As an ecclesiastical parish, Bitton covers a wide area which, in the past, once stretched from the foot of Freezing Hill in the East to Lawrence Hill in the West, and from the River Avon in the South to almost Bridgeyate in the North. Whilst the North/South dimensions remain virtually intact, the expansion of people moving the suburbs of Bristol further and further out has meant that more and more parishes have been created so that by now the western boundary of Bitton Parish is held back by the parishes of Hanham and Oldland.
The village (Hamlet) of Bitton has always been an important and significant place, straddling as it does the Roman Road Via Julia near the confluence of the rivers Boyd and Avon. During the second/third century the Romans had built in this area, the small fort or staging-post known as trajectus, (the ferry crossing). Surrounded as it is by mainly meadow or pasture land, Bitton still to this day retains a rural ambience despite the enormous amount of twentieth century traffic running through the village and pounding the Via Julia in place of the Roman Chariots.
The purpose of this book is to record by illustration those subtle, and not so subtle changes which have taken place during this century, and wishing to incorporate some of the surrounding hamlets it was decided to take a line from roughly the centre of the village and include its eastern half, plus the communities of Swineford, Upton Cheyney, Kelston and North Stoke.
July 1997
Price £5.00
ISBN: 0-9526490-2-0
