Preview: Blood and Butchery in Bedminster

Bedminster BID and Bristol-based theatre company Show of Strength are bringing together some of Bedminster’s most thrilling and unbelievable tales to create a pub tour with a difference this winter.

On Tuesday evenings this winter and spring the aptly named Blood and Butchery in Bedminster delves deep into the area’s gruesome history – and, in particular, into how Bedminster’s pubs play a key role in these stories, including tales of body snatchers, concrete coffins, hangings judges and the most notorious heist in living memory.

Setting off every Tuesday evening from The Rope Walk pub on Bedminster Parade, Blood and Butchery in Bedminster explores tales of murder, mystery, betrayal and bullion, visiting pubs and landmarks along the way.

Punters will be regaled with the gruesome tale of John Horwood, sentenced to hang in 1821 at what is now The Steam Crane pub and eventually to meet a uniquely macabre end. Elsewhere, a forgotten Victorian murder, the fate of Princess Caraboo and the mysterious disappearance of Mr Lomas will all be explored, as well as Bedminster’s extraordinary role in Britain’s biggest bullion robbery.

Hand from the skeleton of John Horwood, tried at what is now The Steam Crane

Blood and Butchery in Bedminster has been commissioned by the Bedminster BID, a business-led partnership working to develop and improve Bedminster’s economic and sociological wealth, which has organise Make Sunday Special, Skills Week, Musicians on the Run and Breakfast in Bedminster.

Founded in 1986 to commission and produce new and engaging work across Bristol and the south-west, Show of Strength has produced new work by writers including Peter Nichols, Mark Ravenhill, Sandi Toksvig and Catherine Johnson. In 1998 the company created the theatre at the Tobacco Factory, producing seasons of new work there until 2003.

Here’s Show of Strength founder Sheila Hannon to tell us more.

So, why Blood and Butchery in… Bedminster?
Bedminster is even older than Bristol, so its history teems with strange little tales and folk stories, many of which are associated with or linked to buildings and locations that still exist today. I’ve lived in Bedminster for a long time and have always enjoyed collecting strange-but-true stories about the area. I love performance spaces that relate to the material – like doing our Fanny Cradock show in restaurants – so the question was; how do we tell these stories in a space that relates to the material? Well, some of these strange events happened in or very near Bedminster pubs, so I just put them together and they seemed a very good fit.

Can you introduce us to one or two of the tales contained within?
There are nine tales of Blood and Butchery and the earliest happened 200 years ago. The most recent goes back literally just few months, in fact its effects are still being felt right now. And, if there are any further developments before opening night, the script will have to be updated.
Shootings and hangings, drugs and drownings, concrete coffins and false identities, death at the jaws of a lion – it all happened in Bedminster. I think my favourite – a strange mix of horror and comedy – has to be Bedminster’s role in Britain’s biggest ever bullion robbery. A very significant – and expensive – role it turned out to be, too.

Why do you think Bedminster has had such a rich (and dark) past?
Bedminster is an old place. When the parish church, St Paul’s, was bombed in the Blitz there’d been a church on that site since Saxon times at least – maybe long before. The site’s still there behind East Street, not far from Cameron Balloons. It’s a green space now with a couple of memorials and well worth a look if you don’t know it.
During and after the Industrial Revolution, thousands of people left the countryside to work in the towns. A lot of people moved from Somerset, reaching Bedminster before Bristol, and stayed here. In the first half of the 19th century Bedminster expanded rapidly and must have been a bit of a boom town with overcrowding, appalling living conditions, and all the accompanying problems. Very different from the Bedminster of today, of course.

How is everything at Show of Strength these days?
Very good! We won Best Live Performance at the Creative Bath Awards for Frankenstein in Bath, the story of how Mary Shelley wrote her extraordinary novel in the city. This production received great reviews from press and public alike and we’ll be bringing it back in 2018, which just happens to be the 200th anniversary of the novel’s publication.
Elsewhere, in autumn 2018 we’ll be showing a new version of An Audience with Sarah Guppy as part of the 100th anniversary of the Suffragette movement. This is the true story of the extraordinary woman who patented a form of Suspension Bridge in Bristol in 1811 and worked with Brunel.
There are lots of other projects in development too…

Blood and Butchery in Bedminster Tuesdays from Jan 30-May 15 (not Feb 27). For details and tickets, visit stagestubs.com/show-of-strength-theatre-company/blood-and-butchery-in-bedminster-1 and showofstrength.org.uk or follow Show of Strength on Facebook and Twitter @showofstrength