Goldney Hall
Encyclopedia
Goldney Hall also known as Goldney House is a self-catered hall of residence
Dormitory
A dormitory, often shortened to dorm, in the United States is a residence hall consisting of sleeping quarters or entire buildings primarily providing sleeping and residential quarters for large numbers of people, often boarding school, college or university students...

 in Clifton, Bristol
Clifton, Bristol
Clifton is a suburb of the City of Bristol in England, and the name of both one of the city's thirty-five council wards. The Clifton ward also includes the areas of Cliftonwood and Hotwells...

, one of three in the area providing accommodation for student
Student
A student is a learner, or someone who attends an educational institution. In some nations, the English term is reserved for those who attend university, while a schoolchild under the age of eighteen is called a pupil in English...

s at the University of Bristol
University of Bristol
The University of Bristol is a public research university located in Bristol, United Kingdom. One of the so-called "red brick" universities, it received its Royal Charter in 1909, although its predecessor institution, University College, Bristol, had been in existence since 1876.The University is...

.

House

The current Goldney House house was built in 1724, is a listed building and occupies a hilltop position overlooking the city of Bristol and Brandon Hill
Brandon Hill, Bristol
Brandon Hill, also known as St Brandon's Hill, is a hill close to Bristol city centre, between the districts of Clifton and Hotwells, in south west England....

. The landscape garden
Landscape garden
The term landscape garden is often used to describe the English garden design style characteristic of the eighteenth century, that swept the Continent replacing the formal Renaissance garden and Garden à la française models. The work of Lancelot 'Capability' Brown is particularly influential.The...

 is used for weddings and receptions.

The main house is a Grade II listed building. Other facilities in the main house include a Bar, library, common room and dark room. The house also contains an ornate mahogany parlour complete with original wooden paneling dating back to 1725 which is reserved for meetings and special events.

When the hall was gifted to the University of Bristol
University of Bristol
The University of Bristol is a public research university located in Bristol, United Kingdom. One of the so-called "red brick" universities, it received its Royal Charter in 1909, although its predecessor institution, University College, Bristol, had been in existence since 1876.The University is...

 in 1953, the house was converted (completed in 1956) to home 19 female students and was a catered hall. This was reverted with the development of the new blocks.

Student Accommodation

The student accommodation blocks, built on a paddock within the gardens, were completed in their original form in 1969. This original development consisted of nine stand alone blocks in a quadrangle arrangement. A major award winning refurbishment was completed in 1994 after a benefaction from Lord and Lady Sainsbury through the Linbury Trust. The design was that of Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...

 architects Alec French, this made significant improvements to the site including:
  • Building additional study bedrooms, kitchens and fire escape stairwells onto the original blocks.
  • Construction of Linbury Court, consisting of 24 en-suite rooms and student study facilities.
  • Creation of a small on-site car park.


The hall now comprises 11 blocks, 2 of which have en-suite facilities. The hall can accommodate 267 students in addition to three flats for staff located within the main house.

Goldney family history

The Goldney family's influence in Bristol can be traced back as far as 1637 when Thomas Goldney I was sent, by his father, to Bristol from Chippenham in Wiltshire to serve as an apprentice for seven years. Thomas Goldney II, born 1664, purchased a majority of the current Goldney Estate, complete with manor house, for a fee of £100 in 1705. The lease documents from this time are available online and can be viewed here.

In 1724 the earlier house was partially demolished to be replaced by a grander building, possibly built for Goldney by George Tully, a Bristol merchant who was a partner of William Champion
William Champion (metallurgist)
William Champion is credited with patenting a process in Great Britain to distill zinc from calamine using charcoal in a smelter.Champion came from a family who were already concerned in the metal trade at Bristol, his father being a leading partner in the Bristol Brass Company. As a young man he...

 in the Coalbrookdale
Coalbrookdale
Coalbrookdale is a village in the Ironbridge Gorge in Shropshire, England, containing a settlement of great significance in the history of iron ore smelting. This is where iron ore was first smelted by Abraham Darby using easily mined "coking coal". The coal was drawn from drift mines in the sides...

 Works. The Goldney family were Quakers, however their beliefs did not prevent them developing a significant range of enterprises; ventures included:
  • Providing a significant proportion of the capital for Captain Woodes Rogers
    Woodes Rogers
    Woodes Rogers was an English sea captain, privateer, and, later, the first Royal Governor of the Bahamas. He is known as the captain of the vessel that rescued the marooned Alexander Selkirk, whose plight is generally believed to have inspired Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe.Rogers came from an...

     voyage on The Duke and its sister ship The Dutchess. Rogers' crew rescued the real-life Robinson Crusoe, Alexander Selkirk
    Alexander Selkirk
    Alexander Selkirk was a Scottish sailor who spent four years as a castaway when he was marooned on an uninhabited island. It is probable that his travels provided the inspiration for Daniel Defoe's novel Robinson Crusoe....

    , from Juan Fernandez island.
  • Investment in the Coalbrookdale
    Coalbrookdale
    Coalbrookdale is a village in the Ironbridge Gorge in Shropshire, England, containing a settlement of great significance in the history of iron ore smelting. This is where iron ore was first smelted by Abraham Darby using easily mined "coking coal". The coal was drawn from drift mines in the sides...

     Iron Works, which lea to Thomas Goldney III becoming the majority owner of the works.
  • Co-founding Goldney, Smith and Co., one of the first banks in Bristol and now part of the Royal Bank of Scotland
    Royal Bank of Scotland
    The Royal Bank of Scotland Group is a British banking and insurance holding company in which the UK Government holds an 84% stake. This stake is held and managed through UK Financial Investments Limited, whose voting rights are limited to 75% in order for the bank to retain its listing on the...

    .


The gardens and orchards were designed by Goldney’s son Thomas Goldney III. The house was recased, altered and extended in 1864–65 by Alfred Waterhouse
Alfred Waterhouse
Alfred Waterhouse was a British architect, particularly associated with the Victorian Gothic Revival architecture. He is perhaps best known for his design for the Natural History Museum in London, and Manchester Town Hall, although he also built a wide variety of other buildings throughout the...

, who also designed the Natural History Museum. The house later passed down to other wealthy Bristol families – The Wills and the Frys. Lewis Fry
Lewis Fry
Lewis Fry DL, was a Quaker, lawyer, philanthropist and a Liberal and later Liberal and Unionist politician who sat in the House of Commons in three spells between 1878 and 1900.-Early life:...

(1832–1921) who was a member of the prominent Bristol Fry Family
Fry Family (Chocolate)
The Fry family was prominent in England especially Bristol, in the Society of Friends, and in the confectionery business in the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries.-Origins:...

 and became the Liberal MP for Bristol and first chairman of the University of Bristol
University of Bristol
The University of Bristol is a public research university located in Bristol, United Kingdom. One of the so-called "red brick" universities, it received its Royal Charter in 1909, although its predecessor institution, University College, Bristol, had been in existence since 1876.The University is...

 University Council.

Ethos

Goldney Hall is one of the smaller halls of residence at the University of Bristol
University of Bristol
The University of Bristol is a public research university located in Bristol, United Kingdom. One of the so-called "red brick" universities, it received its Royal Charter in 1909, although its predecessor institution, University College, Bristol, had been in existence since 1876.The University is...

 and is located away from the main grouping of halls in Stoke Bishop
Stoke Bishop
Stoke Bishop is a very affluent and medium-sized outer city suburb in the north-west of Bristol, located in between Westbury-on-Trym, Sneyd Park, and Sea Mills. Although relatively small, Stoke Bishop's population has increased due to substantial infilling on the Smelting Works sports ground and...

. As a result the hall has a strong individual identity and close knit community. The arts are strongly promoted with theatrical and music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...

al events for students to become involved in through the year. The hall also promotes academic events as well as the wide range of social
Social
The term social refers to a characteristic of living organisms...

 events expected of any hall of residence. The hall also fields a number of sports teams including football, netball
Netball
Netball is a ball sport played between two teams of seven players. Its development, derived from early versions of basketball, began in England in the 1890s. By 1960 international playing rules had been standardised for the game, and the International Federation of Netball and Women's Basketball ...

 and rugby
Rugby football
Rugby football is a style of football named after Rugby School in the United Kingdom. It is seen most prominently in two current sports, rugby league and rugby union.-History:...

.

Goldney Ball

The Goldney Ball is an annual event held in the grounds of Goldney Hall to mark the end of term and the summer exam period for students in the Bristol area. Previous artists to perform at the Ball include former Squeeze musician Jools Holland
Jools Holland
Julian Miles "Jools" Holland OBE, DL is an English pianist, bandleader, singer, composer, and television presenter. He was a founder of the band Squeeze and his work has involved him with many artists including Sting, Eric Clapton, George Harrison, The Who, David Gilmour and Bono.Holland is a...

 and the Scratch Perverts
Scratch Perverts
The Scratch Perverts are a collective of turntablist DJs from London, formed in 1996 by Tony Vegas, Prime Cuts and DJ Renegade.-Biography:The Scratch Perverts originally consisted of 4 members; Tony Vegas, Renegade, First Rate and Mr Thing. The Scratch Perverts later expanded to an 8-member...

 as well as illusionist Derren Brown
Derren Brown
Derren Victor Brown is a British illusionist, mentalist, painter, writer and sceptic. He is known for his appearances in television specials, stage productions and British television series such as Trick of the Mind and Trick or Treat...

. Profit from the event is donated to local, national and international charities.

Gardens and grounds

The historic English Landscape Garden
English garden
The English garden, also called English landscape park , is a style of Landscape garden which emerged in England in the early 18th century, and spread across Europe, replacing the more formal, symmetrical Garden à la française of the 17th century as the principal gardening style of Europe. The...

 style grounds, designed by Thomas Goldney III, include an orangery
Orangery
An orangery was a building in the grounds of fashionable residences from the 17th to the 19th centuries and given a classicising architectural form. The orangery was similar to a greenhouse or conservatory...

, gothic
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....

 tower and grotto
Grotto
A grotto is any type of natural or artificial cave that is associated with modern, historic or prehistoric use by humans. When it is not an artificial garden feature, a grotto is often a small cave near water and often flooded or liable to flood at high tide...

. The Goldney Hall gardens encompass a 10 acres (40,468.6 m²) site and are known for their notable five follies:
  • Ornamental Canal
    Canal
    Canals are man-made channels for water. There are two types of canal:#Waterways: navigable transportation canals used for carrying ships and boats shipping goods and conveying people, further subdivided into two kinds:...

  • Gothic Tower
    Tower
    A tower is a tall structure, usually taller than it is wide, often by a significant margin. Towers are distinguished from masts by their lack of guy-wires....

  • Rotunda
    Rotunda (architecture)
    A rotunda is any building with a circular ground plan, sometimes covered by a dome. It can also refer to a round room within a building . The Pantheon in Rome is a famous rotunda. A Band Rotunda is a circular bandstand, usually with a dome...

  • Mock Bastion
  • Shell-lined Grotto
    Grotto
    A grotto is any type of natural or artificial cave that is associated with modern, historic or prehistoric use by humans. When it is not an artificial garden feature, a grotto is often a small cave near water and often flooded or liable to flood at high tide...



A sixth folly, the Octagon, consisted of a two story summer house located where L block stands today. While the exact date of the removal of the Octagon is not know, it is missing from plans which date to 1864. The garden also features a canal.

The hall has an orangery
Orangery
An orangery was a building in the grounds of fashionable residences from the 17th to the 19th centuries and given a classicising architectural form. The orangery was similar to a greenhouse or conservatory...

, attached to the main house and facing out onto a canal feature. The glass roof of which was replaced with tile at some point in the early 1900s.

The gothic
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....

 tower, to the south of the main house, was built in 1764 to house a Newcomen steam engine
Newcomen steam engine
The atmospheric engine invented by Thomas Newcomen in 1712, today referred to as a Newcomen steam engine , was the first practical device to harness the power of steam to produce mechanical work. Newcomen engines were used throughout Britain and Europe, principally to pump water out of mines,...

. The opening through which the beam of the steam engine would have passed can still be seen today on the north face of the tower. The steam engine, constructed using a boiler supplied by the Coalbrookdale
Coalbrookdale
Coalbrookdale is a village in the Ironbridge Gorge in Shropshire, England, containing a settlement of great significance in the history of iron ore smelting. This is where iron ore was first smelted by Abraham Darby using easily mined "coking coal". The coal was drawn from drift mines in the sides...

 works, is supposed to be the first used for non-industrial purposes in the world. It was used to draw water from a 120 ft well shaft directly in front of the tower. The water was used to supply a fountain in the canal and the cascade in the Grotto.

The ground include a statue of Hercules
Hercules
Hercules is the Roman name for Greek demigod Heracles, son of Zeus , and the mortal Alcmene...

 which is grade II* listed and is suspected to be a second hand purchase by Thomas Goldney III, predating everything else on the site. The mock bastion provides a mystery, appearing for the first time on a map dating to 1748 but will no other surviving documentation of its construction.

The grounds are regularly used for weddings, especially during the summer months. The gardens are opened annually to the public as well as for smaller groups by request.

Grotto

The Grotto at Goldney House is a highly decorated grotto
Grotto
A grotto is any type of natural or artificial cave that is associated with modern, historic or prehistoric use by humans. When it is not an artificial garden feature, a grotto is often a small cave near water and often flooded or liable to flood at high tide...

, in Clifton
Clifton, Bristol
Clifton is a suburb of the City of Bristol in England, and the name of both one of the city's thirty-five council wards. The Clifton ward also includes the areas of Cliftonwood and Hotwells...

, Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...

, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

.It is located in the grounds of Goldney Hall which owned by the University of Bristol
University of Bristol
The University of Bristol is a public research university located in Bristol, United Kingdom. One of the so-called "red brick" universities, it received its Royal Charter in 1909, although its predecessor institution, University College, Bristol, had been in existence since 1876.The University is...

. It is a Grade I listed building.

It was built between 1737 and 1764 (dated 1739) and has been designated by English Heritage
English Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...

 as a grade I listed building. It is decorated inside with shells, quartz and rock crystal and inside is a pillared hall with fountains, rock pool, statue of Neptune and a Lion's Den. In 1762-5 Thomas Paty
Thomas Paty
Thomas Paty was a British surveyor, architect and mason working mainly in Bristol. He worked with his sons John Paty and William Paty.-List of works:* Bristol Bridge , with James Bridges...

 was employed in "grinding, gooping and laying" tiles for the Grotto.

The grotto was built as the centerpiece of the gardens by Thomas Goldney III, a Bristol merchant who was a partner of William Champion
William Champion (metallurgist)
William Champion is credited with patenting a process in Great Britain to distill zinc from calamine using charcoal in a smelter.Champion came from a family who were already concerned in the metal trade at Bristol, his father being a leading partner in the Bristol Brass Company. As a young man he...

 in the Coalbrookdale
Coalbrookdale
Coalbrookdale is a village in the Ironbridge Gorge in Shropshire, England, containing a settlement of great significance in the history of iron ore smelting. This is where iron ore was first smelted by Abraham Darby using easily mined "coking coal". The coal was drawn from drift mines in the sides...

 Works. It is the only Grotto in Britain with both a shell room and running water.

The grotto is approximately 36 ft (11 m) long by 12 ft (3.6 m) wide and consists of 3 chambers, divided by pillars encrusted with quartz crystals. The central chamber houses a life size plaster of paris lion
Lion
The lion is one of the four big cats in the genus Panthera, and a member of the family Felidae. With some males exceeding 250 kg in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger...

 with a lion
Lion
The lion is one of the four big cats in the genus Panthera, and a member of the family Felidae. With some males exceeding 250 kg in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger...

ess sitting in a den behind. Another chamber hosts a seated river god with water running from an urn over giant clams
CLaMS
CLaMS is a modular chemistry transport model system developed at Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany. CLaMS was first described by McKenna et al. and was expanded into three dimensions by Konopka et al....

 into a pool. It is lined with over 200 species of shell brought back from such locations as the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...

, and African waters. The roof of the central hall is composed of closely fitting block of Bath stone
Bath Stone
Bath Stone is an Oolitic Limestone comprising granular fragments of calcium carbonate. Originally obtained from the Combe Down and Bathampton Down Mines under Combe Down, Somerset, England, its warm, honey colouring gives the World Heritage City of Bath, England its distinctive appearance...

 carved into pseudo-stalactites. On a panel on the door is the portrait of a lady, thought to be Ann Goldney (1707–96), the younger sister of Thomas Goldney III.

The Grotto is opened to the public during the annual Hall open day and to students at various points through the academic year.

Film location

Goldney Hall is a popular location for filming with The Chronicles of Narnia
The Chronicles of Narnia (TV miniseries)
The Chronicles of Narnia is a BBC-produced television serial that was aired from 13 November 1988 to 23 December 1990 and is based on four books of C. S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia series...

, The House of Eliott
The House of Eliott
The House of Eliott is a British television series produced and broadcast by the BBC in three series between 1991 and 1994. The series starred Stella Gonet and Louise Lombard as two sisters in 1920s London who establish a dressmaking business and eventually their own haute couture fashion house...

and Truly, Madly, Deeply
Truly, Madly, Deeply
Truly, Madly, Deeply is a 1990 film made for the BBC's Screen Two series.-Overview:The film was written and directed by Anthony Minghella and stars Juliet Stevenson and Alan Rickman. Minghella said he wrote the script specifically as “a vehicle for [Stevenson] to express all her talents...

as well as the 2002 Christmas episode of Only Fools and Horses
Only Fools and Horses
Only Fools and Horses is a British sitcom, created and written by John Sullivan. Seven series were originally broadcast on BBC One in the United Kingdom between 1981 and 1991, with sporadic Christmas specials until 2003...

, Casualty
Casualty (TV series)
Casualty, stylised as Casual+y, is a British weekly television show broadcast on BBC One, and the longest-running emergency medical drama television series in the world. Created by Jeremy Brock and Paul Unwin, it was first broadcast on 6 September 1986, and transmitted in the UK on BBC One. The...

and Skins
Skins (TV series)
Skins is a BAFTA award-winning British teen drama that follows a group of teenagers in Bristol, South West England, through the two years of college. The controversial plot line explores issues such as dysfunctional families, mental illness , adolescent sexuality, substance abuse and death...

being filmed there.

Notable former residents

  • James Landale
    James Landale
    James Landale is a BBC journalist who is the current Deputy Political Editor for BBC News.-Education:Landale was educated at Eton College, a famous independent school in the town of Eton in Berkshire, and was a contemporary of London Mayor Boris Johnson and Prime Minister David Cameron, followed by...

  • Matt Lucas
    Matt Lucas
    Matthew Richard "Matt" Lucas is an English comedian, screenwriter and actor best known for his acclaimed work with David Walliams in the television show Little Britain; as well as for his portrayals of the scorekeeping baby George Dawes in the comedy panel game Shooting Stars, Tweedledee and...

  • Alastair Summerlee
    Alastair Summerlee
    Alastair J. S. Summerlee became the 7th President of the University of Guelph on July 15, 2003.President Summerlee, whose career as a scholar, professor, researcher, and administrator spans nearly 30 years, joined the University of Guelph faculty in 1988 as a professor in the Department of...

  • Euan Blair

Sports

Goldney Hall FC have dominated the Bristol University Intramural Accenture League 4 for over 3 seasons. The 09/10 Season saw Goldney Hall FC win the title.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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