Having
produced over the past few year’s four books in the very successful then
& now series, all of which were concentrated upon selected areas
within South Gloucestershire, this is my first venture south of the River
Avon into North East Somerset. In choosing Keynsham I have also decided to
change the format and only include historical pictures to give you, the
reader, an opportunity of seeing many more older photographs than would
otherwise be possible.
The origin of Keynsham and even its very name has always been a matter of considerable speculation with an intermingling of folklore. At one time, millions of years ago, the land on which Keynsham was subsequently built was under the sea, as evidenced by the number of fossil ammonites found in the area, and it was these that gave rise to the story that during the fifth century St.Keyna, daughter of Bragham, Prince of Brecknockshire, came here to serve God in solitude and retirement. Before arriving she was told that the area so swarmed with serpents that neither man nor beast could live there, but following her presence and her prayers, the snakes were all turned to stone, allowing a settlement to be established which took its name from her. As charming as that story is, the more likely basis for the name is a corruption of the Saxon name Caegqine's hamme which was shortened to Canesham or Cainesham the latter being the spelling favoured by the Normans when preparing the Domesday Book. How and when Keynsham developed is now lost in the midst of time but, almost certainly, there was little or no habitation at the start of the last millennium. However, some time during the second/third century the Romans came to this part of the world and stayed for some while naming it Trajectus. At first they built a six-roomed house roughly 52-foot square on the site now occupied by Cadbury Ltd. Later a much larger house was built around a quadrangle, which consisted of at least 15 rooms, and long corridors where beautifully designed tessellated pavements were constructed in an area now know as Durley Hill.
Around 1170, William Earl of Gloucester founded an Augustinian Abbey on land near the confluence of the rivers Avon and Chew, although the Abbey Church was not to be shared with the good folk of Keynsham, it had enormous influence over the village and the surrounding area for well over 350 years. With two rivers flowing through the area there were by the eleventh century no less than six mills in Keynsham, mostly agriculturally based, and over the millennium the town prospered whilst at the same time the area gradually became more and more industrialized, and expanded as it absorbed an ever increasing populous moving out of the nearby cities into a more pastoral environment. Unfortunately today Keynsham is no longer a self sufficient market town and, whilst it staunchly defends its independence it is close to becoming part of the urban sprawl of its near and much larger neighbours.
Price £5.00
ISBN: 0-9526490-6-3
