Following all 44 miles of Bristol’s boundary on foot

I met my new friend Nick soon after 5.30am on a recent Sunday morning on the footpath to Pill. He was on his way to a rave in Leigh Woods; I was at the start of a walk that would end a day and a half later after I had followed Bristol’s boundary along rivers and roads, across railway lines and parkland, and through suburbs on the very edge of our city’s urban sprawl.

I have long been fascinated by the beginnings of Bristol, not just historical but also geographical. So I decided to walk around our city’s boundary – all 44 miles of it – to see where Bristol officially starts and ends.

The Pill path was meant to be one of the quietest parts of the route. Epecially at this time in the morning. I wasn’t planning to accompany Nick to join a free party in the woods, with dozens of bleary-eyed ravers heading back towards the city centre as the sun rose in the sky.

Not that it was the partygoers’ biggest concern, but the boundary between Bristol and North Somerset follows the route of this path along the course of the River Avon until it reaches Avonmouth.

And so it was that the Pill path was the first stretch of my journey, with my new friend Nick, a software engineer and DJ, giving me tips as we walked underneath the Clifton Suspension Bridge, passed a collection of Mr Bumps by Bumpsy and came to the party in what used to be a police shooting range.

“If you get into walking, you might just also get into foraging mushrooms,” Nick told me before he joined the party and I squeezed around a white rental van to carry on around the famous horseshoe bend of the river.

I wasn’t expecting to join a free party in Leigh Woods as the sun rose on a recent Sunday morning

A house on the other side of the water in Shirehampton was originally sheds built in the late 18th century where ships had to unload their gunpowder which was not allowed to be transported into Bristol docks. The official Bristol boundary here continues the other way into the Bristol Channel and touches Flatholm Island (part of Wales); but my route took me over Avonmouth Bridge with an aerial view of the new Portway Park & Ride railway station.

It was now almost 8am and time for a sit-down in Avonmouth next to St Andrew’s Church. Two mini Soreens and a banana before St Andrew’s Road took me the closest I could to the coast, a dozen motorcycle riders speeding off from the BP garage before I walked by an eclectic variety of companies: welding, catering, building, engineering, designing.

Nature is still here, however, with a heron waiting patiently in a pool close to Viridor’s grandly named resource recovery centre – an incinerator to you and I – which opened in 2022 at the cost of £317m. Nearby is another similar facility owned by Suez – also just within South Gloucestershire – where waste collected in the wealthy London suburb of Kensington & Chelsea is transported by train across the country to be burnt.

The River Avon is the border between Bristol and North Somerset

Waste is transported across the country to be burned in Avonmouth

The boundary here follows Severn Road, which goes over the M49 and under the M5, with Hallen remaining in South Glos as the boundary now follows the railway line towards Henbury, where seemingly any empty field is rapidly being turned into housing.

On Wyck Beck Road, I found my first ‘welcome to Bristol’ sign of the trip, slightly hidden in foliage. Former villages now merge into one another at the edge of Bristol: Henbury to Brentry to Filton, where roads suddenly stop with more new development planned and a sign announcing a new arena in the former Brabazon hangars, a U-turn necessary with this road fenced off.

Both the boundary and a public right of way cut through the immaculately manicured Filton Golf Club. Could golf courses for the few be turned into housing for the many? Just a thought.

This railway line between Hallen and Henbury forms Bristol’s boundary

A ‘welcome to Bristol’ sign hidden in Henbury

Change is afoot in Filton

The border bisects the immaculately manicured Filton Golf Club

BAWA becomes the border in Filton

And now things get interesting. Half of Kenmore Drive is in Bristol and half is in South Glos, with 1930s semi-detached houses in South Glos and houses built in the 70s or 80s in Bristol. There may be no signs of welcome, but the boundary is still very easy to spot here because of the decidedly different housing stock.

The boundary then cuts through Monk’s Park before bisecting Eighth Avenue and Wordsworth Road, the road blocked to motor vehicles acting as the separation between local authorities and my map-reading briefly interrupted by a painful collision with a bollard.

Former council housing stock on Landseer Avenue in Lockleaze and new homes on Honey Pens Crescent in Cheswick Village are also clear signs that this is the boundary, with my journey now pausing for a much-needed full English in Boston Tea Party before a picturesque promenade through Stoke Park, the obelisk on the line of the boundary before it goes south of Barn Wood.

The boundary cares little for the M32 so I needed to go on a little bit of a wiggle through Stapleton, heading down to Snuff Mills and picking up the boundary once again as it follows the River Frome through the Oldbury Court Estate to Frenchay Bridge.

Half of Kenmore Drive in Filton is in Bristol and half is in South Glos

Eighth Avenue and Wordsworth Road is the boundary between local authorities

Former council housing stock on Landseer Avenue in Lockleaze in Bristol next to a development of new homes on Honey Pens Crescent in Cheswick Village in South Glos

The boundary goes just south of Barn Wood in Stoke Park

Water forms the boundary once again as it follows the River Frome through the Oldbury Court Estate to Frenchay Bridge

A weight limit sign on Frenchay Bridge was erected by the former Chipping Sodbury Rural District Council

On Overndale Road in Downend, the even numbered houses had their bins out as they are in Bristol but the odd numbers are in South Glos so have a different bin day. There appears to be an old stone wall on the Gloucestershire side in front of what is now the Pathway Learning Centre. Cassell Road also in Downend forms the exact boundary, with the Downend Tavern to let.

The boundary continues through Hillfields, Bristol’s oldest housing estate, close to Cossham Memorial Hospital – Bristol’s highest point above sea level. A stone boundary marker can be found on Soundwell Road in Kingswood before the boundary follows a stream within Magpie Bottom nature reserve. Scenes here will have remained unchanged for centuries, a patch of unspoilt woodland remaining within the city.

In the Bristol half of Hanham, evocative street names remember people who might have lived here long ago, with another stone boundary marker on Polly Barnes Hill. I wiggled my way along Jeffries Hill and Lovell’s Hill before reaching Conham River Park where the boundary once again follows the River Avon, this time until Hanham Lock next to neighbouring pubs the Old Lock & Weir and the Chequers.

No time for a pint for me though, with Avon Valley Bridge the best way to get to the south side of the river, turning right at Hicks Gate roundabout before a monotonous slog along Bath Road where at 7.30pm I cut my losses for the day on Stockwood Road just beyond the Brislington Park & Ride.

Within a few minutes, I had to abort my Voi ride back home in order to sit down as I felt that I was about to faint. It had been more than 13 hours of walking and a distance of 52km at this stage, but I quickly perked up after some Hula Hoops.

On Overndale Road in Downend, the even numbered houses had their bins out as they are in Bristol but the odd numbers are in South Glos so have a different bin day

Cassell Road in Downend forms the exact boundary

A stone boundary marker on Soundwell Road in Kingswood

The boundary follows a stream within Magpie Bottom

Another stone boundary marker on Polly Barnes Hill in Hanham

The boundary follows the River Avon through Conham River Park

Avon Valley Bridge was the best way to get to the south side of the river

So it was back on a Voi the following morning to pick up where I had left off. Stockwood Road becomes Scotland Lane and a small stone bridge over a stream is another clue to the exact location of the boundary here, with some fly tipping sadly on one side of the lane.

Up a steep incline is Stockwood, where many council tenants in central Bristol were moved to in the 1960s, with the back gardens of Bifield Road and Bifield Close overlooking the fields of Bath & North East Somerset. There are some interesting quirks too, such as Lansdown Park Academy primary school (the former Stockwood Green Primary School) being in Bristol but the next door Bristol Telephones sports ground being in B&NES.

The Saltwell Viaduct separates Wells Road from Bristol Road, Whitchurch from Hengrove, and Bristol from B&NES, with the words ‘Bristol’ and ‘Somerset’ carved on either side of a stone boundary marker on the bridge.

Whitchurch becomes Hengrove becomes Hartcliffe becomes Withywood becomes Bishopsworth, with Dundry up on the hill. Along one footpath is the way to Maes Knoll, an iron age hill fort. On Witch Hazel Road, one house has been turned into the Celestial Church of Christ, founded in 2003, while just around the corner is an entrance to Hartcliffe City Farm, now under the custodianship of the Windmill Hill City Farm team and Heart of BS13.

Approaching Highridge Common around midday on Monday, a car pulled up as I double-checked my map for the umpteenth time. “Are you alright?” the female driver of the car asked me, leaning out of the window. “It’s just I’ve seen you with that.” Walking around with a large fold-out map certainly does attract attention and the kindness of strangers, despite me (most of the time) not being lost.

The truth was that by this stage of the walk, I had to keep going despite the protestations of my painful feet as after every break – even after a pause of a few minutes – it was increasingly difficult to continue walking, with the muscles in the back of my legs screaming for a rest. The thoughts I was writing in a notebook run dry here. All I could concentrate on was putting one foot in front of the other to make it to the end.

The boundary now heads up the entrance road to Yew Tree Farm – Bristol’s last remaining working farm – before following Colliter’s Brook. Conveniently also following Colliter’s Brook is the new south Bristol link road, with the boundary following Longmoor Brook near the David Lloyd leisure centre before skirting through Ashton Court Estate. From the start of Longmoor Way, the Cabot Tower, Wills Memorial Building, Royal Fort House and the chimney of St Michael’s Hospital are all perfectly aligned.

My alignment was Clanage Road to reach the footpath that crosses a bridge over the railway line, where North Somerset becomes Bristol. At 1.45pm, after just over 15 hours of walking, my circumference of our city came to an end with a lie-down on the grass next to the Pill path, today free of bleary-eyed ravers, just bleary-eyed me, ready to hobble home.

A small stone bridge over a stream is a clue to the exact location of the boundary on Scotland Lane between Brislington and Stockwood

A closer view of the stream underneath Scotland Lane

The Saltwell Viaduct separates Wells Road from Bristol Road, Whitchurch from Hengrove, and Bristol from B&NES

A boundary marker on the Saltwell Viaduct separating Bristol and Somerset

The boundary heads across Washing Pound Lane in Whitchurch

Old Acre Road in Whitchurch is one of Bristol’s most southerly points, with fields at the end of it

Looking up to Dundry from Hartcliffe

Colliters Brook runs close to Bristol’s boundary with North Somerset

The boundary heads through Ashton Court, with Ashton Gate School’s gatehouse originally an entrance to the estate

Just the other side of this footbridge was the start and finish of my walk

The end!

A Strava map of the route around Bristol’s boundary

Join Martin Booth for a much smaller walk on Saturday or Sunday morning around the Old City and Castle Park. Book your tour online via Yuup.

All photos: Martin Booth

This feature originally appeared in the latest Bristol24/7 quarterly magazine, available free across our city

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