Some history of the area:
Bedminster is one of the oldest suburbs of the City of Bristol. It is mentioned in the Domesday survey of 1086 as the Royal Manor of Bedminster. It was held by William the Conqueror in the right of the Crown, as heir and successor to King Edward the Confessor. Bedminster was afterwards held by Robert Fitzhardinge, forbear of the Berkeley family. Robert Fitzhardinge was buried in the Abbey Church of Saint Augustine, which he founded in the centre of Bristol. This is now the Registry Office. Circa.1200 Lord Robert de Berkeley founded a hospice in Bedminster at Brightbow, approximately where the shops now stand opposite the end of Philip Street. This hospice was intended as a lodging place to accommodate poor travellers coming from places south and west of Bristol. It was to St Catherine’s Hostel, as it was called, that many journeyed en route to Bristol and beyond. No doubt Catherine Mead Street took its name from this hostel, and Brightbow Lodge, the hostel now standing next to the chapel, commemorates this. It was in 1887 that the last remains of St. Catherine’s hostel were demolished, just previous to the building of WD & H O Wills No 1 factory. There also stood, probably as part of St Catherine’s Hostel, a building known as St Mary Magdalene’s Hospital, and records state that this was used to accommodate leprous women. In those days Bedminster must have been a small village outside Bristol and remained so for centuries, although it is recorded that when John Wesley preached on the Paddocks at Bedminster it was also described as a sprawling market town.
Some history of the church
George Pine, founder of Philip Street Baptist Chapel, was born in Porlock in Somerset in 1827 and was the elder son of George Pine, a church schoolmaster at Porlock and Ashbrittle, and his wife Elizabeth Pavey. He became a successful businessman owning five businesses including the then wellknown “Pines Corner” grocer’s shop at Bedminster Bridge. He lived in a number of places in the area. Over the shop at Bedminster Bridge, Mount Pleasant, Bedminster, and finally 33b Whiteladies Road, Clifton, which is where he died. The Whiteladies Road house later became a Dr. Barnardo’s home, and is now part of the BBC premises. Mr Leslie G Pine, great grandson of George Pine sent much of the information we now have to Mr Frank Phillips for his original history, and I quote the following extract which appeared in the definitive edition of Burkes Landed Gentry 1952 (Extract from Pyne of East Down Manor. The spelling with ‘Y’ is immaterial.) “George Pine, tea merchant of Clifton, Bristol, and various properties in Bedminster, Southville, Windmill Hill and Mount Pleasant, Bristol was one of four founders of Philip Street Baptist Chapel. Superintendent there of the Sunday School, a prominent member of the Liberal Party in Bristol, a Guardian of the Poor, a keen worker in the Colston Hall schemes at its foundation, and a prime mover in the efforts to relieve the poor in Bedminster.” He was baptised on 27th April 1827 at Porlock, married 8th September 1852 to Anne, elder daughter of Samuel Mountain (descended from the Mountains of Weston, East Riding, and Yorkshire). Mrs George Pine died in 1912 leaving one child. In 1906 the church at Philip Street celebrated its Golden Jubilee, and published a souvenir booklet, and in it we read “Mr George Pine was the principal stay of the cause for over 40 years, holding the positions of Deacon, Church Treasurer, and Sunday School Superintendent.” At the services on that occasion Dr Richard Glover said, referring to Mr Pine, “When God wanted things done He did not want a committee, but one man.”
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