Ray & Shirley Thomas 2016. Terms & Conditions

copyright acknowledged to Bristol & Avon Family History Society

FILTON

BRISTOL

Filton history

Prior to the 19th century, with just a few big houses and a scattering of farms, less than 500 people lived in Filton.  Farming was the principal occupation.  In 1814, Rev. SEYER, the rector wrote, "Horfield is a most lawless place and Filton not much better.  Horfield Wood was then on both sides of the road and it was not very safe to pass that way."  

Just a few things about Filton

In 1869, Samuel Shield founded Shield’s Laundry, a key industry that served the gentry from a wide area.  It was a large factory-like laundry in the village, opposite Filton House.  The laundry became a major employer in the parish.  Some of the employees would have to work in the fields, before going into the laundry to do a day's work.

1869

Perhaps the most important year in Filton's history is 1910 when Sir George WHITE (1854-1916) founded Britain's first large scale aeroplane company, and a two acre meadow became an airfield.  He was an entrepreneur, tramway pioneer, stockbroker, industrialist and philanthropist.  He introduced the first electric trams to Bristol in 1895 and to London in 1901   He set up a tramway depot in Filton which was later used for tram chassis manufacture.  He also set up the British and Colonial Aeroplane Company. Filton House, which had alternated between being a farmhouse and a gentleman’s residence, became the head office of the company in 1912.

1910

Filton received the benefit of a railway station when the Bristol & South Wales Union Railway was built through the parish and opened its line to New Passage in 1863 with ferries across the Severn.  This later formed part of the Great Western Railway.  The original station was near the site of the third and current ‘Filton Abbey Wood’ station.  A second and much larger railway station, known as Filton Junction, opened in 1910, after the new line to Avonmouth was finished.  A halt, called Filton Halt (later North Filton Platform) was built on this line at the bottom of Filton Hill for the convenience of factory workers.

Early - Present