Our European Adventure: Ashton Court Romp

It’s been awhile since you’ve seen pictures of the girls running around. This is mostly due to cold weather. I don’t like walking dogs in the snow. And I’ve seen enough snow in the last 6 weeks to tide me over for the next three years! Though the girls are loving the cooler weather and are much more active, I'm ready for some summer heat. Somehow the girls drug me out to Ashton Court for a little run around.

Just outside Bristol city centre, Ashton Court Estate is set in 850 acres of beautiful historic parkland, deer parks, meadows and grassland. And because you can’t see pictures of the dogs running in grass and snow without a history lesson first…the first owners of Ashton Court Estate, was the family “de Lions”, originally from Lyons in France.

In 1495, the estate was bought by John Smyth, a wealthy exporter of wheat, cloth, leather and lead to Spain and France through the Bristol ports. He imported oil, dyes, wine, iron, fish and salt. However, he never took up residence at Ashton Court Estate and it was the later Smyths who developed the estate to its present appearance. Clever marriages, land investments, mining and overseas trading secured the estate for over 400 years in the hands of the Smyths.

During the 1st World War, Ashton Court Estate was used as a military hospital and in WWII Ashton Court Estate was acquired by the War Office as a transit camp. Then, in 1946, Dame Esme Smyth, the last resident of Ashton Court Estate, died and the mansion and estate remained abandoned for 13 years before it was purchased by Bristol City Council in 1959. The building is now ‘Grade I listed’ therefore you’re not allowed to change anything within the entire structure.

Thanks for sitting with us for another history of really old land & buildings (or scrolling to the end of the words so you could see pictures…)!