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Clifton in Gloucester County England History and GeographyCLIFTON, a parish and fashionable watering-place, in the hundred of BARTON-REGIS, county of GLOUCESTER, 1¼ mile (W.) from Bristol, 14 miles (N.W.) from Bath, and 121 (W. by S.) from London, containing 8811 inhabitants. This place, by some antiquaries supposed to have been a British town prior to the Roman invasion, and to have been called Caer-oder, or city of the chasm, derives its present name from its romantic situation on the acclivities and summit of a precipitous cliff, apparently separated by some convulsion of nature, from a chain of rocks in the Bristol channel. The river Avon, which is navigable for ships of the greatest burden, flows with a rapid current through this natural chasm, forming the south-western boundary of the parish, and separating the counties of Gloucester and Somerset. On the summit of the cliff, which rises to the height of three hundred feet above the bed of the river, was anciently a small chapel dedicated to St. Vincent, from which the rock on the north-east bank takes its name. The town is indebted for its present grandeur and importance to the efficacy of its hot wells, originally noticed, in 1480, by William of Worcester, but not brought into general use till 1632, when the water was first applied externally in cases of scrophula and cancer, and internally, in 1672, in cases of inflammation, dysentery, and hemorrhage. These waters issue from an aperture in the cliff, about ten feet above low water-mark, and about twenty-six below high water-mark, and are pumped into reservoirs for use, besides being conveyed by pipes into many of the houses; the aperture is secured from the water of the river, which in spring tides rises to the height of thirty-six feet. Their mean temperature is 68' of Fahrenheit, and they contain a portion of sulphuric acid, but are soft and pleasant to the taste, and free from any f'tid smell; they are generally drunk in the morning before breakfast, and in the afternoon. At the time of the earthquake at Lisbon, the water became so red and turbid as to be unfit for use. That part of the town called the Hot Wells, and formerly the more populous, is situated at the base of the cliff, and has a mild and genial atmosphere, peculiarly suited to delicate constitutions; from which circumstance it has been not unaptly denominated the Montpelier of England. A new pump-room, a handsome edifice of the Tuscan order, containing also apartments for the residence of invalids, has been erected near the site of the old house, which was built by subscription about the year 1770. Immediately above this is an observatory, in which are a camera obscura, embracing a comprehensive view of the surrounding scenery; and powerful telescopes, constructed by an untaught genius, to whom the lord of the manor granted the materials and an advantageous lease of an ancient mill occupying the site: near this spot a suspension bridge, which has been long in contemplation, and of which a plan has been at length approved, is to be speedily constructed. Gloucester House, formerly the only hotel of any consideration in the place, and now the Gloucester and Steam-packet hotel, from whence the packets to Ireland regularly sail, is still much frequented, from its proximity to the waters, and the excellence of its accommodations: Dowry-square and parade, Hope-square, Albemarle-row, St. Vincent's parade, and Granby Hill, all contain respectable lodging-houses, fitted up with due regard to the comfort and convenience of visitors. Ascending the cliff, on which is situated that part of the town properly called Clifton, are baths and a pump-room for drinking the water, which issues from a spring of similar quality to that at the Hot Wells, or more probably from the same spring, recently opened at a greater elevation, for the accommodation of invalids residing in this part of the town: to the pump-room are attached a reading-room and lodging-rooms; and a little below Mardyke, on the road to the Hot Wells, is a spa, where saline mineral water is obtained, which is said to be efficacious in visceral and other disorders. The acclivities are occupied by ranges of stately edifices, under the respective names of crescent, circus, paragon, and terrace, among which York-crescent is distinguished for its superior extent and magnificence: the summit, on which formerly there were only a few scattered dwellings, is now crowned with superb mansions and elegant villas, commanding extensive prospects of romantic beauty, and surrounded with scenery of majest?c grandeur. Here is an elegant mansion built by Sir William Draper, Knt., the celebrated opponent of Junius, in the front court of which are an obelisk, erected to the memory of William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, and a cenotaph, to the memory of those of the seventy-ninth regiment who fell at Arott, Manilla, Pondicherry, and the Philippine Islands. The Clifton Hotel is a splendid edifice, occupying the whole eastern extrcmity of the mall: the front, which is of free-stone, exhibits a pleasing combination of tasteful elegance; the centre comprises a suite of three spacious rooms, handsomely fitted up, and appropriated to the public subscription concerts and assemblies, one of them, during the morning, being open as a reading-room; the north side is occupied as private lodging-houses, and the rooms over the centre, and the south side, are appropriated to the uses of the hotel. Concerts and assemblies frequently take place during the season: the terraces afford delightful promenades; and the nursery ground, comprising several acres, beautifully laid out and interspersed with parterres of flowers, adorned with grottoes and embellished with numerous fossils and natural curiosities, is also a favourite place of resort: the town is brilliantly lighted with oil-gas, and plentifully supplied with water. Many of the labouring class are employed in blasting the rocks, the fragments of which being broken are shipped to the counties of Devon and Cornwall, and used for mending the roads: St. Vincent's rock is composed of hard variegated marble, susceptible of a high polish; it is burnt into a fine white lime, much esteemed by plasterers, and a considerable quantity is packed in barrels and exported to the East and West Indies. In the fissures of the rocks are found beautiful spars, and those quartz chrystals called Bristol Diamonds, which are equal in transparency, and inferior only in hardness, to those of India; they are remarkable for their naturally formed and highly polished hexagonal surfaces, and are found imbedded in nodul? of stone of the same colour as the soil; in these rocks have been also discovered veins of lead and iron-ore. That part of the parish which is situated between Rownham Ferry and Lime-kiln Dock, on the south side of the Hot Well road, is within the jurisdiction of the city of Bristol; the remainder is within that of the magistrates for the Bristol division of the county of Gloucester: the town is within the jurisdiction of the court of requestes for the city and county of the city of Bristol, established under an act passed in the 56th of George III., for the recovery of debts from 40s. to any amount under that for which an arrest on mesne process may issue. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the archdeaconry of Gloucester, and diocese of Bristol. The Rev. C. Simeon was patron in 1795. The church, dedicated to St. Andrew, is a spacious structure in the later style of English architecture, erected in 1822. There is a private episcopal chapel; and it is in contemplation to build another church at the Hot Wells, for the especial accommodation of the poor. There are, a chapel for those in the Countess of Huntingdon's connexion, and a floating chapel for seamen, called Clifton ark. A National, and an infant school, and a dispensary, for which a neat building was erected at the sole expense of Mr. Whippie, are supported by subscription. On the summit of St. Vincent's rock are the remains of an encampment of three or four acres in extent, defended by three ramparts and two ditches; the inner rampart, which is in no part more than five feet in height, is supposed to have been surmounted by a wall: its extent, from one side of the rock to the other, is two hundred and ninety three yards; and on the side next the river there is a deep trench, said to have been cut during the civil war in the reign of Charles I. The origin of this camp is by some antiquaries ascribed to the Britons, and by others to the Romans, who placed there the first of that chain of forts erected to defend the passage of the Severn: in the immediate neighbourhood, and in various parts of the parish, numerous Roman and Saxon coins have been frequently discovered. From Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of England 1831, courtesy of Databases 4 Sale |
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