SEE YOU IN (ASHTON) COURT

We celebrate great days out down the years in Ashton Court Estate

Awe allowed out yet? Can we go disco-dancing and rocking in the aisles? Is it safe to take off your face-mask?

At the time of writing, most restrictions have been lifted, but the virus is raging through Bristol, so we’re not quite ready to visit too many indoor attractions yet. Instead, join us in the BT Time Machine for a quick tour of one of the city’s best-loved playgrounds.

A visit to Ashton Court estate is always nice if it’s not raining, and sometimes even when it is. And if you stay outside, you’re unlikely to catch Covid. On the other hand, if you wander through the long grass with unprotected legs you could catch Lyme’s Diease from a tickbite. So … swings and roundabouts, really.

(The trade-off between the danger of catching Covid and catching Lyme’s Disease might not sound like much of a deal, but if you stick to the paths you should be fine. Bristol City Council also recommends using insect repellent and checking for ticks after your visit.)

The Ashton Court estate and its mansion, as every true Bristolian knows, was formerly the property of the Smyth family, a dynasty of local big-wigs whose fortunes were established back in the 1600s and grew ever-larger in later centuries. A lot of this was thanks, of course, to the West Indies, sugar and slavery.

The family soap opera was sometimes conducted in the open, sometimes behind closed doors and included its fair share of wastrels and eccentrics, though if we were to make a TV mini-series we’d devote an entire season to Thomas Provis, a horse-thief who claimed to be the rightful heir.

In WW1 the mansion was used as a hospital and, for a while after the war, was used for treating officers with shell shock. In WW2 it was used by the military once more, hosting first British and then American troops.

The last resident Smyth, Esme, died in 1946 and the estate was duly clobbered with Death Duties. The family were unable to find a buyer until 1959 when it was sold to Bristol City Council, which still owns it. Unfortunately, during that period the house fell into serious disrepair and is still mostly unused, though there are ambitious plans to bring it back into use when and if the money should materialise.

Meanwhile, let’s have a quick tour through the life and times of the mansion and the estate …

The miniature railway has long been a favourite with generations of local children. Here we’re in April 1977. Front page pictu for by local businessman John James.

Young people queuing up to play pitch and putt at Ashton Court in 1958

The famous pet cemetery in 1960

We don’t know the year, but it’s probably 1940 or 1941, and the censored caption on the back of the print tells us that these men are training in tank warfare in the West Country. The capbadges tell us they’re indeed the Royal Tank Regiment, and the figures and painting in the background tell us they’re in Ashton Court Mansion. Other pictures in the same set, probably issued by the Ministry of Information, show tankies training in the use of radio, and learning how to maintain their machines by tinkering with a bus engine.

The estate has also been a place for healthy exercise (but watch out for ticks. Here Joe Jordan and some City players are out for a jog, date unknown, but late 1980s. This was still a time when some professional footballers would have had a nice, refreshing cigarette afterwards …

Ashton Court is probably best known for hosting the annual Balloon Fiesta. Here in 1988 we see a happy winner holding the trophy for what we assume is the prize for the Greatest Hot Air Balloon Of All Time Anywhere In The World Ever. Ahem.

The estate has also played host to big outdoor events without number, though the weather can’t always be guaranteed. Here the London Irish Pipe Band are making the best of things at the North Somerset Show, June 1981.

e, Senior Citizens’ Day at Ashton Court used to be a regular fixture, originally paid