Си-Милс: История пригородa Бристоля

Suburb in Bristol, England

Sea Mills is a suburb of Bristol, England, north west of the city centre, between the former villages of Shirehampton, Westbury on Trym and Stoke Bishop, by the mouth of the River Trym where it joins the River Avon. Sea Mills was in the council ward of Kingsweston until 2015. Following a Local Government Boundary Commission review, the ward boundaries were redrawn. Most of Sea Mills is now in Stoke Bishop ward. The remainder is in a new Avonmouth and Lawrence Weston ward, the formerly separate Avonmouth ward to which the rest of the old Kingsweston ward was added.

Sea Mills derives its name from a watermill, just above the tidal limit of the River Trym, recorded first in 1411 as Semmille and in 1484 as Cemille. This probably meant that its grinding capacity was limited to one packhorse load of grain (a seam), but was later misinterpreted to mean 'mill by the sea'. The name was subsequently extended to an adjacent farm on the north bank of the Trym, Seamill Farm, and to one of the earliest wet docks in England (where the water level was controlled by lock gates), Seamill Dock. Constructed on 12 acres (5 hectares) of land where the Trym joins the Avon, leased from the King's Weston Estate in 1712, the dock was intended "to provide a repair and ‘laying up’ facility for ships docking at the congested and vastly overcrowded quays further up [the Avon] in Bristol". But poor land transport links with Bristol doomed the enterprise. The dock and associated warehouses were abandoned in the 1760s. The ruined dock walls still exist and pleasure craft were moored in the much silted up harbour until recently. The eponymous mill had ceased to function before 1800, but two watermills further up the Trym, near the boundaries of Sea Mills, remained in use until the 20th century: Clack Mill (beside what is now the bend on Coombe Bridge Avenue) and Coombe Mill (beyond the Blaise Estate car park in Coombe Dingle). Both were demolished in the 1930s and their mill ponds and leats obliterated. By the time the first Ordnance Survey map of much of Gloucestershire and the Bristol area was published in 1830, the present name of Sea Mills had been adopted for the farm, dock area and a tavern on Sea Mills Lane, opposite what is now Sea Mills Depot. When the Bristol Port and Pier Railway line was constructed beside the Avon from Hotwells to a new deep water pier at Avonmouth in the 1860s, the station built on the south bank of the Trym to serve the mansions and villas of the wealthy district of Stoke Bishop was therefore called Sea Mills.

There was an ancient folk memory of a Roman port at the mouth of the Trym, and much Roman material was unearthed when Seamill Dock was constructed. All finds then and later have been on the south side of the river. In the 1820s it was proposed and generally accepted that this was the site of the port of Abona (Avon), linking Silchester and Bath with Venta Silurum (Caerwent) in Wales, on Route 14 of the 3rd century Antonine Itinerary. There was then no other port on the Avon or other town in the Bristol area. Piecemeal archaeological excavations have since found evidence of the street pattern, shops within the town and cemeteries outside it.

After WW1 Sea Mills was one of several areas in Bristol to be developed as municipal housing by the Bristol Corporation under the 1919 housing legislation known as the Addison Act. The Act was designed to address the shortage of quality housing for working people and provide homes for the thousands of troops returning from WW1. Houses built under the Addison Act are often referred to as "homes for heroes". On 4 July 1919 Dr Christopher Addison visited the building sites at Hillfields and Sea Mills. At Sea Mills he gave a short speech and the Lady Mayoress, Emily Twiggs planted an Oak sapling. The tree, known as Addison's Oak still stands today and in 2019 was a runner up in the Woodland Trust tree of the year competition. The land on which Sea Mills is built was purchased by Bristol Corporation from Philip Napier Miles of Kingsweston House and developed on garden city principles, including building at no more than 12 houses per acre. Building began in 1919 and by October 1920 sixteen houses were already occupied. The early houses were built to the standards specified by the Tudor Walters report, including a parlour downstairs, and three bedrooms upstairs. The suburb includes two small shopping areas, one at Westbury Lane and another on Shirehampton Road featuring a symmetrical arrangement of shops around a green bisected by roads. This is known as Sea Mills Square and is now home to the Cafe on the Square and the Sea Mills mini museum. The Square was also once the site of one of the 13 Trench style police boxes which were erected in Bristol in 1932 to serve the suburbs in lieu of new police stations. During WW2 a large air raid shelter was provided on Sea Mills Square. For this and other information about the residents see the wartime stories on the Sea Mills 100 web site. After WW2 a small estate of prefabricated bungalows were built adjacent to the Portway and also in nearby Coombe Dingle. These have since been demolished.

In 2019 the Sea Mills 100 project, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Bristol City Council celebrated the centenary of the 'homes for heroes' municipal housing. Events included a 100 birthday celebration for Addison's Oak and a weekend long heritage trail around the estate. Its lasting legacy is a mini museum situated in a K6 phone box which was renovated by local volunteers as part of the project. The project also published a book called 'How Lucky I Was' written by people who grew up in the area between the 1930s 1950s, including novelist Derek Robinson.

Sea Mills has a football team Sea Mills Park FC, formed in 1925. The 1st team play in the Bristol Premier Combination. They historically played their games at the Rec, opposite Sea Mills Square, but play all home games at Kingsweston Sports & Social, Napier Miles. They were Bristol & District Senior League Champions 2012/13. October 2006 saw the opening of The Portway Rugby Development Centre. The facilities there are two outdoor 3G Crumb pitches, suitable for rugby and football, outdoor grass rugby pitches, and grass training grids. There are two meeting rooms. Local football clubs use this facility including Wanderers FC. Bristol's rugby clubs use the facilities also, from St Brendans RFC to Clifton RFC.

In 1865, the Bristol Port and Pier Railway opened from Hotwells to a deep water pier on the Severn Estuary at Avonmouth. Sea Mills railway station was one of the original stations on the line. The station still exists, although the line is now part of the National Rail network, and the line has been extended to run from Bristol Temple Meads to Severn Beach. In 2021 a mural created by Graft which features the flora and fauna of the area and was created at the station in consultation with local people. The A4 Portway trunk road passes along the south west edge of Sea Mills and links central Bristol with its port at Avonmouth. Running parallel to the River Avon, the Portway was the most expensive road in Britain when it was opened in 1926. Both the Portway and the railway line have bridges over the harbour outfall into the Avon. Ocean going ships used to sail past Sea Mills, going to and from Bristol Docks. Nowadays most of the shipping is in the form of pleasure craft, Bristol's main docks now being at Avonmouth and Portbury. There are frequent bus services to the city centre, Westbury and Cribbs Causeway.