By Mike Chapman
Print
Email
The present layout of the High Street originated during the administration of the Bath Turnpike Trust which was authorised by Act of Parliament in 1707. Although it is not possible here to speculate on the appearance of the High Street when it was still under the control of the parish, from entries in the minute books of the Trust it appears to have been somewhat constricted. In 1757, when an extensive programme of improvements to the Lower Bristol Road was carried out, it was reported that the road in front of the George Inn was ‘too narrow for two carriages to pass’ and that the road ‘between the White Hart and the Lane to Mr.Sperrin’s [i.e. to his Mill, now Mill Lane]’ had been widened. Numerous gardens and orchards were set back, and several buildings, including ‘a little baker’s shop’ and (later) ‘a tenement of the Duke of Chandos’ (then a prominent landowner in Twerton) were demolished for road widening. At about this time, James Chilcott ‘of Twerton’ (presumably the builder of ‘Chilcott’s Buildings’ in the High Street) was appointed Surveyor of the Lower Bristol Road for the Trust. There was also a turnpike gate somewhere in the village at the time, but this appears to have become redundant in the 1760s after the Newbridge ‘Cross Post’ gate was installed at Newton St.Loe. 
From details of the road shown on C.Harcourt Master’s map, produced for the Trust in 1786, it can be seen that the street layout created by these works has broadly remained unaltered since then. Even the high pavement in front of the present Full Moon is included, where the main road continued steeply down the hill (now Connection Road, known locally as ‘Big Hill’) towards the Lower Mill and the level stretch beside the river then known as ‘Twerton Flat’. There was however one notable difference from today. At the top of the hill, the lane to Newton St.Loe branched away up the slope in front of the Full Moon through the site of the churchyard, where it passed between a complex of buildings before continuing on through the fields. These buildings, known as Church Row, have long since disappeared, except for a rank of cottages at the western end of the Row which still remain on the opposite side of How Hill, their front gardens now occupying the course of the old lane. At a point between the Church Rooms and the churchyard gate another lane turned off sharply left, passing the church below the eastern wall of the churchyard. This lane (‘Half-acre Lane’ or ‘Watery Lane’), led to the church gate and entrance porch (which stood on the south side before the 19th century), before continuing on up through the fields towards Haycombe and Englishcombe.
Connection Road, which runs through a deep cutting, probably originated as one of the many ancient ‘holloways’ commonly found in the Bath area, created by the combined erosion from downwash and traffic wear. Even today it can be appreciated that this gradient would have presented a daunting obstacle to 18th century traffic (even without the railway arch), and in the 1750s efforts were made to ‘ease the ascent and raise the bottom from the floods’. At the bottom, a slipway to the river was also provided to a watering-place next to the mill. The opinion was then already being expressed that this stretch of road should be diverted along an easier gradient. The next large-scale programme of improvements along the Lower Bristol Road was proposed in 1827, under the direction of John Loudon McAdam, who had been appointed Surveyor General of the Bath Turnpike Trust the previous year. This not only included further road widening, but also the deviation previously proposed at the western end of Twerton Village. The new diversion started at the fork between Connection Road and the old lane to Newton, and following the present course of the road towards How Hill, continued straight on towards Twerton Wood on a more gentle slope to rejoin the original line of the road along ‘Twerton Flat’.
In the process, the buildings on the north side of Newton Lane in Church Row (including a small malthouse) were demolished, all of which belonged to Charles Wilkins. Characteristically, Wilkins arranged to have the lane at the eastern end stopped up, so that he could build some new dwellings next to the houses that remained on the south side. In return, a new lane was opened up from the new road at the bottom of How Hill to maintain access into Newton Lane in front of the How Hill cottages. It also provided the opportunity to replace Watery Lane with a new route from this junction through the site of the western farm complex past the tower of the church. By this means, the west door now became the main entrance instead of the south porch, which was demolished. Although Connection Road was now made redundant, it was retained as a parish road for access to the Lower Mill and Wilkin’s residence next to it. The rest of the road at the bottom of the hill was then closed off and the space used by Wilkins for an ornamental riverside pleasure ground on the west side of his house.
These arrangements however proved to be temporary, as the act was passed in 1834 for the building of the Great Western Railway through the parish. This not only entailed the construction of the viaduct between the High Street and the river, but provision was also made for a new section of turnpike road to be built along the north side of the viaduct as a village ‘bypass’. Three arches were built under the viaduct to connect the High Street with this new road. The main entrance was at the eastern end, where the railway cut directly across the Street, and where Twerton station was built. Another was constructed over Mill Lane, leaving the tail end of the lane (still visible today) leading on to the river on the opposite side of the bypass. At the western end of the Street, ‘Big Hill’ was reconnected with the new road (hence the title ‘Connection Road’), under another arch. The new diversion through Twerton Wood, now redundant, was stopped up and mostly destroyed by the construction of the railway cutting at the approach to the eastern portal of Twerton tunnel. However, the short section leading towards How Hill was retained to maintain access into the lanes to Newton and Englishcombe. In 1838, when Charles Wilkins moved to his new residence in Wood House (his original house by the mill was demolished for the railway) and vacated the site of the western farm, the opportunity was taken to extend How Hill into the farm area in order to replace these lanes (yet again) with the roads which we see today. Newton Road was redirected around the back of the cottages in How Hill, past Hope Cottage, and Watery Lane removed to the west side of the farmyard area which was then sold to the church to extend the churchyard. In the 1870s the turnpike trusts gave way to local authority control, but since the completion of the railway in 1840, the High Street layout has remained unchanged except for alterations to the side roads. The junction with Shophouse Road was widened in 1932 and Dominion Road was opened up for the post-war housing development in 1951. In the early 1970s, the entrance to Clyde Gardens was built opposite.
View Comments (0)
|
