Amazing Grace

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Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me
I once was lost, but now am found; was blind, but now I see.
-- John Newton

For those of you who haven’t yet seen it, I cannot recommend the film “Amazing Grace” to you highly enough. I watched it off the back of my brother’s recommendation and it is simply wonderful. Talented, young British actors make up the cast and, although you know how the story will end, it moved me to tears. Absolutely inspiring story that made me realise how little I knew about the slave trade. Being me, I decided to remedy that. Some research showed that the three main ports in the Triangle Trade (goods to sell to slave traders/slaves to sell in the Americas/goods to import - especially sugar and tobacco - back to Europe) were London, Bristol and Liverpool. I decided against Liverpool because I was afraid I would get caught up in Beatlemania, so Bristol it was.

I hopped on the train Friday afternoon to head out there. But, it had been raining for days so the lines were flooded beyond Bristol. As a result, all the trains were delayed and those that did leave were very crowded and went very slowly. The usual two-hour journey took four and I had to sit on the floor for the first hour, but I finally arrived. The queue for a taxi was very long, so I was glad to see the lights of my hotel. I had been congratulating myself on how cheap a hotel room I had found (£29 a night), but understood why when I saw it. Teeny tiny room with a single bed and a bathroom so small one had to close the door to use the toilet. Oh well, it was clean and in the centre of town, so I chose not to lose my sense of humour. By the time I got in and unpacked, it was late and still raining, so I chose to forego a foray into the city and had a salad at the hotel bar while I read my book. Another recommendation - “The Time Travellers Wife”. Very well written and a wonderful story.

Up relatively early Saturday to discover that the rain had stopped. I was best pleased as another reason I chose Bristol was that the town has put together a walk showing the history of the slave trade, and I really did not fancy doing it in the rain. I left the hotel around 9.30 and headed over to the Tourist Information Centre to get a copy of the walk. On the way, I passed a statue of John Cabot - he of Newfoundland fame. I hadn’t realised he had sailed from Bristol, so I began the day by saying. “cool!”

Before I did the slave walk, however, I walked over to a suburb called Clifton that Jeremy had told me was beautiful. In addition, Brunel had built a suspension bridge over the Avon Gorge that is very famous so I wanted to see that as well. As I was walking, the church bells were ringing and, as I walked through a park, the birds were singing. That soundtrack really added something to my morning. The bridge is lovely and I made myself walk across it. No mean feat, I assure you. My recurring anxiety dream is having to walk across a bridge that I can see down. But, I made it and then headed into town to start the slave walk. On my way, I passed a store that sells nothing but pens. I managed to find Bic fine point blue - my favourite by a long shot and increasingly difficult to find. I bought out the store!

The walk starts on Queens Road, the High Street of Bristol. Some interesting shops and it was fun to see all the people out on a Saturday. The first port of call was the Georgian House. It is used to show the opulence in which the traders lived. They certainly made fortunes. The man that had the house built was called John Pinney. On his death, he was worth £17 million in today’s money. The house, garden and furnishings were all lovely.

I walked along to Bristol Cathedral. Begun in 1140, it was originally a monastery. It managed to survive Henry VIII’s rage, but just barely. Once again, when I walked in, the organist was practising, so I got to be in this beautiful space filled with music. The highlights were the well worn steps that the monks had used to go to prayers and an Anglo-Saxon stone that cannot be dated, but is well over 1,000 years old. Fabulous!

Feeling in need of some lunch, I went to a pub called the Drawbridge for a bowl of soup and a glass of wine. Much needed warming up.

I carried on walking, looking at buildings and statues of people all connected to the slave trade. I had a funny experience. I have actually been to Bristol twice on business, but only for the day. We get on a train; we have our meeting; we go to lunch; we come home. On the walk, I passed both places in which I had eaten. Made me realise that Bristol is not all that large.

The highlights of the rest of the walk included a clock over the Corn Exchange that has two hands. It turns out that before the advent of travel, each city had its own time. Because Bristol is West of GMT, its time was eleven minutes earlier than London. However, once the trains came through, they ran on London time. This clock was built so that the merchants of Bristol would know the correct time as well as Railway Time. The Theatre Royal is the oldest running theatre in Great Britain. Managed by the Old Vic, it is now in danger of shutting down due to a lack of funds. The building is beautiful, but it was sad at the same time. I saw the first American Consulate ever. The merchants of Bristol continued to trade with America after its independence, so the new government thought Bristol was the right place to put its consulate.

By this time, it was beginning to get dark, so I turned the rest of the walk into a bit of a pub crawl. I went to the Hole in the Wall, famous as a pub where the owner would get the sailors drunk and in trouble so that they would have to work on the slave ships. I sat outside with a glass of wine and watched the lights come up all over town. Leaving there, I walked past the smugglers caves to an old pub called the Ostrich. It has had one of its walls removed so that one can see the caves. A lot of fun, especially as they have left some of the old barrels and crates in there. I had a great experience in this pub. I had been thinking about my dad a lot today as he would have loved the walk and all the history connected to it. As I was sitting in the pub, “Loves Me Like A Rock” played. This is the song my father and I danced to at my wedding, so I choose to believe he was letting me know that he was close by.

I was heading for another pub, but took a wrong turn. Desperate for a loo, I walked into the Louisiana. A bit of a hole, but a loo and another glass of wine. Finished the walk, then made my way over to the Llandoger Trow in the rain. Although not part of the slave walk, this is the most famous pub in Bristol as it rumoured to be the spot where Daniel Defoe met Alexander Selkirk on whom he based “Robinson Crusoe.” It is also rumoured to be the Spyglass in “Treasure Island”. Unfortunately, I was not inspired to write a novel, but I did have another glass of wine while I wrote in my journal.

I decided that food was in order, so I wandered around until I found an Italian place that smelled divine. It was called Ristorante da Renato and it had the greatest food. I dined on mushrooms, stuffed with pate and fried with a mustard sauce followed by veal scaloppini with more mushrooms and spaghetti. Delicious!

On the way back to the hotel, I stopped at the Shakespeare pub just to see what was happening. Nothing, so I went back to the hotel for a nightcap and to talk to Mom on my phone until it ran out of juice.

So, Sunday dawned a bit cloudy and overcast, but no rain so that was all good. However, I woke up with sore legs (walking all day in Keds is, perhaps, not a great idea) and a bit of a sore head (a pub crawl on white wine is, perhaps, also not a great idea). I had one mad moment where I debated hopping on a train and heading home, but was determined that aching muscles and the vestiges of a hangover were not going to best me. I decided that a good walk would do me good and get me going again - and it did.

I walked out into the crisp air, listening to the seagulls and the church bells as I walked along the river. I stumbled across a place called Brunel’s Buttery - a small shack of a place that was filled with locals. Deciding that they knew what they were doing, I ordered a bacon sandwich and a cup of tea. Wow! Maybe the best of both I have had in quite a while. I learned later that the Buttery was set up by Brunel for the workers as they were building the SS Great Britain and has been there ever since. The driver on the boat cruise said that it sells the best tea in Bristol - agreed!

So - what is the SS Great Britain, I hear you asking. It was a ship, built in Bristol, that has had quite a history. Brunel (he of the bridge fame), decided that he could build a boat that was better than the wooden ones being built at the time. He decided to make it out of iron and was laughed at. Wouldn’t iron sink? It didn’t, and this boat revolutionised boat building. It was the first one to use a screw propeller and the first one to use a modern rudder. The ship was used for all kinds of things, ending her days as the first modern ocean liner. She carried hundreds of people to Australia in the last part of the 19th Century. Hard to imagine now, when one can be in Sydney in 24 hours, but back then it took sixty days. The people leaving often didn’t know if they would ever see England again - and many of them didn’t. One can tour the boat, and I’m here to tell you. To survive that steerage for sixty days, one would really have to want to be in Australia.

As I was walking back into town, I passed a sign advertising boat trips along the river. One was leaving in about half an hour, so I did a self assessment. (1) Was the hangover gone so the rocking of the boat wouldn’t kill me? Yes. (2) Would I still have time to go to the slave exhibit and make it home at a decent hour? Yes. (3) Was I still full enough from breakfast that I could survive another hour without food? Yes. Off I went. It was really interesting. The young guy running it was full of information about the town and the river. For instance, Bristol has the second highest tides in the world (somewhere in Canada is first). They can vary as much as 13 metres, which made life difficult for people trying to load and unload boats. As far back as 1240, man has been trying to divert the river to keep this from happening. One part of the river, called St. Augustine’s Reach, was actually dug by hand between 1240 and 1246. Even more amazing when one realises that it is still being used. They have now finally solved it and there are no more tides - thus, it is called a Floating Harbour.

Remember I told you about the caves I saw yesterday? A lot of the sand that was taken from them was used as ballast on the empty boats going to the “New World”. In fact, a lot of the lower part of Manhattan is built on this sand. Speaking of caves and pirates - Blackbeard was born in Bristol. The Blitz took a real toll on Bristol. 1,299 people died and a lot of the buildings were destroyed. Why was it hit so badly, I asked? Because all the enemy had to do was follow the river, was the response. Creepy. My favourite bit? There is now a bridge called Bristol Bridge. There has been a river crossing there for over 1,000 years and it was originally called Brigstow - Anglo-Saxon for “river crossing”. God, I love stuff like that.

After the boat trip, I gathered up my bag and went over to the Empire Museum, which is right next to the train station. I went through an exhibit called “Breaking the Chains” which is all about the slave trade and the experiences of being a slave. It was very interesting, but a bit too apologetic for my taste.

All in all, a fantastic weekend and one in which I learned a lot about things I didn’t know. What have I learned about the slave trade? (1) That it went on for centuries, and involved most of Europe, Western Africa, North America and the West Indies. (2) That people (men) made fortunes doing it. (3) That the life of a sailor at that time was extremely harsh and that they did not prosper at all from the work that they did.

What really struck me, however, was how guilty the city of Bristol feels about its involvement in this part of English history. Everything I read had a tone of apology and there was a lot of finger pointing at the main perpetrators. However, these were the same men who built the schools, the almshouses, the library and the theatre. Because of them, England’s banking industry took off and the insurance industry was invented (thank goodness, as that is what pays for me to take these weekends away!). I am, in no way, condoning slavery. I just find it interesting that the good that these men did no longer counts - just the fact that they were slavers.

But - the most important thing I came away with from watching the film and then walking around the town is that people who really believe in something, like William Wilberforce (whose biography I bought and am now reading), Thomas Clarkson and Hannah More, can change the world.

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Photos

St Mary of Redcliffe
Elizabeth I said it was the "fairest in all England". Who am I to argue?

View from the Park
This is looking down from one of the many hills I climbed back over the city and into the surrounding countryside.

Clifton Suspension Bridge
Gives you an idea of how massive this thing is.

Clifton Suspension Bridge
The view from the middle -- proof that I really did cross the thing!

A Teeny Door
This door was shorter than I am. Just loved the way it was built into the wall.

The Georgian House
Looks a lot smaller than it really is. Went up six stories.

A Shop on the High Street
Bristol's idea of vintage!

The Cathedral
I was beginning to lose the light a bit at this point.

The Cathedral
The interior.

The Cathedral
My favorite stained glass window.

The Cathedral
The steps the monks used 800 years ago.

The Cathedral
The Anglo-Saxon stone.

The Cathedral
I guess it's not the date that people are just born!

The American Consulate
And -- the very first one!

SS Great Britain
Not the Queen Mary, but very cool nonetheless.

Oops!
Had to put this one in because Mom will love it. The perfect example of why one needs to proofread. Made me laugh out loud.