William GRIGG and Ann DELVER and their descendants

churchyard

Hengrove House

Recently, a local group has produced a booklet on Hengrove and they have done some research on the place including the house. If you want, I can send you some info including a scan of a picture of the place.

I've found it! - or rather where it was. I went to the Central Library and was able to look at an 1884 ordnance survey map of the area and Hengrove House is clearly shown. It is west of what was Hengrove Farm and slightly to the north. The map was a photocopy of an original 23.144 inches to a mile reduced by about 2 1/2! - so it was difficult to compare with the 4.25 inches to a mile map I have from more recent times. However I did some calculations and estimate that the house was on the other side of Airport road in an area now known as Knowle West - approximately where Newquay Road and Poyntz Road meet Throgmorton Road ..... when I get back to work next week, I will photocopy the two maps and send them to you so you can do your own calculations! The area was built on in the late 1920/early 1930s a large red brick council estate - I'll go and have a look but don't expect to find anything.

Do you think the suburb was named after the house?

I attach a map scanned from the booklet (which shows that my estimate of where the house stood was pretty close to the mark, between where Poyntz Road and Newquay Road join Throgmorton Road but a but further back - so that the houses built there pre war would not have had to be built OVER Hengrove House but adjacent to it!) In fact the house stood until the 70's when it was finally knocked down. I also attach a picture of the house - taken when it was used as a kind of youth club sometime in the first half of the last century - they book says they don't know when but I suspect it would have been after the war - maybe at the time of Queen Elizabeth's coronation in 1952? ... something like that. Here is a pr�cis of what the booklet says about the house and area : Matthews Bristol Guide (1825) refers to Hengrove House as... 'a handsome seat, pleasantly situated... In the second west field stands a stout square stone about three feet high which has a flat stone fastened to it's front with the following inscription inscribed in capitals:- To praise the Lord our God devise All honour to him shew And at his footstool worship him That holy is and true Moses, Aron and Samuel As priests on him do call When they did pray they heard him well And gave them answer all The princely power of our King Doth love judgement and Right Thou rightly rulest everything In Jacob through thy might Know thou that he who is above For evermore shall reign And in the seat of Equity True Judgement well maintain With Justice will he keep and guide The Worlde and every weight And so will yield with Equity To every man his might Erected AD1536 Repaired 1748 The first date is about the Reformation, began by Thomas Cromwell, as a memorial of which this stone was erected. Since the year 1795, when the above was copied, part of the flat stone containing the inscription has been stolen away, the rest lay on the ground which is now entirely destroyed. The stone that remains is one of the boundaries of the Parish of Bedminster, and when the Minister and Church wardens go in procession to examine the bounds, they here stop, read a prayer and sing the 118th psalm which appears to be an ancient custom. We would recommend the re-erection of this stone as a piece of antiquity which ought to be preserved, and might be done at a trifling expense by the parish of Bedminster" Ann - I suspect that the above is a bit of an 18th century confection - the wording is most certainly not 16th century. However it was certainly a tradition to 'beat the bounds' of parishes annually and stones facilitated this practice. Whatever is true the connection between the verse and 118th psalm which deals with the temporary power of Princes and infinite justice of God is clear enough! The booklet goes on to say that .... the 1882 map shows Hengrove House in relation to other buildings (you have that map). In the 18th century the place was given a Georgian face-lift - which gave it the imposing frontage and large windows of the period. We also know that during a great deal of the 19th century, the house was occupied by the Griggs family, Francis, Ann and their descendants. One of the family was a surgeon. The last tenants of the building were a family called Murphy who were cattle dealers and used to fatten up Irish cattle for market. This was in the early years of the 20th century. In the early 1930's the land and house were bought by the Bristol Corporation for the development of the Knowle West area. - the house became a temporary office and building work store. It was vacated in early 1940s and handed over as a youth club. As time went on the building deteriorated, the top floor was removed and finally it was demolished in the early 1970's - a modern youth club was built close by. There are still old walls around associated with the house and apparently faint remains of a mill that once stood close by.

Neighbours of Hengrove House, 1881

Neighbours of the Griggs on the 1881 census CD and clearly "Hengrove House" was not in Keynsham as I said in my last email! Keynsham was the census district not limited to the actual town and it extended into what is now Brislington within the Bristol boundary. The 'neighbours' on the 1881 census CD include: The Manor House, West Town Cottage, West Town Farm (owned by the Hassells), The Hollys, The Woodlands - and all these houses are identifiable today as being around the West Town Lane area, adjacent to and a short walk from what is now the area of Hengrove where I live. Other 'neighbours' in the census are : No.1 Hengrove Cottages, Hengrove Cottage and Hengrove Farm - I can't find a trace of the two cottages but as I said before, Hengrove Farm is still identifiable on the map - it is a tall white house with small windows. I really would like to find the site of Hengrove House now - when I do I'll let you know!

Source: Bygone Brislington by Jonathan Rowe