Knowle West - History

History

There is evidence of late Iron Age and Roman settlement at Inns Court and Filwood Park, which lie within Knowle West. In 1086, the area that is now Knowle West was assessed by the Domesday survey as part of Knowle in the hundred of Hartcliffe. The survey shows Knowle as being under the lordship of Eadnoth the Constable who had 30 holdings in Devon, Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire before the Norman conquest. After the conquest, Knowle became part of the holdings of Osbern Giffard, who was lord, or tenant in chief, of holdings throughout Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Wiltshire and Somerset. The Domesday Book shows Knowle as having eleven households, three ploughlands, one cob (small horse), eight cattle, twenty five pigs, a meadow of 16 acres (6.5 ha), pasture of 20 acres (8.1 ha) and a woodland area of 2.5 furlongs (500 m) by 1.5 furlongs (300 m). For taxation purposes, the whole was assessed at two geld units. Filwood Park, in the southern part of the area was part of the parish of Whitchurch until incorporated into Bristol in 1930. In Anglo-Saxon times Filwood Chase was part of the royal hunting estate known as Kingswood Forest, which encompassed a large area around Bristol.

Inns Court and Filwood farms have medieval origins. The surviving parts of Inns Court, originally Inyn's Court, are now part of the former Holy Cross Inns Court Vicarage and the staircase turret is now a Grade II* listed building. The building is in a state of bad repair and is on the "at risk" register. An isolation hospital was built at Nover's Hill in 1892, eventually superseded by a new hospital at Ham Green, near Pill, which opened in 1927. The site is now occupied by the Knowle DGE (DGE standing for Discovery, Guidance and Enjoyment) Special School. In the 1920s, the area was still rural in nature, mostly agricultural and allotment land, including Filwood Farm, Inns Court Farm and Hengrove House. The old field boundaries influenced the subsequent development.

Knowle West was built in the 1930s as a council housing estate. It was constructed on garden city principles, with large gardens and "an abundance of fresh air and daylight." The aim of the development was to provide new homes for those who needed to be relocated as a result of clearance of inner-city slums in Bristol and "to provide healthier living conditions for large families on low incomes.

A new wave of development commenced in the 1960s at Inns Court, occasioned by the need for more homes following the further clearance of inner city areas which had been devastated by the Bristol Blitz. Prefabricated homes, which had been erected since World War II at Filwood Park were demolished in the 1960s. Subsequently, new homes were built on the Radburn principles. "Common features were grouped houses arranged around a cul-de sac street layout thus the street layout broke away from the conventional street grid pattern", but this style of development is now considered to be a failure, due to the lack of "a safe and well-overlooked environment." The layout of housing built around short cul-de-sacs "has resulted in a physical environment that contributes to isolation rather than facilitating community interaction", according to a 2009 city council report on the area. By 2008, around 45 per cent of the 4,475 homes were owner occupied. Plans were announced in 2010 for demolition of 1,000 homes in Inns Court. Local residents were opposed to this, and following their campaign, the council withdrew the plans and met with residents to discuss plans for redeveloping Filwood Broadway with new shops and a supermarket.