A great Bristolian invention?
SHOULD you ever be unlucky enough to be cornered by me in a public house, I might inflict one of my favourite pseudo-intellectual theories on you. I’ve probably gone on about it often enough on this page.
To wit: Nothing much of any importance has ever been invented in Bristol.
Now this is not to say the city has not been a great technical innovator in the past. Of course it has. Our forebears built some amazing things. BUT they were usually taking other people’s ideas and making them better. That’s the story of Brunel’s entire career, for instance. It’s also how Sir George White started the local aviation industry; he pinched a French design and got his people to improve on it. Same with Bristol Car Co.; started the German blueprints and went from there.
I could go on about this, providing further examples as to how Bristol lets other people do the hard work and then moves in to reap the profits, but you’ve probably got more important things to read.
Now that’s not to say that nothing has been invented here. It’s just that given the size of the place and its intellectual clout and reputation for enterprise you’d think we could boast of more than just chocolate Easter eggs and self-raising flour.
However, one (possible) Great Bristolian invention has come to light. I was recently alerted to the life and times of Charles Challenger, for many years one of the bosses of the Bristol Tramways and Carriage Company.
He’s an interesting character for all sorts of reasons (I feel a BT article coming on), but an obituary following his death in 1939 contains an intriguing line:
“The company, under his management, was the first to introduce the signal bell to enable passengers to stop the trams.”
Does this mean that when we’re on a bus nowadays and ring the bell to entreat the driver to halt at the next stop that we’re actually using a Bristol invention originally developed for trams?
If true (and I suspect it’s not) that would be a significant trophy to add to the cabinet alongside selfraising flour and chocolate eggs and a lot of more recent technical and medical inventions that most of us don’t fully understand.
Can any bus or tram expert out there set us right?
Coronation memories
The Coronation of King Charles III takes place on May 6, and BT will be ignoring it. I mean, it’s going to be all over the rest of the papers and the telly and whatnot, isn’t it?
We will, however, be using it as an excuse to haul out some of the wonderful pictures we have of celebrations of the coronation of Elizabeth II in Bristol in June 1953. As well as our own photos, we’ve been sent a few by readers.
If you fancy joining in the fun and have any family or personal memories you’d like to share of the 1953 coronation – you don’t have to send photos, though there’s no harm in that – then we’re at the usual address.
We can’t guarantee we’ll have the space to include everything, but give it a go anyway. That’s Bristol. times@b-nm.co.uk
Prehistoric pictures on show
Bristol Museum & Art Gallery’s big show for the summer is now open. ‘The Cave Art of Lascaux: A Virtual Reality Experience’ runs until September 10 and will enable
visitors to go back 21,000 years in time to see the Stone Age art in the French caves in “immersive 3D”.
We’ve not been to see it yet, but from the look of things it’ll be well worth a visit, especially if you have children to entertain. NB: Children under the age of 7 can visit but are not allowed to use the VR headsets for safety reasons.
The caves are a world heritage site, and were discovered in 1940, though they’ve not been open to the public since the 1960s because light, air circulation and even visitors’ breath threatened to damage the paintings, most of which depict large animals – bison, deer, horses, big cats etc.
So there’s no point in travelling all the way to actual Lascaux (though the visitor centre there has a replica of the caves) when you can just go down Queens Road. Tickets are £15 for adults, £10 for ages 7-15 and concessions and family tickets are available. Details and booking at https://tinyurl. com/5cdt9bsd
Radical History fest
Bristol Radical History Festival takes place this year on Saturday April 22 at M Shed from 10am to 4.30pm and admission is free (donations welcome, of course).
This year’s themes include ‘Radical Bristol and the Visual Arts’ and the programme of walks, talks, films, exhibition and performance will take in the likes of mother-anddaughter artist team Ellen and Rolinda Sharples, the designer and political philosopher William Morris, socialist painter Doris Hatt and writer Angela Carter (who lived in Bristol during the 1960s and took to writing partly because the Post turned down her job application.)
Also covered will be Bristol’s trade union history past and present, something that suddenly seems very relevant once more given the recent upsurge in union activity and pay disputes.
As part of this, Colin Thomas’s 1973 film 100 Years of Struggle made to mark the centenary of Bristol Trades Council, will be screened.
For the full programme, see https://tinyurl.com/55atdj75
And while we’re on the subject of HistFests, the Gloucester History Festival Spring Weekend is coming up, running from April 21-23. There’s an impressive line-up of speakers, from TV celebs like Janina Ramirez and Alice Roberts to highly-regarded authors like Peter Frankopan or Greg Jenner of ‘Horrible Histories’ fame. Full details at gloucesterhistoryfestival. co.uk
1823 Club now open
It’s 200 years this year since the foundation of the Bristol Institution for the Advancement of Science, Literature and the Arts (see BT, Jan *
17) and Bristol’s museums are using the anniversary to do a bit of fundraising.
Join the 1823 Club for £200 and you get not only the warm glow of supporting our wonderful museums through these difficult times, but you also get a fair few other advantages, including and exclusive behind-the-scenes tour, complimentary tickets for all charging events such as the Lascaux Caves thing (see above), a 10% discount at the museums’ giftshops and online shops, and more. Oh, and there’s a badge.
More details at https://tinyurl. com/5t9uxwrr
Bus memories
Following our appeal a couple of weeks ago for the written memoirs of readers (or their family members), we had a mail from BT reader Mr William Berry, who said:
“I have lived and worked in Bristol - barring a short period in Cornwall - since 1979, having moved here from my native Manchester. I spent the vast majority of my time in Bristol in the bus and coach industry as driver, inspector, controller and driving instructor.”
He wrote up his recollections of life and career and self-published them in 2019 as Experience – and a Sharp Knife.
“A lot of my experiences have taken place in Bristol, in the currently contentious arena of bus operation,” he says. “And I hope that my recollections might be of interest to your readers.”
We’ve not read it, but knowing how many of you have some affection for the public transportation systems of the past, we’re a fair few of you might want to take a look. It’s on Amazon at https://tinyurl.com/ bdzy4cp5