Westbury on Trym | |
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Westbury-on-Trym War Memorial |
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Boundaries of the city council ward |
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Westbury on Trym shown within Bristol | |
Population | 10,754 (2011.Ward) |
OS grid reference | ST570773 |
Unitary authority | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | BRISTOL |
Postcode district | BS9/10 |
Dialling code | 0117 |
Police | Avon and Somerset |
Fire | Avon |
Ambulance | South Western |
EU Parliament | South West England |
UK Parliament | |
Westbury on Trym is a suburb and council ward in the north of the City of Bristol, near the suburbs of Stoke Bishop, Westbury Park, Henleaze, Southmead and Henbury, in the southwest of England. Westbury on Trym has a village atmosphere. The place is partly named after the River Trym that flows through it.
The origins of Westbury on Trym predate those of Bristol itself. At the end of the 8th century, King Offa of Mercia granted land at Westbury to his minister, Aethelmund. Later there was a monastery at Westbury, probably initially a secular one, with married clergy. This changed towards the end of the 10th century when Oswald of Worcester, in whose diocese the monastery lay, sent a party of 12 monks to follow more stringent rules at the Westbury monastery.
The architect Ednoth constructed a new church and other buildings. The monastery became a college with a dean and canons at the end of the 13th century. It was rebuilt in the mid-15th century to resemble a miniature castle with turrets and a gatehouse. The Royalist Prince Rupert of the Rhine used it as his quarters during the English Civil War. When he left, in 1643, he ordered it to be set on fire so that the Parliamentarians could not make use of it. In the 20th century some of the college buildings were restored. Westbury College Gatehouse passed into the hands of the National Trust and the grounds were adapted for housing elderly people.