Leave our historic city names alone

I AM horrified that as a proud Bristolian, and a product of Colston’s Girls’ School, that the University should want to change the names of the various halls to obliterate the very people that made Bristol the city it is. It was bad enough a while ago, when my school changed its name.

These so called ‘educated’ people who want to see slavery as an antisocial word, must realise that in the 16th, 17th and to some extent 18th centuries, it was the norm.

True, these poor people were treated very badly by the landowners in all countries, not just the UK. If they bothered to look around and open their blinkered eyes, they will see that in many, many ways slavery is still practised today – in this country, and around the world, otherwise why do we have so many refugees?

Teach your pupils that these names were, and still are, widely respected and these university students would not be at one of the best universities in the world if it wasn’t for Wills, Frys and the merchant venturers.

I saw recently the Red Maids School celebrating their founder, John Whitson. They still wear that lovely old uniform and it is great to see. Colston’s, every year in November, celebrated their founder by parading to the cathedral and wear his favourite flower, a bronze chrysanthemum. We were proud to have his statue in the centre of Bristol and also in the hallway as you walked through the main door. We even had Colston Buns for our break time, made by the bakery that was next door to the school building, still warm from the oven.

I do not know who this Professor Olivette Otele is, but she is obviously not a Bristolian, just a lady who is at the university – I presume – and wants to stir up controversy.

Please, please leave our city names alone, they mean something in history. Do other people go around changing names in other cities? Liverpool, for instance, Manchester, Edinburgh, to name just a few. I would be interested to know.

Think again, Bristol University, otherwise you will just be another building of education that does not mean anything.

Gwen Hewlett Proud Bristolian and ex-pupil of Colston’s Girls’ School