THE BRISTOL ZODIAC

by Vince Russett

This remarkable phenomenon came to notice in 1976, when I followed up the initial clues with enthusiasm for a while, leaving the subject alone from the end of that year. With the publication of Nigel Pennick and Robert Lord’s book, I was prodded back into activity in searching the Bristol area for clues. The method adopted (concentrating on one effigy at a time) makes it difficult to give an interim report, as for example, I have done quite a lot of work on Virgo and Scorpio, but little on Capricorn or Leo.

Nevertheless, hoping the mere existence of the zodiac will be of interest to fellow enthusiasts, I offer the following notes:

The zodiac is vesica-shaped, extending from the NE at Rockhampton (ST6593) and Falfield (ST6893) to Broadfield Down in the SW (ST5364 app.), and centred {72} on the site of Bristol High Cross, which is an important centre in its own right, forming the geometric centre of the old city of Bristol, and also a ley centre. The figures so far found are:

1/ARIES. As usual, a squatting ram with turned back head. He is very small by comparison with the other effigies, and shifted to the east; this I believe is because the proper place of Aries in the zodiac is occupied by the Avon Gorge, although the position is marked in the Portbury Marshes by some ‘sheep’ place-names. The back is formed by the road from Shirehampton to Catbrain, the head is at Botany Bay, the body formed by Henburh Hill, Blaise Castle (where formerly there was a chapel dedicated to St. Blaise, the patron saint of woolcombers), and Kingsweston Hill, the legs curled under at Sea Mills and Westbury.

2/PISCES. Represented by two fishes, marked by footpaths in the Hallen Marsh, one around Poplar Farm, and one around Berwick. This area now much developed, with consequent destruction of much of interest.

3/AQUARIUS. A giant bird in flight, its tail at Tockington, and its wings spreading out on either side, one to Rudgeway, and containing the ghastly spectre of the Almondsbury M4/M5 interchange, the second spreading out into flat country to the west. Almondsbury village church lies on the cloaca of this bird. Its head has a crest at Filton, and its beak pecks at a well neat Compton Greenfield.

4/CAPRICORN. Apparently a goatfish, for although I failed to find back legs in several hours of searching, a tail emerges naturally from the map as soon as you look. One front leg stands in Thornbury, and the second points to Olveston, ending at Old Down. The tail reaches across from Rockhampton to Falfield, and the lines of the body pass via Tytherington and Grovesend to the neck at Itchington. The head and horn lie at Earthcott.

5/SAGITTARIUS. A falling rider, his mount and himself practically obliterated in detail, but still traceable in outline, by 19th century mining and related industry (hence the lovely rural local names like Coalpit Heath, Engine Common and Iron Acton). On the 1830 1″ O.S. maps, he is easier to trace, with his steed galloping across Yate, Iron Acton and Latteridge. The rider’s head is at Mangotsfield, where it brushes the claw of Scorpio. His upraised left arm, pointing at Stanton Drew, runs down to Kingswood, his torso is occupied by Winterbourne Down and Bury Hill. His right leg is risen and bent, the left still partially behind the horse, running back to Frampton Cotterrell and Coalpit Heath.

6/SCORPIO. A scorpion, his head at Pucklechurch, his claws at Westerleigh and Mangots Field, a few possible legs marked by lanes on either side of the body, which runs down to Wick, where it turns, and the tail and sting are at Bridgeyate.

7/VIRGO. This is the sign I have worked on most, mainly because of the immediately obvious face drawn in outline by a lane near Stanton Drew. She holds a wheatsheaf at Whitchurch, her head lies hooded at Stanton Drew, her drawn back right arm runs from Chelwood to Compton Dando, her robe hem runs from her exposed foot at Keynsham to Corston, and her breasts are possibly marked (though unaesthetically) by a lane at Woollard.

8/LEO. I am unsatisfied with this figure, which lies on ground enclosed very late indeed, thus causing fewer of the ancient tracks (by which this zodiac is almost exclusively marked) to be retained. It is only the head which appears to have suffered; the tail runs from North Wick down to Chew Magna, where it meets the rump, one leg seen in profile goes back through Chew Stoke, but is now drowned in the Chew Valley Lake. There is a Romano-British temple on an Iron Age site at Pagans Hill on the lion’s genitalia; his front legs, both raised, one straight, the other bent, are around Redhill and Butcombe.

9/GEMINI. Represented, I think, by a figure not unlike the Glastonbury one, with arm raised above head at Leigh Woods, the arm and torso stretching back to Flax Bourton, the apparently hooded head at Long Ashton. {73}

10/TAURUS. There is the faint indication of a calf-like head at Stoke Bishop, below the Aries figure, with a raised forefoot. This figure and Aries look almost as if a small zodiac was at first planned, and then abandoned in favour of the present. The area is absolutely riddled with legends about relevant events and persons; Vincent and Goram, the Bristol giants, are located at St. Vincent’s Rocks, exactly where the Gemini figure(s?) lie(s), for example. The Avon provides a watergate to the very centre of the zodiac, coming as it does within about 100 yards of the site of Bristol High Cross.

11/LIBRA. Seems to represent a dove, at Speedwell, flying towards the centre of the circle.

12/CANCER. Nothing as yet found, although if there is anything, it ought to lie in the Backwell–Nailsea area.

The zodiac is very large, being 23 miles long and about 14 miles wide, but has unfortunately suffered a great deal of building since 1900. Research with old maps is now in hand, though, and when I have much more confirmation, I shall be publishing a fuller description.