Bristol

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Bristol city (1991 pop. 370,300), SW England, at the confluence of the Avon and Frome rivers. Bristol, a leading international port, has extensive facilities, including docks at Avonmouth, Portishead, and Royal Portbury. It is a transportation hub and is a financial services center. General and nuclear engineering and the design and manufacture of aircraft are the largest industries. The Concorde, the former Franco-British supersonic airliner, was built in Bristol. Others industries include flour milling, printing, and the manufacture of paper, footwear, and tobacco products.

Points of interest in Bristol include the 14th-century church of St. Mary Redcliffe, known for its fine architecture; a 14th-century cathedral (rebuilt 1868–88) with a Norman chapter house and gateway; the Merchant Venturers' Almshouses; University Tower; and some notable examples of Regency architecture. The Clifton suspension bridge, spanning the Avon and the scenic Avon Gorge, connects Bristol with Leighwoods. Bristol has a famous university.

Bristol has been a trading center since the 12th cent. First chartered as a city in 1155, it became a separate county by order of Edward III in 1373, the first provincial town to receive this honor. During the reign of Edward III the manufacture of woolen cloth was developed. The cloth was exported chiefly to Ireland, Spain, and Portugal. From Bristol the explorers John Cabot and his son Sebastian (to whom there is a monument on Brandon Hill) sailed to Newfoundland and America. In the 18th cent. Bristol was active in the colonial triangular trade: English goods went to Africa; African slaves to the West Indies; and West Indian sugar, rum, and tobacco to Bristol. The Great Western (1838), one of the first transatlantic steamships, and the Great Britain (1845) the first ocean steamship with a screw propeller, were launched from Bristol.

The port declined during the late 18th and early 19th cent. because of competition from Liverpool, the end of slave trading, and the decline of the West Indian trade. It revived in the mid-19th cent. The city was heavily damaged during World War II. The poets Thomas Chatterton and Robert Southey were born there.

Bristol, whose university was the first in Britain to have a university department of drama, has a long theatre history. Elizabethan companies on tour played in the city, and Edward Alleyn and Richard Burbage appeared there. The first permanent theatre opened in 1729 at Jacob's Wells outside the city boundary. Mrs Hannah Pritchard appeared there in the 1740s, as did Charles Macklin. It closed during 1757, reopened a year later, and was used for the last time in 1765. In 1766 a larger theatre was built in King Street, with a new-style horseshoe-shaped auditorium. In 1778 it obtained a royal patent and became the Theatre Royal, being run in conjunction with the Theatre Royal at Bath until 1817, a connection which brought prosperity to both houses. The stock company in Bristol was a training-ground for young actors, among them Kate and Ellen Terry; but as the centre of the city ceased to be a residential area the status of the theatre declined and it went through hard times, playing mainly farce and pantomime. When it closed after an air-raid in 1941 it seemed doomed to destruction; but in 1943 it started a new lease of life (see BRISTOL OLD VIC).

Bristol A city at the junction of the rivers Avon and Frome. It is not recorded before c.1020, but by 1066 was a flourishing port. The Normans built there one of the key strategic castles of England. By 1216 Bristol was influential enough to have an elected mayor. In 1377 it ranked in the poll tax as the largest provincial town after York; its importance was recognized in 1373 when the king made it a county corporate; later its status was further enhanced when it became a cathedral city (1542). Bristol enjoyed a golden age in the late 17th and 18th cents. Its wealth came chiefly from transatlantic trade (especially in slaves) and its associated new industries (sugar and tobacco). By 1800, however, it was overtaken in importance by Liverpool, Manchester, and Birmingham. In the 1830s and 1840s I. K. Brunel helped to make Bristol an important terminus for railways and for Atlantic steamships, and from 1868 new docks at Avonmouth helped the city recover prosperity.

Bristol City and unitary authority at the confluence of the rivers Avon and Frome, sw England. An important seaport and trade centre since achieving city status in 1155, it was a major centre for the wool and cloth industry. From the 15th–18th century, it was England's second city and the base for many New World explorations. The 19th century witnessed a gradual decline in the city's economy due to competition from Liverpool. Bristol suffered intensive bombing during World War II. Clifton Suspension Bridge (designed by Brunel) was completed in 1864. Other sites include a 12th-century cathedral and the 14th-century church of St Mary Redcliffe. Bristol has two universities, the University of Bristol (1909) and the University of the West of England (1992). The main port facilities are now at Avonmouth. Industries: aircraft engineering, chemicals, tobacco. Pop. (1994 est.) 402,000.

Bristol, Canada, UK, USA UK (England): formerly Brycgstow and Bristou ‘Meeting Place by the Bridge’ from stōw and brycg, a reference to a stone bridge built at the place where the Lower Avon and the Frome Rivers used to join.

Bristol Brist. Brycg stowe 11th cent., Bristou 1086 (DB). ‘Assembly place by the bridge’. OE brycg + stōw.

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