The Queen visits Bristol today

The Queen is visiting Bristol today and it is unlikely that she will utter words that are still quoted 500 years hence like her ancestor Elizabeth I, who when visiting Bristol in the late-sixteenth century described St Mary Redcliffe as “the fairest, goodliest, and most famous parish church in England”.

It is unlikely that we will know anything that Queen Elizabeth II says on her visit to Bristol, the detailed itinerary of which is being kept strictly under wraps.

A “private event” at Bristol Old Vic between 10am and 1pm gives one indication of her day, however, which the British Monarchy website also reveals will see visits to Hartcliffe and Withywood Ventures, and Bailey Caravans in Ashton Vale.

It is also understood that the Queen will have lunch at M Shed with an invited group of civic leaders and representatives from Bristol arts organisations.

Missorts, a new “immersive soundwork”

A new piece of public artwork for Bristol features music and interconnecting short stories on a GPS-enabled smartphone app, taking place around the Redcliffe area. Missorts is an “immersive soundwork” by writer and novelist Tony White, produced by Spike Island-based arts producers Situations who over the summer brought Nowhere Island to the Floating Harbour.

The work features stories by Sara Bowler, Holly Corfield-Carr, Thomas Darby, Jack Ewing, Katrina Plumb, Jess Rotas, Hannah Still, Helen Thornhill, Isabel de Vasconcellos and Sacha Waldron.

The stories are read to an accompanying score of St Mary Redcliffe’s Harrison and Harrison organ in its centenary year called Portwall Preludes, commissioned from composer Jamie Telford.

Nathan Taylor from Situations said: “Inspired by Bristol’s radical literary heritage, Missorts reflects the past and present of the Redcliffe area of the city and the diversity of writings, objects and architectures that are found there.”

For more information and to download the app, visit www.missorts.com.

The St Mary Redcliffe Pipe Walk

The St Mary Redcliffe Pipe Walk takes place today. Anyone who wants to join in should meet at St Barnabas Church in Daventry Road, Knowle, at 9.30am for a 10am start. “What is the St Mary Redcliffe Pipe Walk?” I hear you cry. I was not sure either, but then I decided to find out more.

The two-mile walk from Knowle to St Mary Redcliffe follows the route of a pipe first constructed in 1190 and has the important purpose of checking that the water in the pipe is still flowing. It starts at a fresh water spring on the Northern Slopes off Daventry Road, marked by a stone well-head.

This was what many centuries ago was the Ruge Well, but what is now hidden among allotments in the area that locals call the Bommie after a bomb known as Satan dropped onto Beckington Road but did not go off on January 3, 1941.

When I went to find the well-head yesterday afternoon, nobody I spoke to had even heard of it until I found the wonderfully helpful Joy and Mark at The Park, who made a few phone calls resulting in me arranging to meet Steve from the Knowle West Health Association by the entrance to the allotments off Tavistock Road.

The allotments were only reinstated here a few years ago, and the well-head is hidden among one of the plots. Here it is, with the relatively new addition of a metal grill rather than the small wooden door that used to guard its entrance.

Even an allotment holder who I had earlier spoken to by the entrance gate did not know about the existence of the well-head. It is particularly well-hidden, but like all of the Northern Slopes has wonderful views across Bristol towards the Suspension Bridge:

Following a few stone markers, two miles later the walk, led by St Mary Redcliffe’s churchwardens, will arrive at the church. The Pipe Walk, similar to a Beating of the Bounds ritual done in other parishes, is an ancient custom, revived in 1928 after what is only recorded as “a lapse of some time”.

Here is one of the stone markers, in the same allotment as the well-head:

Steve told me that a priest is rumoured to come and wipe his bottom on this particular stone marker every year for good luck, although Steve has never seen this strange occurrence.

One tradition that definitely will continue today is giving the bumps to first-timers on the walk – which includes clergy as well as parishioners – near another one of the markers.

Other stones with the inscription “S.M.R. Pipe” can be found from the source to Victoria Park playground, where there is a water maze designed by Jane Norbury and Peter Milner, built in 1984 as a copy of a roof boss in St Mary Redcliffe at a point where a new sewer crosses the old pipeline.

In around 1810, when the New Cut was dry, the pipe was diverted along York Road, under the original Bedminster Bridge and up Redcliffe Hill to the water trough below the balustrade walk on the west side of the church.

Click here to read more about the history of the St Mary Redcliffe Pipe Walk.

Ten favourite Bristol facts

There are tours today up to the top of the Wills Memorial Building. Started in 1915 but due to the First World War only completed in 1925, it stands at 68m (215 ft) high, making it twice as tall as the nearby Cabot Tower. Designed by George Herbert Oatley, it is constructed from Bath and Clipsham stone.

These Wills Tower titbits got us thinking about some of our other favourite Bristol facts:

1) Just up the road from the Wills Tower, what is now Browns restaurant used to be the university refectory. It is modelled on the Doge’s Palace in Venice.

2) Ribena was invented at the National Fruit & Cider Institute in Long Ashton. As sources of vitamin C dwindled during World War II, Bristol researchers found blackcurrants were the best alternative to oranges and Ribena was born.

3) Nipper the dog, made famous by his appearance on the HMV logo, was owned by an employee at the former Prince’s Theatre on Park Row. He is commemorated there by a blue plaque, thought to be the only blue plaque in the UK devoted to an animal.

4) The Downs Tea Rooms are former Victorian toilets. On the toilets the other side of the water tower, a blue plaque commemorates attendant Victoria Hughes, who in the 1920s befriended prostitutes, making her workplace a safe haven for working girls.

5) St Mary Redcliffe is Bristol’s tallest building at 89m. But by virtue of Clifton’s lofted elevation, Christ Church is the city’s highest structure above sea level.

6) The Bristol Post Boy of August 12, 1704, is the earliest surviving copy of a provincial newspaper in the UK.

7) The Clifton Suspension Bridge is three feet lower on the Leigh Woods side than on the Clifton side in order to counteract an optical illusion.

8) In medieval times, the Christmas Steps was called Queene Street, later becoming known as Knyfesmyth Street after its specialist traders. At its foot for centuries was a statue of the Madonna and child, rubbed smooth by generations of people for luck. The beheaded statue can still be seen just inside the entrance to St Bartholomew’s Court.

9) The star-shaped light in the ceiling of St George’s marks the point where an incendiary bomb, thankfully failing to ignite, crashed through the roof during the Blitz.

10) Bristol is the only city outside London to have a State Coach.

The Undercroft Café

The newly opened Undercroft Café beneath St Mary Redcliffe Church has been busily amassing followers on their Twitter account over the last week so I decided to pay them a visit after lunch today.

Hidden away down some stairs by the church’s main entrance, the café is quite a find. At 2.30pm, I had the place to myself but I hear that the jazz evenings on Wednesdays are very popular.

It is a beautiful vaulted space, with candles on each of the small tables and on one of the walls. In a room of such archictural beauty, anything too heavy-handed could have spoiled the essence, and the new custodians should be applauded for making the Undercroft so welcoming while retaining centuries of history.

There was no latte this time as they haven’t worked out how to use their coffee machine yet, so I settled on a normal coffee, but a large blackboard proudly displayed all the food on offer, made in the small open kitchen. Two particularly tempting dishes were baked camembert with crusty bread (£3.50) and roast butternut squash risotto (£5.50). The lemon and coffee cakes (£1.50) also looked worth a try, if I hadn’t already gobbled down a Mars Bar.

There are bottled lagers, San Miguel and Bristol Beer Factory, cider, whiskey and sherry and a small choice of wine. The café is also available for private hire.

The chimes every 15 minutes from the church upstairs were a reminder of where I was, as I had completely lost myself in a book of old photos of Bristol where I learnt that St Mary Redcliffe (parts of which date back to the beginning of the 12th century) is one of only two parish churches in England to have stone vaulting.

I could have stayed in the Undercroft Café for much longer than the brief time I had given myself, but I will certainly be returning soon, hopefully to find this historic place a bit more lively.

Price of a coffee: £1.50

The Undercroft Café, underneath St Mary Redcliffe Church. 0117 925 5989.

www.theundercroft.co.uk

Bristol cafes. Cafes in Bristol.