Place:Clifton, Gloucestershire, England

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Clifton is now both a suburb of Bristol, England, and the name of one of the city's thirty-five council wards. The Clifton ward also includes the areas of Cliftonwood and Hotwells (see below). Until 1898 Clifton St Andrew was a separate civil parish within the County Borough of Bristol.

Clifton ward, which includes Hotwells, has a population of 10,452 in 5,007 households, according to adjusted figures for the 2001 census. On the same basis, Clifton East ward has a population of 9,538 in 4,741 households. In Clifton ward, 27% of the adult population (aged 16 to 74 years) is in full-time education.

Clifton is situated between the central part of the City of Bristol and the River Avon which, at this point, flows through a very deep gorge.

Clifton is one of the oldest and most affluent areas of the city, much of it having been built with profits from tobacco and the slave trade. It was at one time a separate settlement in Gloucestershire but became attached to Bristol by continuous development during the Georgian era and was formally incorporated into the city in the 1830s.

Cliftonwood

Cliftonwood is a small suburb of the English port city of Bristol. It is bounded approximately by the Hotwell Road to the south, Jacob's Wells Road and Constitution Hill to the east and northeast, Clifton Vale to the West, and by the gardens of Goldney Hall, a University of Bristol hall of residence, to the north. Some sources spell the area Cliftonwood (one word), and some Clifton Wood (two words).

Hotwells

Hotwells is a district of the English port city of Bristol. It is located to the south of and below the high ground of Clifton, and directly to the north of the Floating Harbour. The southern entrance to the Avon Gorge, which connects those docks to the sea, lies at the western end of Hotwells. Bristol Cathedral is situated at the eastern end of Hotwells, adjacent to The Council House and College Green. Hotwells forms part of the city ward of Clifton. The 19th century chemist Sir Humphry Davy, worked in Hotwells.

See also the Wikipedia article Hotwells

Registration Districts

• Clifton Registration District (1837-1877)
• Barton Regis Registration District (1877 - 1896) Abolished 1896 to become part of the parish of North Bristol.

Research Tips

• Clifton Online has a brief history of Clifton
• UK Genealogy Archives article on Clifton transcribed from The Comprehensive Gazetteer of England and Wales, 1894-5
• Bristol Archives is where paper and microfilm copies of all records for Bristol and its environs are stored.

Online sources which may also be helpful:

• 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 (except in the immediate Bristol area--for Bristol, see English Jurisdictions).

• Gloucestershire 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.
• Gloucestershire 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
• Gloucestershire in 1943, an Ordnance Survey map showing the rural districts after the changes to their structure in the 1930s

• 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 Gloucestershire 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 locations of ecclesiastical parishes in large towns and cathedral cities, as well as changes in their dedications (names). Very useful for Bristol.
• The Church Crawler has a website of photos and histories of English Churches with emphasis on Bristol.
• Unfortunately, the Victoria County History series provided by the website British History Online only provides information on Gloucestershire Churches in this part of the county. More general information on the Bristol and South Gloucestershire area is sadly omitted.
• Ancestry UK has recently added Gloucestershire Burials, 1813-1988; Confirmations, 1834-1913; Baptisms, 1813-1913; Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1813; and Marriages and Banns, 1754-1938. (entry dated 1 Aug 2015)
• Ancestry has also now updated Bristol, England, Select Church of England Parish Registers, 1720-1933 (entry dated 14 Mar 2016)
• England and Wales Jurisdictions 1851 provides a map illustrating the locations of the various Bristol parishes. Enter "Bristol" in the search box at the top left, then select the parish required from the list below the search box.