See blog 24th June 2010.

I was asked to find out as much as I could about the site and belatedly, for what it is worth, this is the result.

I understand the deeds of the property show that it was sold by James Sinnott, Edward Stockley Sinnott & George Stanley Sinnott to St Anne’s Board Mill Company in 1923 and the Company sold it to private occupiers in 1982.

The Sinnott family, James, his wife Mary Ann and their sons were living on a farm at Higham Hill, Walthamstow in 1851.  Between 1851 and 1861, George, the eldest son, aged 29, arrived at Langton Court in Brislington where he was joined by his parents and three younger brothers, Henry, James and Edward

The marriage of James, third son of James and Mary Ann to Emily, 2nd daughter of Mr William Vowles of Totterdown was announced on June 9, 1866 in the Bristol Mercury.   He was a solicitor and appears to be the same person who, with his two sons sold the Woodside Road property in 1923.

By 1871, George Sinnott, now 38, a bachelor and still residing at Langton Court had acquired a considerable estate of 300 acres. The older Sinnotts still lived with him, as did brother Edward, along with a number of live in servants and others who had cottages on the estate. Edward Sinnott advertised a thoroughbred gelding for sale on July 18, 1874.

In 1881, George Sinnott, aged 48, was at “the Farm House, Langton Court”, still single, he had retained the 300 acres and employed 20 labourers. The rest of the family were no longer there. 

Until 1883, it appears that James Sinnott had leased the Langton Court property from Mr Gore-Langton, the Lord of the Manor, but it seems from newspaper reports (see Bristol Mercury 30.6.1888 & 18.6.1890) that he had subsequently purchased the property. This is confirmed by a letter of May 14, 1883 in Bristol Mercury from “Civis” who deplores “the closing of St Anne’s Wood, Brislington” which was then to be sold at auction and stating that “all pleasure seekers like myself can do is lament.” The property included St Anne’s Woods, (and therefore the Chapel ruins) as indicated  in a Court case which took place between James Sinnott and the Bristol Footpaths Society in 1890. (For details of this matter see Bristol Record Office Pamphlet 4728 : St Anne’s Chapel, St Anne’s Ferry & paths through St Anne’s Woods” and similarly BRO P StLB/PM/1 – 1891 “Account of Footpath Dispute”. )

It is interesting to see the array of witnesses called to court (Bristol Mercury 25.6.1890), among them Alfred Henry Brown of Brislington’s famous Brown family who was visiting from Australia. (So beloved was our parish to these emigrants that they named their property in Australia, “Brislington”). Anne Williams, aged 85, of Unity Street, Bristol, a Roman Catholic, first knew of St Anne’s when she was 18, and recalled a pilgrimage to the Chapel ruins when she was 25. A Mr Joseph Cool, “a decrepit old man, aged 98 or 99” recalled using the Ferry in old times.  

On September 8, 1886, George Sinnott married Catherine Septima Roberts, the daughter Joseph Roberts of the Shrubbery, Paxford, Worcestershire (announced in Worcester Journal 18.9.86)  On February 20, 1888, a letter in Bristol Mercury refers to land near Netham Lock. In 1891 the couple are living at Langton Court Farm House, Wick Lane, aged 59 and 46, respectively.  George Sinnott died aged 61 in the September Quarter of 1892. No doubt his will would give further information.

It does seems from the above that at the time of the arrival of the Sinnott family, the site was part of the Langton Court Estate.  

However, in 1657, (ref DD\BR\tb/1 – Somerset R.O.) a house called St Anne’s House, formerly St Anne’s Chapel was conveyed by Rowland Lacy to George White, draper and John Willoughby, merchant, both of Bristol.  I am intrigued by the turning up of the name John Willoughby as the Willoughby family of Brislington were Roman Catholics. In the early 19th century they sold land in Brislington to Dr Edward Fox of lunatic asylum fame. It seems likely to me that John Willoughby is a possible link and should be investigated further.

The Lacys were Lords of the Manor prior to the Langtons at the time of the Reformation when they would have come by the Chapel lands. Prior to this I believe it was la Warre property, particularly as the la Warres fought on the Lancastrian side in the Wars of the Roses and apparently invited their Lord and King Henry VII to come to their local shrine. 

The object of the dig was to try to find objects which might prove that the St Anne’s Shrine was nearby what is now Woodside Road. Unfortunately no such artefacts were recovered.

I was delighted to see that Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd yesterday made an official apology to the many children who were robbed of their childhood, by an official migration programme which ended forty years ago. They were taken from the UK to Australia supposedly to give them a better life but the reality for thousands of these children has been described as “hell on earth”.

In my post of 27.3.2009 entitled “A New Start” I referred to a similar band of little children sent from Bristol to Canada.