Ashley Hill : Ashley Down (1)

The Victorian Suburb

Come with fbb on a virtual ride on First Bristol's Route 70.

It has probably had three different liveries since the above was pictured!

The route will take you past Montpelier station (on the line to Severn Beach) which is unstaffed and, in recent years, has not looked its best.

It didn't look that good when it did look its best!

As you continue along Ashton Down Road, get ready to alight at the Sefton Park Road stop which fbb guesses would be known as "Muller Homes" to many an aged Bristolian.

That is because, opposite the stop, you will find the former orphanage developed by legendary Christian and Philanthropic George Muller.

His work was huge amongst the poor and deprived of Bristol.

Whilst the idea of massive orphanage buildings is no longer the modern way, the building still stands.

As you would expect from that far off age, the children were segregated, wore uniform and were highly disciplined.

His work was pioneering in its day.

But now you walk forward in the direction of the bus and you will soon spot a right hand turn  ...

Turn here and you would be walking down Station Road, which, surprise surprise, led to a railway station. But it was not called Ashley Down. Until 1964 you would find Ashley Hill station.

Notice that, in its early days, on the far (eastern) side of the station there is just countryside.

Of course, the building of this station contributed enormously to the development of its surrounding suburbs as it provided a quick ride into Bristol.

So housing was developed down Station Road with the left hand side of the thoroughfare being unchanged today.

Below, we see the development on the western side of the station seen from the platform.

The concept of "Express GWR Station" might have been a bit optimistic, but (above right) it did have a "Station Hotel".

The building is still there but now divided into flats.

It stood at the bottom of Lilstock Avenue.

Opposite the hotel, the station had two platforms, substantial station buildings and gained a footbridge.

In the above shot, the Station Hotel etc is off shot to the right and the fence (top right) is on the edge of the cul-de-sac end of Station Road.

There's still a fence there but undergrowth precludes a view of the line.

But it is there, honest.

And below are some of the girls from the orphanage awaiting a train to take them on an exciting excursion, perhaps to Weston-super-Mud, changing at Bristol Temple Meads.

Hmmm? Maybe not ideal beach wear, but perhaps they had their voluminous cozzies in their bags.

Tomorrow, fbb aims to put Ashley Hill station into its railway context.

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With their fellowship meetings coming up in a week, here is part one of the quiz pages. The leaflet takes a glance at the somewhat obscure clean and unclean designation of the various animals as outlined in the Old Testament. The rules may seem obscure, but in the context of, say, 1200BC, they were a remarkably prescient guide to healthy eating.

The quiz is simple - just identify the alphabetical (and not necessarily biblical!) fruit and veg.

13 more tomorrow.

Puzzle Picture

Above are the platforms on the flyover at Bletchley. These platforms will open when the Oxford to Bedford via Bletchley service starts. The bus that accompanied the puzzle Picture was a United Counties VR terminating at Stony Stratford, a small town on the A5 which was originally far more important than the obscure village of Bletchley

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 3 Days to Go 

 Next Ashley Down blog : Tues 1st Oct