|  The
town of Clevedon, now part of the new Unitary Authority of North
Somerset. Clevedon is a busy seaside town, yet it remains relatively
quiet. Clevedon has grown enormously since building plots measured
out along The Beach and Hill Road were first advertised in 1820.
Until then, it had been a quiet, agricultural village, sprawling
piecemeal across the levels. The three most important buildings
for the villagers of two centuries ago would have been St Andrew's
Church, Clevedon Court and Highdale Farm.
St Andrew's, perched on the cliffs at the West End of Old Church
Road, is believed to have Saxon origins. To those interested in
old carvings, a number of corbels on the outside of the south
wall have distinctly Celtic roots, depicting ravens, two faced
men, a "shiela- na gig" mother goddess and horses heads.
Highdale Farm, below Christ Church, dates back to 1297, when
the Chantry Chapel there was first mentioned in ancient records.
The Chapel vanished after the Dissolution of Tudor times, but
the farm was from the time of Doomsday the home of the Stewards
of the Clevedon Manor, whose duty it was to manage the farm and
cottage lease and collect rents. The house has since been rebuilt.
The growth of the town brought great benefits for the local
people Carpenters, tilers and masons were swift to buy plots on
the pieces of agricultural waste land first used for the Regency
houses. Their wives let rooms and apartments in these houses,
providing work for large numbers of servants. Along Hill Road,
owners were quick to build shops on to the fronts of their villas
to supply the needs of the inhabitants of New Clevedon. Hotels
vied with each other in providing the best service for visitors;
coffee rooms with separate entrances for ladies so that gentlemen
could play billiards in peace; regular services from the railway
station; the very latest London journals; the list is endless.
Private schools proliferated, educating the children of the upper
middle classes employed abroad in the diplomatic service, by the
East India Company, in the Navy and the Army.
Clubs and societies sprang up to entertain and provide for
the townsfolk. Prominent doctors, solicitors and professional
people appear repeatedly on their committees, and on the list
of members of the Local Board of Health, set up in 1852 and destined
to become the Urban District Council in 1894. The minutes kept
by this august body give us a fascinating record of the work it
took to make Clevedon a respectable place. The Board supervised
the construction of houses and public buildings, the improvement
of drains - fiercely resisted by slum landlords - and even inspected
the donkeys at the Beach for fleas.
The Clevedon Mercury was set up in 1863 to communicate national
news and local happenings, providing a directory of visitors invaluable
to local historians. It continues to record the unfolding story
of our town.
Walton Castle: A 17th Century hunting lodge, one of the landmarks
of Clevedon on the hill top overlooking the golf course, was for
a long time just a ruin, now it is a family home having been restored
with meticulous care to resemble the original. |
With
the growth of the town, the most prominent place came to be the
new hotels, the railway stations and the Regency and Victorian
houses. By the end of the nineteenth century Clevedon population
grew by 4666 from 334 inhabitants to 5,000 inhabitants. New roads
had been built, the Great Western Railway (GWR) and 
Heritage
Centre an exhibition illustrating the history of the town in words
and pictures to stimulate interest in its past for visitors and
residents and as an educational resource for children. 
Opened
in 1912, Curzon cinema is the oldest, continuously operated cinema
in the country, the original building had 200 seats. By the following
year the building had been expanded to 389 seats, and was the
first public building in the town to have electricity.The cinema
was saved from closure in 1996 largely thanks to community support
and is now run and owned by the Clevedon community.