IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Springly Court, Grimsbury Road, BRISTOL, BS15 9RA

As the fortunes of the old pub have fallen, so has a benchmark on it. Now barely discernible, the mark is listed in the Benchmark Database: https://www.bench-marks.org.uk/bm113050.

Once a busy pub on the outskirts of the main road through Kingswood and Warmley, the Tennis Court closed in August 2016, and was converted into residential use. It was once the haunt of some of the notorious Cock Road gang of the nineteenth century. Reports regard an incident in November 1824, seven members of the gang, including Mark Whiting and James Caines, were drinking in the Tennis Court Inn when Isaac Gorden came in. After a hostile exchange of words, Gorden was later found close by having been beaten and stabbed to death. Six members of the gang were tried for murder at the Gloucester Assizes in April 1825. All were acquitted except Mark Whiting and James Caines, who were hanged.

As faded as the pub itself, the inn has been converted into residential use.

Kingswood Rugby ground has a simple approach to the use of the fields.

The club began in 1954 and eventually founded their base on Church Avenue in 1979. However, a move to the present headquarters here on Grimsbury Road was taken in 1996. At the time the clubhouse was being renovated but was also being used as a polling station for the General Election of 2024.

It is natural to see an old stone with the plate missing - many have doubtless been melted down as scrap by the unscrupulous. It had marked Bristol as being four miles away. This one is on Hill Street in Kingswood, close to a lane which was created along with the modern housing beside it.

Stone post (plate lost) by the A420, in parish of Kingswood (South Gloucestershire District), Hill Street, Kingswood, by No. 103, at end of wall, on North side of road. Bristol incised iron plate, erected by the Bristol turnpike trust in the 19th century. Inscription once read:- (Bristol) (4) Milestone Society National ID: GL_BRCP04

There are many older shops and houses along the main road, with a few still bearing some of the original features. This take-away seems to have had some attempt to retain the name, although things are crumbling somewhat. In times past, there was a row of buildings along the same frontage to the right of the shop, but these have now been lost. The shop projects out from the rest of the street, which was opposite an old leather factory before the war.

Looking down Warmley Hill from about half way up, a stiff climb from Warmley to Kingswood on the A420.