Speedwell, Bristol

Speedwell
Speedwell  Speedwell shown within Bristol
Population	2,342
OS grid reference	ST635745
Unitary authority	Bristol
Ceremonial county	Bristol
Region	South West
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	BRISTOL
Postcode district	BS5, BS15
Dialling code	0117
Police	Avon and Somerset
Fire	Avon
Ambulance	South Western
EU Parliament	South West England
UK Parliament	Bristol East
List of places UK England Bristol

Coordinates: 51°28′06″N 2°31′36″W / 51.4682°N 2.5268°W

Speedwell Swimming Baths (after closure).

New housing on the site of the TA barracks, Whitefield Road.

Speedwell is an area of east Bristol, Part of the Hillfields ward. It has a mixture of residential and industrial land.

The 2014 population esyimate of the population of Speedwell was 2,342.^[1]

The one School in the area is Bristol Brunel Academy, previously known as Speedwell Technology College and Speedwell Secondary School. It was Bristol's first specialist school - a technology college since 1997. In 2007 the Academy moved into all-new purpose built buildings and the old school buildings were demolished.^[2]

History

The Speedwell area had many small coal mines in the 19th century.^[3][4] In the 1970s some of these old workings had to be stabilised in the area of Speedwell secondary school. A goods only railway connected the collieries and the Peckett and Sons locomotive works (also known as the Atlas Locomotive Works) with the Midland railway at Kingswood junction.^[5] In the early 1970s, shortly after Avon county council was formed, approximately half of Speedwell secondary school burnt down, the school was partly rebuilt. A number of 'temporary' prefab houses, built in the housing shortage after the World War II, existed in the west side of the suburb into the 21st century.^[6]

References

1. "Mid-2014 Population Estimates by Lower Layer Super Output Area". Bristol City Council. Retrieved 12 December 2015.
2. "Remarkable turnaround for Speedwell school". Bristol Post. 9 September 2008. Retrieved 12 December 2015.
3. "Speedwell Pit Coal Mine". Adit Now. Retrieved 12 December 2015.
4. Penny, John. "Page 1 Regional Historian, Issue 7, Summer 2001 King Coal's Final Victim a reconstruction of the events surrounding the last fatal accident in a Bristol colliery – August 1932" (PDF). University of the West of England. Retrieved 12 December 2015.
5. Lee, M.J. "Peckett & Sons ltd". Industrial Railway Record. Retrieved 12 December 2015.
6. "Milestone as tenants move into 100th Bristol prefab replacement". Bristol Post. 25 March 2010. Retrieved 12 December 2015.