Blaise Castle

Early history

Flint fragments show Blaise Castle Estate was probably first inhabited by Neolithic farmers. There is more definitive evidence for Bronze Age, Iron Age and Roman activity through the distinctive hill-forts in the area and other archaeological finds. The value of this historic landscape was recognised when it became a scheduled monument in 1982.

After the Anglo-Saxon invasion and subsequent conversion to Christianity, the land was granted to the Bishop of Worcester as part of the Kingdom of Mercia. During this time the estate picked up its association with Saint Blaise that lives on in the estate's name. Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries the estate was granted to Ralph Sadler who let it to tenants until 1675. A large part of the estate was bought by Sir Samuel Astry of Henbury.

Blaise Castle House

The estate was owned by a sugar merchant, Thomas Farr, who bought it from Astry's descendents in 1762; he built the sham castle. Farr went bankrupt when ships he owned were blockaded during the American Revolutionary War, and the estate was bought in 1778 to Denham Skeate. Eleven years later he sold it to John Harford, a wealthy Bristol merchant and banker, who, in 1789, demolished the old house and had the present two-storey Neoclassical Blaise Castle House built in 1796–1798, designed by William Paty. It is a square stone block with adjoining domestic offices which are faced with stucco. The north west entrance front has five bays with a central semicircular projecting porch with Ionic columns. It is a grade II* listed building, though described by Simon Jenkins as "solid, simple and unexciting". John Nash added a conservatory or orangery around 1805 or 1806, and in 1832-3, Charles Robert Cockerell designed the Picture Room for Harford's son. The Picture Room projects into a portico which has six Ionic columns. This now houses a display of paintings from Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery. The hall has bas-relief medallions by Bertel Thorvaldsen.

Harford also had Blaise Hamlet built to house his servants and tenants, to designs of Nash and George Repton in 1811. The estate was sold to Bristol Council in 1926, to preserve it from development. During World War II it was occupied by the armed forces. A branch of the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery since 1949, Blaise Castle House now features collections relating to numerous household items in addition to its period interior decoration. Galleries have displays of historic domestic equipment used for lighting, cooking, cleaning, washing, including a display of toilets. A room fitted as a Victorian schoolroom is popular for re-enactment sessions with school groups.

The castle

On a hill above the gorge is a sham castle in mock-Gothic style overlooking Bristol, Avonmouth and the Avon Gorge, with views across to South Wales on a clear day. It was built in 1766, by Robert Mylne, on the site of a chapel dedicated to Saint Blaise. The folly is reputed to have cost £3,000.

It was a popular attraction, open to paying visitors, from which vessels could be seen passing on the River Avon. Blaise Castle was immortalised by being described (by a character who frequently lies) as "the finest place in England" in Jane Austen's novel Northanger Abbey.

It was inhabited well into the 20th century with sumptuous internal decoration. It is a Grade II* listed building. It was restored in 1957.

Blaise Hamlet

Blaise Hamlet is a hamlet composed of a group of nine small cottages around a green. All the cottages, and the sundial on the green are Grade I listed buildings. Nikolaus Pevsner described Blaise Hamlet as "the ne plus ultra of picturesque layout and design". Blaise Hamlet was built around 1811 for retired employees of Quaker banker and philanthropist John Scandrett Harford, who owned Blaise Castle House.

The hamlet was designed by John Nash, master of the Picturesque style. He had worked for Harford on other buildings. The hamlet is the first fully realised exemplar of the garden suburb and laid out the road map for virtually all garden suburbs that followed. The cottages are all unique and include brick chimneys and dormer windows with some having thatched roofs. They are examples of the picturesque, an aesthetic ideal introduced into English cultural debate in 1782 by William Gilpin. An oval path links the cottages and encircles the village green with its sundial. The cottage gardens are planted in a Victorian cottage garden style.

The estate

The castle and its 650 acres (2.6 km²) of parkland are now open to the public. Along with Blaise Hamlet, the parkland is listed, Grade II*, on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of special historic interest in England.

The grounds were laid out by Humphry Repton (1752–1818) a leading landscape gardener. Parts of Repton's designs still exist, notably the carriage drive which winds its way from the house. The Regency architect John Nash was responsible for the addition of the conservatory, and almshouses in the village.

The grounds, include a gorge cut by the Hazel Brook through Bristol's limestone. The gorge features a selection of landscape, including Goram's Chair, a limestone outcrop often used by climbers, and Lover's Leap and Potter's Point, two panoramic viewing spots. Stratford Mill was moved from West Harptree and re-erected within the gorge after Chew Valley Lake was flooded to form a reservoir. Ongoing renovations started in 2004 of the mill, settling ponds and associated estate pathways. At the gorge's southern end, Hazel Brook joins the River Trym, which continues its flow towards Sea Mills. Other features within the estate include two pools: the Giant's Soapdish and the Penny Well, and two caves: the Robber's Cave and the Butcher's Cave.

The limestone dairy was built in 1802 by John Nash.

Kings Weston Hill, to the west of the castle, also forms part of the estate. The key for the nearby Kings Weston Roman Villa can be collected at the museum.