Sunday, November 22, 2015

What a difference a few years can make.

I was talking to someone that I had always thought of as a Clevedonian a few weeks back and mentioned Marks’ Hill, a name commonly known and used by my family.
They looked at me a bit puzzled, and I said to them “You know what I am talking about don’t you” They grinned a bit and said “You can’t catch me you know. It’s the little bit of Hill Road where Marks the chemist had his shop. Now it’s called Marine Hill”
I then patiently explained that whilst Ben Marks the chemist took the business on from his father Fred, he, in turn had been apprenticed to the chemist by His father who ran a little tea shop and café at the very beginning of Hill Road.
This had caused the hill now known as Park Hill getting the name Marks Hill.
“I suppose you don’t know where Coombe Hill is” I asked them.
Highdale Road” was the answer. “No” I said “Only the bottom part of Highdale Road was Coombe Hill, Then the top part of it ran up through the firwoods to what was later called ‘The Arches’ and then up to the farm when that was built”
Highdale Road started from the other end; from Chapel Hill and couldn't be reached from Coombe Hill until they cut through the rocks where the little bridge went across the road.
When that was done they stopped calling the bottom part Coombe Hill and it all became Highdale Road. That was probably when Stewart Cottage was built. They had a double purpose in doing that. first the stone they quarried out could be used in building the houses and second they opened up a way to East Clevedon.”.
It made me think of the changes that had taken place in Clevedon. Hallam Road as an example was intended to be called Osborne Road, Woodlands Road was originally proposed as Woodland Road. Even in later years when the development off of Northern Way took place the Eastern part was intended as Regent Park – Clevedonians however insisted on adding the ending s to it and it finished up as Regents Park.

So life goes on, I wonder what we will be called in a few years time, Clevedon-by-Bristol? 

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