Village Page
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Market Day SkittlesCome and try Skittles - Free of Charge!The Skittles Alley is now open every Market Day 10.30am to 11.30amIt is marvellous fun and everybody enjoys it - both young and old. So come along and have a throw. Parents, feel free to drop and shop. Enjoy the market whilst your children have a great time! |
The Abbots Leigh |
 Art Exhibition in Zone B |
 Coffee under the covered walkway |
 Play Group in Zone A |
Visions Of The Possible FutureAbbots Leigh Skittle AlleyDo click on the pictures! The complete Plan Drawing is available in PDF format in the Contents Listing at the top of this page |
 Skittle Alley Plan |
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This is a new venture occasioned by the relative complexity of the bus schedules published by First Bus. This table is designed to look up the relevant information from these tables and to produce the times sought after.
The Village Concoction
This section of the site contains items that the villagers have entered on to the site, because they themselves derive pleasure and enjoyment from them and are happy to share this. In this age of rapid change this corner of the web site provides a parking space for browsers from all the hustle and bustle of online shopping, auctions, news bulletins congested webs etc. Where one can go and contemplate some of the items one has come to appreciate and if one cannot find a suitable one there is no excuse - one is ones own provider on this site! Guidance Notes and Entry Forms available on Contact Page.
Abbots Leigh Cricket ClubThe ground in those days was the paddock adjacent to Home Farm and this remained in use as the cricket field until 1940 when the farmer decided to plough it up. The minutes also record that in 1897 Mr and Mrs Fenton Miles of the Manor House very kindly provided the club with its first pavilion and also sent along the players teas for each home match. There is also reference various club dinners held at the George Inn, which was kept in those days by a gentleman, always referred to as ‘Host’ Hardwick.  The price of a good bat in 1897 appears to have been twelve shillings and sixpence and a match ball could be purchased for four shillings and eight pence. The team usually proceeded to away matches on foot or on bicycles and the local carrier often transported the kit for one shilling a time. Just occasionally, they hired a farm wagon or horse drawn brake for the longer journeys.By the year 1900 Abbots Leigh Cricketers were playing some of the leading clubs in the Bristol District and in that same year an occurrence in one of their games with the Old Bristolians gave rise to correspondence in the local press and an eventual ruling from the MCC. After a break from 1915 to 1920, the club got going again with the help of Mr W. I. Gunn, vice-chairman of the Imperial Tobacco Company. Members were scarce at first but within two years there were two eleven’s in the field each week, and the club was enjoying a most successful period which lasted for the next decade. This was largely due to the am starring efforts Bill Frampton who had taken over the secretaryship backed up by his brother Ted, Fred Wheare, George Chamberlain, and Jimmy Arrowsmith-Brown. A slight setback occurred in 1932 when the club reverted to one eleven but things soon picked up and by 1937 a new pavilion had been bought and erected thanks largely to Mr Gunn and a newcomer to the village Mr Evitt-Armstrong. Another club personality had also arrived on the scene, Mr Harold Arrowsmith-Brown, brother of Jimmy who was to prove a very sound guardian of the club finances over the next 24 years. An enforced break into fixtures occurred between 1940 1945. At the end of the War, the club had no ground. However, through the offices of Mr F. O. Wills, Clifton College came to the rescue with the offer of a corner in their Beggar Bush Lane playing field. This was gratefully accepted and the arrangement continued for the next two seasons whilst the club tried hard to find a more permanent home. This proved impossible at the time and in 1949, the club closed down for one season.  In the following year, Easton in Gordano Cricket Club offered to share their ground with Abbots Leigh and the club was able to get going again. This sporting gesture was commemorated by the President and Vice Presidents gift of a shield for which the two clubs competed each season. In 1951, Mr Armstrong announced that his wife had been successful in purchasing five acres of land and Abbots Leigh for use as a playing field. This he offered a rent free to the club on the condition that they would provide the labour to put it in order and launch an appeal for £500 to purchase the field from his wife. At their annual general meeting, the club unanimously accepted the offer and the appeal was launched in the spring of the same year. Major, Sir Egbert Cadbury had now become President of the club, and his advice and encouragement greatly assisted the secretary, Bob Wheare and the treasurer Harold Brown in their efforts to get things organised. The field like the previous ground had been ploughed up was full of loose stones and weeds and it took the members many months before they could lay a wicket, fence of the field and roll it. Clifton College again came to their aid with a loan of a large roller and other equipment and the local farmers lent their tractors. The pavilion on the old field was dismantled, transported to the new ground and re-erected, all the work being carried out by club members under the supervision of one of their number, Cyril Thorne. Meanwhile the ladies connected with the club were been busy organising sales of work, dances and whist drives in order to raise the necessary £500. Mrs Bishop and Mrs Nottingham led this fundraising; they eventually became so good at their job that apart from an anonymous gift of £100 the bulk of the money came from their efforts. In 1952 the team commenced playing on the new ground and in the closing days of 1954 purchase of the field was completed. The first trustees being appointed were Sir Egbert Cadbury (the President), Mr Albert Bishop (a Patron), Mr Eric Frampton and Mr Jack Nottingham (former Captain and Vice Captain). To mark the acquisition of the field a special match took place on the 25 May 1955 when the club entertained a visiting team consisting of prominent local players assisted by one or two county professionals. 8/12/03 Steve Livings NB. The two pictures have been added from the Internet and are acknowledged by mouse over. Abbots Leigh old photos or pictures would be most welcome You may be interested in visiting the Abbots Leigh Cricket Club Web Site at www.alcc.co.uk/ Web Master |
"Chantry" Photos"What is now called The Chantry was originally the small mansion house of Robert Bright, slave owner, common merchant, and brother of Richard Bright of Ham Green, discoverer of Bright's disease. The original part of the House has features dating from the 18th century. The chantry name appears to have been applied when the Savory family remodelled the building in 1923 and continued when the Inskips rented it."The above is an extract fom the Abbot Leigh Village History book by William Evans. Richard Savory has supplied photos from the early 1920's He is a direct descendant (great grandson) of the original family of EW Savory, printer and fine art publisher of Park Row Studios, Bristol who owned the property. EW Savory and various members of the family are buried in a plot in Abbots Leigh churchyard. Reminder - clicking on an image will make the image fill the window - clicking on it again will restore it to its original size  | |
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Coates Cider Altogether now "Coates comes up from Somerset, where the cider apples grow" "It's more than 75 years since the famous Coate's cider was first made in the village of Nailsea near Bristol - and a quarter of a century since of a century since production ended".
For people living outside the West Country Coate's cider meant cartoon yokels announcing in rich Wurzel accents that "Coate's comes up from Zummerset", where the zider apples grow" in a TV commercial. It was an inspired marketing move, especially as the jingle was based on the popular "We Come Up from Somerset" by the great Portishead songwriter Fred Wetherley Coate's did indeed come up from Somerset and it was Redvers Coate, the company founder who did as much as anyone to move Somerset cider from the fields and into the cities.
 By the end of the Great War, cider was in decline. In 1887, Parliament had banned the traditional practice of paying farm workers in cider (two quarts a day) and the growth in French wine drinking was hitting sales hard. Coate, a graduate of Bristol University was looking for a job in 1924, a time when Gloucester, Devon and Herefordshire ciders were being nationally marketed but Somerset products were scarcely known outside the county. He knew little about cider making so worked unpaid for a year at the Long Ashton Cider Research Institute before borrowing enough from family, and friends to open a cider works at Nailsea. He was just 23 years of age. The staff comprised Coate, foreman Charlie Higgins from Williams Cider, Backwell; Cooper Sid Summers, cellar man Jack Allsop, clerk and later company secretary, Frank Matthews, Bill Baker and a man called Iles. Redvers Coate had installed the most up to date equipment in his one sheds, including three glass lined vats holding 10,000 gallons each. The expensive gamble paid off at the end of the first year, Coate's cider took three first prizes at the National Cider Competition. There were problems, of course. The new company was beginning to build up a market in local pubs when the big breweries extended the tied house principle from beers to ciders as well. That meant Coate's having to negotiate new contracts with the major suppliers. Apples were bought from local farmers who usually made their own ciders, but they had to be persuaded to grub out centuries of old trees and replace them with new varieties. But by the start of the Second World War, Coate's was beginning to make a name nationally Sales rose in wartime thanks to beer rationing and Coate's was soon employing up to 125 staff at busy times. Every day at 12.30 p.m., there was a tasting session when the product was checked against previous years' ciders and against competitors' drinks. It was that kind of quality control which led to a Brewers Exhibition Champion Gold Medal and further growth to become the second largest cider producer in Britain. By 1956, Coate's was enjoying a record year and the Showering brothers of Shepton Mallet, who had really hit the jackpot by selling pear cider (perry) as trendy Babycham, took over the company. Redvers Coate, then chairman of Somerset Cider Makers, stayed on as managing director as Showerings  transferred all cider production to Nailsea and invested in new buildings and machinery on the 13 acre site. "For the first time in the centuries of long history of cider making, it can be said that never again will one vintage Somerset cider apple be wasted" said Showerings boss Herbert Showering. Redvers Coate described the merger as "a dream come true for me" and added: "This is a really big event in the history of Somerset cider". "We shall now see to it that good advertising and marketing support is used for Somerset cider which is one of the world's most natural and healthy drinks". Production and staff both doubled and by the 1960s, Coate's was exporting worldwide and buying apples from more than 1,000 Somerset farmers. Redvers Coate retired in 1969 and two years later, Showering merged the company with Gaymers and Whiteways. Then, in the early 1970s, production was switched to a new plant at Shepton Mallet employing just 70 people. By 1975, the Nailsea factory was closed and the site was eventually sold to Marconi Avionics. Redvers Coate, master cider maker, died at his home in Abbots Leigh on June 13 1985, after a serious illness. He was 84 years of age. He had lived and developed the cider orchards in Manor Road. Article by Steve Livings |
Police Presence Observed"Flying Squad" |
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Article found by Steve Livings in TIME magazine Foreign News dated 9 June 1941
Heroic ShepherdLast week the official London Gazette announced that "The King has been graciously pleased to give . . . the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire" to Fred Mitchell, Head Shepherd, North Somerset, for "brave conduct in Civil Defence."Gnarled, dimple-chinned Fred Mitchell, 45, was watching his sheep with a crook and a sharp-muzzled sheep dog one clear, shriveling-cold January night at the Home Farm outside Abbots Leigh village near Bristol. The sirens screamed at 5 o'clock, and Shepherd Mitchell was immediately surrounded by a blaze of 20th-century horror. Incendiaries fired his straw-and-wattle lambing pens, sheltering 34 ewes and lambs. High explosives followed the incendiaries and scared the wits out of the sheep dog, which promptly went A.W.O.L. for 24 hours. Alone, Mitchell fought the fire till the flames crackled near a terrified ewe, who tried to shield her lamb. He seized the lamb and rushed through the smoke, followed by the baaing mamma, left them in an open field, which was eerily lighted, by fires and constant explosions. Six times he returned to the blazing pens, took the lambs in his arms and coaxed the panic-stricken ewes to follow. At midnight he went to another part of the field "to speak words of comfort to 107 ewes due to lamb in a week." The bombs started to drop all around him. After the raiders passed, he returned to his whitewashed cottage. As he opened the back door, a bomb exploded in his front garden and blasted the roof, walls and windows, but he was unharmed. Fred Mitchell, O.B.E., saved a lot of mutton for Britain |
The North Somerset Electric Supply CompanyThis is an extract from an article about the Christy Brothers of Chelmsford published by the South Western Electricity Historical Society. The authors were Peter Lamb, Secretary of the Society and the late Eric Lodge, who was the Portishead Branch Manager for a number of years.The Clevedon & District Electric Supply Company, which later became the North Somerset Electric Supply Company Ltd, was the first company the Christy Brothers established in the South West in 1911. The original Company was started by Frank Christy with a small generating station at Gas Lane, Portishead, which comprised of two 50 H.P. semi-diesel Petter Engines. The supply was commenced in August, 1913 (The original building still stands today, address now Old Mill Road, while newer station buildings have gone). Later these engines were supplemented by a Hindley Vertical Gas Engine. Distribution then was at D.C. 3 wire, 200/400 volts. 
An A.C. system was established at the time of the first Great War, when the Admiralty decided to build a shipyard at Portbury. A tremendous battle ensued between Bristol Corporation Electricity Department and the North Somerset Company, over who should give a supply. The Board of Trade decided in favour of the North Somerset Company, but after all that, Bristol Corporation had to provide a 6.6 kV supply at the base of Clifton Gorge at Ashton, which was transformed up to 11 kV and thence to Portbury via underground cable. Since this occurred towards the end of the War, the final irony of this tale was that the War ended before the Shipyard became a realty. However, this set the pattern of the North Somerset Company for obtaining their bulk supplies of electricity from Bristol Corporation at Bower Ashton (6.6 kV) and Whitchurch (11 kV) in 1925. At Bower Ashton the supply was transformed to 11 kV and later 33 kV (at Kennel Farm 1936) and at Whitchurch 11 kV and 33 kV for transmission to Wells, Street and Langport.The North Somerset Company had their head office at Bower Ashton and in 1933 there were 16 branch offices throughout the area of supply. By this time they had taken over the Winscombe and Cheddar Electric Supply Companies in 1928, the Wedmore Company, the Mid Somerset Electric Supply Company, based at Street both in 1929 and the Burnham and District Electric Supply Company. Christy Brothers acquired these undertakings and bulk supplies were provided in order to shut down their small generating stations. Eric Lodge joined the North Somerset Company in 1932 from the West Gloucester Power Company, where he had his early training. He was appointed by the then General Manager, Ernest Tole, and was paid the princely sum of £6 per week.  He was seconded to an interesting travelling showroom with a total staff of three persons including a lady demonstrator, Miss Rousseau. This encompassed the whole of the North Somerset area, including agricultural shows, such as the Bath and West and the North Somerset Shows. Evenings and afternoons were given to practical demonstrations of domestic appliances. Mornings were devoted to obtaining electrical contracts for wiring and installation work, which were passed to the local offices. Close contact was maintained with the local managers and engineers, who gave valuable information on their problems. Eric said "voltage and copper were in short supply". These were the early days of rural development. "Where to go in and where to stay away was important local knowledge. Engineers today tend to think of the Rural Development Era as that of the 50's and 60's, but it was the private companies who brought the first electricity supplies to the rural areas in the 1930's. The "plums" of the big revenue earnings against capital expenditure had been picked off by the various city and town authorities. It was therefore left to the energetic private enterprises to develop and extend power lines under bulk purchase from the large city undertakings. Eric told a fascinating tale of his personal endeavours in the village of Curry Rivel. He called on a potential consumer, Admiral Sir Frank Notley R.N. Retired, who had his own generator. His house was wired in "Stannos Wiring", which consisted of a single copper conductor in a lead sheath cable suitable for D.C. Eric undiplomatically criticised it, as not being suitable for the new A.C. supply. From which he received the rejoinder "Damm it man, it should be alright, its ship's wiring". It was agreed eventually to install a double wound transformer.  This rural electrification enabled the unit sales to be increased from 11 million in 1931 to 45 million in 1939. In 1934 Eric Lodge was appointed Branch Manager of the Portishead Branch at about the same salary, but it had good prospects! He remembers with fond memories Frank Christy, who would reward his staff by giving all of them an annual bonus of 3 weeks pay - which paid for one's annual holiday! Also in 1929 all the staff of the various Companies were invited on an outing to Cheddar, Burrington and Wells. The purpose of the outing was not only to have a jolly good time, but also to show people, who had not come into close quarters with rural electrification, some of the things it involved . The North Somerset Electric Supply Company was quite a family affair, where the Toles were concerned. With Ernest Tole as the General Manager, his brothers, Horace and Jack, were each Branch Manager of Street and Wells respectively. Obviously it contributed to the good working of the company, but in these days, the media would probably have dubbed it nepotism. A considerable effort was required to weld North Somerset into the major undertaking of the Chelmsford based parent company. The source at SWEHS is available by clicking HERE! |
