16th century; in the 15th century the chapel was a place of pilgrimage, visited by Henry VII. The chapel was demolished following the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the late 1530s. Thomas Amory built a house called "St. Ann's" at the site in the mid-17th century. During the 18th and 19th century, Brislington contained many country homes due to its reputation as a picturesque country village. It was also a notable centre of the making of brightly coloured English delftware pottery.

Brislington House (now known as Long Fox Manor) was built as a private lunatic asylum for the insane. When it opened in 1806 it was one of England's first purpose built asylums. The Palladian-fronted building was originally seven separate blocks into which patients were allocated depending on their class. The buildings, estate and therapeutic regime designed by Edward Long Fox (1761-1835) was based on the principles of moral treatment which was fashionable at the time. Brislington House later influenced the design and construction of other asylums and influenced an Act of parliament. The house and ancillary structures are listed buildings which have now been converted into private residences. The original grounds are Grade II* listed on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of special historic interest in England. They are now included on the Heritage at Risk Register.

Churches in Brislington include St Luke's (which dates from the 15th century) and includes a bell dating from 1766 and made by Thomas Bilbie of the Bilbie family, St Cuthbert's, the Carmel Christian Centre, St Christopher's and the United Reformed Church.

Research tips

• GENUKI page on Brislington.
• The Somerset Heritage Centre (incorporating what was formerly the Somerset Record Office and the Somerset Local Studies Library) can be found at its new location at Langford Mead in Taunton. It has an online search facility leading to pages of interest, including maps from the First and Second Ordnance Survey (select "Maps and Postcards" from the list at the left, then enter the parish in the search box).
  The Heritage Centre has an email address: archives@somerset.gov.uk.
• Three maps on the A Vision of Britain through Time website illustrate the changes in political boundaries over the period 1830-1945. All have expanding scales and on the second and third this facility is sufficient that individual parishes can be inspected.

• Somerset Hundreds as drawn in 1832. This map was prepared before The Great Reform Act of that year. Note the polling places and representation of the various parts of the county.
• Somerset in 1900, an Ordnance Survey map showing rural districts, the boundaries of the larger towns, the smaller civil parishes of the time, and some hamlets and villages in each parish
• Somerset in 1943, an Ordnance Survey map showing the rural districts after the changes to their structure in the 1930s

• Maps provided by the National Library of Scotland are also very useful. This map is currently set to an area now in the Sedgmoor District as it existed in the late 19th century, but can be moved to anywhere in the county using a variety of background maps. There is a very good search facility.
• A Vision of Britain through Time has a group of pages of statistical facts for almost every parish in the county
• GENUKI gives pointers to other archive sources as well as providing some details on each parish. The emphasis here is on ecclesiastical parishes (useful before 1837)
• A listing of all the Registration Districts in England and Wales since their introduction in 1837 and tables of the parishes that were part of each district and the time period covered with detailed notes on changes of parish name, mergers, etc. The compiler has gone to a lot of work to provide this material. Respect his copyright.
• The FamilySearch Wiki for Somerset provides a similar but not identical series of webpages to that provided by GENUKI
• English Jurisdictions, a supplementary website to FamilySearch outlining local parish boundaries in the middle on the 19th century. The information provided is especially useful for establishing the relationship of the ecclesiastical parishes in large towns and cathedral cities.
• The Victoria History of the Counties of England – History of the County of Somerset, produced by The Institute of Historical Research at the University of London is a scholarly website with articles tracing the history of individual parishes which are sorted into their hundreds, the early subdivisions of the county. It traces the ownership of estates and manors, describes the local church in detail, and usually provides a map of each parish. The volumes for Somerset are much more recent than those for other counties. It appears to be a work in progress, only covering about half the county so far. A map of the places covered in the series is given in Volume 6, but 3 more volumes have been published since then. If a parish is included there will be a note in its Research Tips.
• The Somerset and Dorset Family History Society
• The Weston super Mare Family History Society
• The Bristol and Avon Family History Society
• A list of all Somerset parishes with online transcripts of parish registers The size of Somerset makes this a huge project. If it does not yield what you are looking for, try getting in touch with the organizer with patience and politeness.
• Somerset Online Parish Clerk project home page
• A collection of West Somerset Parish Register Transcriptions are online courtesy of Martin Southwood