(above) Detail from William Smith's view of Bristol, 1568. Bristol was
a flourishing port with a mint at the beginning of the 11th century,
but its origins and measure of planning that may have gone into its
layout are still uncertain. Impetus to settle there came from
the protective and commercial benefits of the Rivers Avon (south) and
Frome (a tributary). Early settlement lay on raised ground between these
two; it was much smaller than in this depiction, a defensive bank
defining its perimeter still visible in 1568 in the almost circular
course of the inner ring road later replaced by a wall. The north-south
road between bridges across the two rivers, and a cross-cutting east-west
road were the original foci for habitation, their names respectively
Broad Street/High Street and Corn Street/Wine Street indicating their
importance and the commercial character of the settlement. It was the
river crossing which gave Bristol its name, derived from Saxon terms
meaning "place of assembly by the bridge".
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Those core features were what an artist chose to highlight, in an
illustration (at right) for Ricart's
Kalendar of 1479, to represent the medieval town: the four
main streets converging at the marketplace, with its high cross (erected
1373); the inner walls with the four gates St. John's to the north,
guarding the entrance from the Frome bridge, St. Nicholas' gate to the
south (the saints names reflecting the addition of churches onto the gate
structures) near the Avon bridge, St. Leonard's gate to the west giving
access to the far end of the quayside along the Frome, and the New Gate on
the east side near the Norman castle (built by 1088), which sealed off the
land-based access to the peninsula formed by the two rivers and became the
administrative centre for the earldom of Gloucester until 1175. By the
end of the 13th century, large suburbs had developed in all directions of
the compass, all but the northern one (where most of the major religious
houses were established) protected by new lines of walls.
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