Looking Back

I recently came upon a series of negatives that I had taken back in the days of “steam cameras” using Ilford XP1 film. I had recorded some houses in East Clevedon for the records but never printed them. The stone built houses were erected by/for Watts in the 1820’s in that part of Clevedon called Stonebridge. The name was given because the roadway used to get flooded in the winter and was given a hardcore surface in an effort to stop the mud bogging down farm wagons and carts. Otherwise they would have to go up through the narrow Carey’s Lane as it was called in those days, before the building of All saints Church.

The main cause of the flooding was a spring that rose in the valley and ran down through the fields where the present petrol station now stands.

That area and modern road still used to flood after heavy rainstorms as late as the 1960’s

Eventually the Way-wards got the road straightened out to its present situation.

However who would think that this little dirt surfaced track was once the main road leaving Clevedon for Tickenham and Nailsea.