Just one stop on the train from Clifton Down, the suburb of Sea Mills feels so utterly divorced from the steep pavements, packed flats and abundance of coffee shops in the next neighbourhood along. With its wide open spaces and flat landscape, we wonder if perhaps we zoned out sometime during the five-minute journey and ended up in the wrong destination.
Confined to the south and east by the Avon and the river Trym and flanked by the neighbouring areas of Combe Dingle, Shirehampton, Westbury-on-Trym and Stoke Bishop, Sea MiIls primarily consists of a neatly contained, well-ordered garden estate built to provide "homes for heroes" as part of the 1919 Addison Act - designed to address the shortage of quality housing for working people and provide homes for troops returning from the First World War.
Developed using garden city principles, including building at no more than 12 houses per acre and a 100-year-old oak at its heart, as the roar of the Portway recedes, even on a dull January day, it's striking just how much verdure there is. The spacious residences, some double-fronted, all show off back gardens, front gardens, and kerbside verges. Clifton could never.
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The short walk from the station also offers glimpses into Sea Mill's more distant past with the old 18th century wet dock walls, where ships too large to navigate the gorge were docked peeping out of the swollen mouth of the river Trym. There are even Roman ruins of the second-century settlement Portus Abonae which commuters on their way to Avonmouth speed past every day.
The foundation of the Roman town shows a layout that included what are believed to be shops. Today there are two small shopping areas, one at Westbury Lane and another on Shirehampton Road, arranged symmetrically around a central green bisected by wide residential roads. Flanking either side of the central square are two convenience stores, one with a Post Office very recently under the new management of KSHA Ltd, hoping to increase the services on offer for residents.
Heather Newberr-Keats, the co-founder of the Sea Mills and Coombe Dingle Climate Action Group, is enjoying lunch with her children at the cafe on the green, housed in a former toilet block. Run by a combination of volunteers from Sea Mills Community Initiatives and staff, the tiny cafe is something of an epicentre for the estate offering a space where people can gather without any specific purpose other than chatting over a cup of tea and a bacon sandwich.
On a sodden midweek morning, the cafe is so popular that some patrons take up tables outside under the awnings. Heather and her partner moved to Bristol from Auckland six years ago and considers herself lucky to have landed in Sea Mills. "It's a really, really nice community," she said, "Lovely cafe, lovely schools. We've got all the green spaces nearby.”
"It's a very nice environment," chimes in Gracie, aged six. Heather and a friend set up the local Climate Action Group two and half years ago, which meets every two weeks and runs various campaigns as well as regular community litter picks.
One of the group's most popular projects is a monthly repair cafe in the nearby Methodist church where skilled volunteers donate their time to repair “pretty much anything” from small electrical products, mechanical items and clothes, for free with cake and tea available to purchase and donations welcome. Heather sees Sea Mills as ideally situated for those who, like her, may want to live a greener lifestyle without the need to use a car.
She said, “So we're lucky in that we've got dentists, doctors, library, hairdresser, salon, the little corner shops, the cafe, there are playgroups nearby, there's so much for us right on our doorstep, which means we don't have to drive anywhere really for much.
“But we do have the train, so we can kind of get into Bristol really easily. Obviously, there are the buses as well, although they're not always the most reliable. But we do try to take them.”
The Methodist church, which hosts many local groups, including the repair cafe, was meant to be hosting its weekly warm space on the day of our visit. But heavy rainfall and a major leak forced them to cancel, and we were joined by one of the organisers, Jo Sinton-Hewitt.
She agreed that Sea Mills is a great place for young families served by two primary schools, with Sea Mills Primary offering almost a “village” style school with one form of uptake and teachers that all the parents know. It's clear how content many of the residents of Sea Mills are - we ask if there’s anything they feel the area is lacking. “Well, of course, you know about the community centre...” she says.
The community centre
To the north of the estate, Sea Mills community centre is somewhat emblematic of the ‘do-it-yourself’ attitude that seems to abound in the area. The centre was built after residents led a years-long grass-roots campaign raising money by offering locals shares in the project for £1. Construction work carried out by volunteers began in the late 1950s and lasted for five years.
With a raised stage, it hosted various events, including the Sea Mills Amateur Dramatics society and the Sea Mills Flower Show, which has been running since the 1920s. Despite being initially built by the community, the centre was owned by the council, and after suffering financial difficulties as well as structural defects and asbestos, was closed in 2019.
However, the building has recently been used by television crews to film The Outlaws series, starring Christopher Walken and Stephen Merchant, and was even tagged by Banksy under the understanding that the artwork would be painted over as part of the filming.
In June, it was revealed that Bristol City Council wants to knock down the centre and use the site for new social housing with the potential for a small community space to be included on the ground floor of the new building. Discussion of the plans is still ongoing and is a sore subject for many residents who feel strongly that, given its history, the current building should be saved, refurbished, made safe, and the community centre reopened.
Jo says seeing the centre featured so prominently on the critically acclaimed tv show was “bittersweet”. She said, “It was exciting to see it being used, but then it was quite frustrating and painful.” She says she found it particularly difficult to watch the scene where Christopher Walken paints over the Banksy rats, knowing that such a valuable artwork could potentially have helped saved the centre.
Although the Methodist church and St Eydths offer well-used spaces, she says there are certain things that they can’t host, such as children's parties or late-night events.
At St Edyth's, we spoke to administrator Katherine Wiltshire. The church housed the crew catering for the Outlaws filming, and she even heard a rumour that someone involved in the production tried to purchase the centre afterwards for the community but was declined. Katherine says she understands that although the area has two churches offering spaces for activities, she thinks the Sea Mills might benefit from a secular space as “not everyone is hugely comfortable coming into a church."
She grew up in Sea Mills and stayed until her 20s, and describes being a child there as “lovely". She added: "You always have that bit of greenery to go on and have a walk. And then you could walk down to the train stations and also to where they've got the Roman ruins are. I went to the junior school right next door.
“It was it was obviously very different back then when I was young; for some reason it it was considered posh, but it really wasn't.” She believes the area has diversified since, with more families moving in with young children living alongside the older demographic who have been there all their lives.
Back at the cafe, Jo and Heather expressed a concern that the area could be susceptible to gentrification as seen by other Bristol neighbourhoods. Jo said, “It has changed over the years, and I think there’s an awareness of that, there’s less council housing and more private ownership, but there’s an effort to try to reach people in the whole community.
"It feels very different from when we moved in 13 years ago - it's much more diverse now, which is exciting and welcoming."
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