A few miles from Bristol's centre, two motorways intersect. The M4 from London to South Wales bridges the River Severn before it widens to become the Bristol Channel. The North-South M5 skirts the city at Avonmouth.

Bristol grew up in Saxon times at the confluence of the rivers Avon and Frome. A bridge was built there and the settlement was known as Brigstow. Legend has it (rather fancifully in my opinion) that the local accent caused an 'L' to be added to the end of this - hence Bristol.

Bristol Castle was built by the Normans and demolished in 1650 by Act of Parliament. As a result, very little evidence of the large buildings is visible. A few fragments are all that remain of Robert, Earl of Gloucester's Keep. Built of Caen stone around 1120, it stood above the great Dungeon. The foundation walls of the Keep are reputed to have been 25ft thick.

After the castle was demolished, several streets of houses were built here and it became the main shopping area of the city.

These streets were severely bombed during the Second World War. Afterwards, most of the buildings around here, repairable or not, were swept away in Council planning schemes of the time, and a new shopping centre laid out in the adjoining area of Broadmead.

In recent years a few of those newer buildings have in turn been demolished. A large section of the medieval town wall was demolished in the 1950's to make way for the large Co-operative building Fairfax House. Since then, Fairfax House has in turn been replaced by The Galleries complex.

Although post-war planning schemes have changed the face of Bristol, the old churches remain. Some, such as St Peter's and St Mary-le-Port are ruined, some are used for other purposes, but many remain as active places of worship.

Like most old towns, Bristol was surrounded by a defensive wall. In the case of Bristol, it encompassed a relatively small area, already bounded by the two rivers. The area within the walls was originally laid out on four main streets - High Street, Corn Street, Broad Street and Wine Street.

A series of lanes followed the inner line of the wall, inter-connecting the outer ends of the main streets. Tower Lane, shown here, runs from St John's Gateway to Pithay.

Fortified gateways pierced the town wall at intervals. St John's Gateway, originally one of these, is the only Bristol one to survive. Portcullis channels are still visible within the arch.

St John's church was built on the wall at this gateway at the end of the 14th Century, when a new outer wall was constructed. Originally a single gateway, the side passages were pushed through in 1820.

Bristol developed into one of the major trading ports in Britain. From at least the 14th century, Bristol was the second English city after London. The city held this position because of the economic importance of the port of Bristol. Trade at this time was based mainly on the woollen cloth produced in the surrounding counties of Somerset, Gloucestershire, Devon and Dorset. Bristol’s merchants were trading with Europe from at least the 11th century. To support the expansion of trade, Bristol had a shipbuilding industry and a financial industry, as well as a network of merchants with contacts in different countries. The surrounding area produced goods to trade. Bristol’s merchants were keen, and always looking for new areas of trade. When the opportunity came to join the developing trade to Africa and the Americas , they seized the chance.

Before 1698 the Royal African Company, a trading company based in London, had control (a monopoly ) in Britain on all trade with Africa. With this monopoly, only ships owned by the Company could trade for gold, ivory, wood for dye, spices and slaves. Any other companies or merchants trading with Africa would have been acting illegally. With their international trade contacts, Bristol merchants were well-placed to enter the African trade. We do not know exactly when Bristol ships first entered the trade in African slaves, but evidence suggests that Bristol was illegally trading to Africa for slaves at least as early as the 1670s. Bristol’s merchants were willing to risk the penalties of being caught because of the profits to be made. If caught they might lose their ship and any ‘cargo ’.

The Society of Merchant Venturers in Bristol wanted to get a share of the African slave trade. It repeatedly asked the government to change the rules that allowed the Royal African Company to have control over trade. The Society of Merchant Venturers agreed in 1690 to ask the Houses of Parliament ‘... for letting in the merchants of this City to a share in the African trade ...’.

In 1698, after much pressure from smaller ports around Britain, such as Bristol, Liverpool and Lancaster, the Royal African Company’s control over the trade for slaves was broken. Local shipbuilding yards in Bristol, such as the one shown here, would have been involved in fitting out ships for the trade.

In 1698, Bristol’s first slave ship, called the Beginning and owned by Stephen Baker, sailed from Bristol to the African coast. The captain purchased a number of enslaved Africans, and delivered them to the island of Jamaica, in the Caribbean.

Many ships followed, such as the Southwell, a frigate, which made two slave voyages from Bristol in 1746 and 1748. The ship was owned by a group of Bristol merchants, Michael Beecher & Co, James Laroche, Martin French and William Miller & Co. In 1746, the ship delivered 629 enslaved Africans to the Caribbean islands of Jamaica and Antigua.

The transatlantic slave trade, so-called because of the route taken by the slave ships across the Atlantic Ocean from Africa to the Caribbean and North America, had an enormous effect on Bristol. Between 1698 and 1807, a known 2,108 ships left Bristol for Africa to exchange goods for enslaved Africans and take them to the Caribbean. As a result of this very few slaves actually passed through the port of Bristol. Many other English and European ports of the time were also involved in the trade, such as London and Liverpool in Britain and Nantes in France. Bristol was a wealthy city and trading port before its involvement with the transatlantic slave trade. The profits from the trade made it wealthier.

Bristol was also a major wool-exporting port. The port flourished for the next 400 years and as well as exporting wool and leather, imported wine, tobacco and cocoa beans. These imported goods became the basis for Bristol's manufacturing industries. By the 17th century, the port was heavily involved in the slave trade and this resulted in Bristol becoming the second most important port in England after London.

Bristol contains the first Methodist chapel, the New Room, built for John Wesley in 1739. Other important buildings that date from this period include the Corn Exchange (1741) and the Theatre Royal (1766).

The abolition of the slave trade in the 19th century created problems for the port. Bristol's harbour was fairly shallow and with a lack of industrial towns in the area, the town found it difficult to compete with other ports such as Liverpool.

In the early 19th century the docks in Bristol were rebuilt by William Jessop. Further improvements were made by Isambard Brunel in 1830. The port was given a boost when Brunel decided to build his steamships, Great Western (1837) and Great Britain (1843) in Bristol.

Isambard Brunel also helped the city by building the Great Western Railway from London to Bristol in 1841. This was followed by the Bristol & Exeter Railway (1844) and the Bristol & Gloucester Railway (1844). This stimulated further economic growth and by 1861 the population of the city had increased to 154,000.