IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
College Avenue, BRISTOL, BS16 2HL

This modest house in a suburban backstreet of Fishponds carries a blue plaque commemorating former resident Robert George Taylor, who lived here with his parents and in 1950, aged 30, lost his life trying to prevent a bank robbery. He was awarded the George Cross posthumously.

Residential street bordering the St Matthias campus of the University of the West of England. Many of these houses are student accommodation.

A small decorative feature on the ridge of the chapel roof.

In Victoria Park, Fishponds, Bristol.

The chapel was part of the old Diocesan Training College of the mid-nineteenth century, which trained women to become headmistresses in Church of England schools. It has a few small details on the roof ridgeline, including this crown and sword design.

As in common with many churches, the drains and guttering bears a date. In this instance of the old Diocesan Training College (later St Matthias, then Bristol Polytechnic), the chapel was built about the same time as the rest of the site. Also note the mesh lining the gutters, stopping things from dropping below.

Occupying the former Diocesan Training College of St Matthias, the school in an independent trust. The chapel with the small belfry is St Mattias, which became used as the college's later name.

The old infants' school on Manor Road was founded around the turn of the 1900s but is now converted into the local surgery.

This establishment began life in September, 1853, as the Gloucester and Bristol Diocesan Training School for school mistresses - a female only college. As proper schooling became more enshrined in statute law, it was necessary to develop and supply qualified teachers to the Church of England's voluntary elementary schools. Discipline was strict and rigorous, as was the Anglican way, and was largely self-funded - allowing it to remain clear of state controls. The school became the College of St Matthias in 1955 and was part of the new approach to education. In 1972 it merged with Bristol Polytechnic, later to move from the site to a new one in Frenchay. By 2010 the St Matthias Campus was run down and finally sold off in 2014. It is now the Avanti Gardens School, an independent organisation.

Hannah More (1745-1833) was born here in what was once a school (headed by her father) beside to the entrance to Fishponds parish church. She was a poet, playwright, novelist and educationalist but her main claim to lasting fame was her support for the abolition of slavery. See http://www.brycchancarey.com/abolition/more.htm