31-453: The River Trym is a short river, some 4.5 miles (7.2 km) in length, which rises in Filton , South Gloucestershire , England . The upper reaches are culverted , some underground, through mostly urban landscapes, but once it emerges into the open it flows through a nature reserve and city parks before joining the tidal River Avon at Sea Mills . A medieval water mill near its mouth gave
62-519: A population of 59,495 in 2011. Filton is an ethnically diverse town, with a proportion of white British residents close to the national average. Filton Town Council is a parish council made up of thirteen councillors and forming the first tier of local government. Filton was in Gloucestershire until 1974 when it became part of the newly formed county of Avon . In 1996 the Avon authority
93-667: A range of other bushes and shrubs, including hazel, maple, hawthorn and blackthorn. Badock's Meadow, a former prefab housing estate, has been reseeded with native meadow plants including oxeye daisies, yellow rattle, wild carrot and knapweed. Wildlife includes native woodland birds including woodpeckers and owls, also pipistrelle bats. The Blaise Castle estate contains a variety of trees and plant life, also providing cover for birds and small mammals. Further downstream, just above Sea Mills, Himalayan Balsam and Japanese Knotweed , both invasive riverside plants, have established themselves. Ducks and moorhen can be found along many stretches of
124-513: Is close to major centres of employment such as BAE Systems , and Defence Equipment & Support at Abbey Wood . Filton's educational facilities include South Gloucestershire and Stroud College , Abbeywood Community School and several primary schools. The University of the West of England is at nearby Frenchay . Filton has two main shopping areas – the Shield Centre (on the site of
155-534: Is culverted through Westbury-on-Trym village. A sluice here is used to divert water into a storm drain in times of high rainfall to save the village centre from flooding. The Trym then disappears into culverts, re-emerging at Henbury Golf Club before entering the Blaise Castle estate, where it is joined on the right bank by the Hazel Brook above Coombe Dingle . The remains of Coombe Mill, which
186-402: Is mainly privately owned, semi-detached and 1930s built. Pre- World War I properties in the district tend to be quite large, with generous gardens. Extensive playing fields border the north-western side of Southmead Road. The golf links, on the hillside beyond, is owned by Filton Golf Club. The area has a primary school and a playgroup. Filton Park is regarded as a desirable place to live since it
217-574: Is mostly in the neighbouring civil parish of Stoke Gifford , contains the offices of the Ministry of Defence 's Defence Procurement Agency , plus a shopping park. Filton Park is a suburb of Bristol and lies directly on the city border, sandwiched between the A38 trunk road and Southmead Road. Filton itself lies to the north and east of Filton Park. Monks Park is to the south. Housing in Filton Park
248-662: Is now the bend in Coombe Bridge Avenue, and Coombe Mill where the Hazel Brook joins the Trym. An attempt was made in 1712 by the entrepreneur Joshua Franklyn to open a commercial dock at the mouth of the Trym, on the Roman site, but the venture foundered after a few decades. A whale fishery enterprise set up in 1752 was equally short lived. Parts of the dock walls can still be seen. Linguistics sources indicate that
279-577: The M32 motorway , or from Junction 16 of the M5 motorway . The town is well served by rail with Filton Abbey Wood serving areas in the south of the town, Bristol Parkway serving areas to the north and east and Patchway in the west of the town. Districts within the town include East Filton, Filton Park and Northville. East Filton, which has grown up east of the Bristol-South Wales railway line and
310-649: The MOD , Viridor , Hewlett-Packard , Hewlett Packard Enterprise and the Royal Mail . Filton is also home to the regional blood processing facility, NHS Blood and Transplant Filton. Bristol Cars made hand-built luxury cars in Filton from 1946 until 2011. The company has neither distributors nor dealers and deals directly with customers; they have a showroom and head office in Kensington , London. They claimed to be
341-516: The alternate rail route from Bristol to London was finished. In 1907 the northern terminus for Bristol Tramways was moved out from Horfield to Filton. Tram production in the tramway sheds commenced in 1908. The manufacture of aeroplanes started in the Bristol Tramway sheds in 1910 and aero-engine production started in 1920. Between the wars, Filton expanded rapidly to become a suburb of Bristol. Initially development (semi-detached housing)
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#1732773333330372-508: The area its name. Abona was a Roman port at the mouth of the Trym which provided an embarkation point for journeys across the River Severn to south Wales . In the 18th century there were short lived attempts at creating a port and a whale fishery here. The name Trym appears to have Anglo-Saxon roots. In recent years silting problems, caused by urban development, have caused some difficulties, but alleviation works have helped reduce
403-406: The city of Bristol to the south. Farming was the principal occupation. However, there was a large factory-like laundry in the village, opposite Filton House, owned by Samuel Shield. The Bristol to South Wales railway line passed through the village. There was a small station near the site of the current Abbey Wood station . A much larger railway station, known as Filton Junction, opened in 1910, after
434-481: The city. Filton Church dates back to the 12th century and is designated a Grade II listed building . The name of the town comes from the Old English feleþe (hay), and tūn (farm, field). The name dates back to at least 1187. Filton has large areas of open space which include several playing fields, a golf course and the former Filton Airport (closed in 2012). Filton can be reached from Junction 1 of
465-523: The college were also basic training workshops. In 1960 the education authority opened Filton Technical College on the opposite side of Filton Avenue to the BAC college. Later the various colleges merged and eventually became the South Gloucestershire and Stroud College . Sandwiched between roads, factories, railway lines and the aerodrome, Filton expanded little after World War II. However, from
496-547: The construction of the Catbrain attenuation reservoir near Cribbs Causeway. Measurements of pollution by the city council show the water to be relatively clean. Filton Filton is a town and civil parish in South Gloucestershire , England, 6 miles (10 km) north of Bristol . Along with nearby Patchway and Bradley Stoke , Filton forms part of the Bristol urban area and has become an overflow settlement for
527-533: The former Shield Laundry) and Abbey Wood Retail Park, as well as other shops. To the east of the town there is a small area of woodland known as Splatt's Abbey Wood. Filton has an aerospace connection dating back to the establishment of the Bristol Aeroplane Company . Aerospace companies in Filton include BAE Systems , Airbus , GKN , Rolls-Royce and MBDA , all located around the former Filton Aerodrome . The Concorde supersonic airliner
558-481: The growing number of school-age children in the area. Many of these children were evacuated when World War II started in 1939, but returned later, during the Phoney War . Filton High School, originally a grammar school, but later a comprehensive, started to take pupils in 1960. In 2010 Filton High was demolished and replaced with Abbeywood Community School . In the late 1940s, the main runway of Filton Aerodrome
589-560: The last wholly British-owned luxury car builder. The company went into administration in March 2011, and was acquired by the research and development firm Kamkorp . The population of the parish at the 2011 Census was 10,607. The Filton built-up area defined by the Office for National Statistics is a large outer suburban area north of Bristol which includes Almondsbury , Patchway , Little Stoke , Stoke Gifford and Bradley Stoke , and had
620-656: The late 1970s a trading estate slowly developed on the eastern side of the Bristol/South Wales railway line in what is now known as East Filton. During the mid-1970s the A38 trunk road was upgraded to a dual carriageway. Station Road, a country lane in the early part of the 20th century, was also widened to become a dual carriageway and form part of the Avon Ring Road . In 1973, the Rolls-Royce car division
651-542: The main river Avon, which simply means 'river' in British Celtic . Abona was a staging point for the Roman invasion of Wales and was at the western end of the Roman road from Silchester . By the 15th century there was a water mill just above the tidal limit of the Trym. In later centuries there were also two water mills in Coombe Dingle: Clack Mill (also known as Black Mill) beside what
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#1732773333330682-510: The name Trym may derive from the Anglo-Saxon, meaning 'firm' or 'strong' one'. The flow of the river has decreased in power in recent years, partly because of surface run-off in the upper catchment of the Hazel Brook, especially from the large retail centre at Cribbs Causeway . The run-off sends a good deal of silt into the system, slowing the flow and creating a risk of flooding downstream. This problem has now been partially alleviated by
713-418: The parish. Filton is represented on South Gloucestershire District Council by Cllr Alex Doyle (Lab) and Cllr Adam Monk (Lab). Thousands of mites , farthings and other coins of the Roman emperors, Domitian , Constantine and Constans were found in a bank by some boys in 1880. Many of the coins were in excellent condition. At the dawn of the 20th century, Filton was a small village, still detached from
744-483: The problem. The Trym rises near Filton in South Gloucestershire, in the area of Filton Golf Club, and much of its upper course is culverted underneath 20th century housing. It surfaces in the Bristol suburb of Southmead , then flows open through Badock's Wood nature reserve . Just south of here is Henleaze Swimming Lake, a former quarry fed by springs, the overflow running into the Trym. The river
775-544: The river, with gulls and estuary birds near the mouth. A pollution incident by Wessex Water which allowed sewage to flow into the Trym in 2001, killing eels, sticklebacks and invertebrates, resulted in a fine following prosecution by the Environment Agency . Other pollution incidents have followed. At the confluence of the Trym with the Avon was the Roman port and small town of Abona , which took its name from
806-467: Was abolished and the area became part of the unitary authority of South Gloucestershire and rejoined the ceremonial county of Gloucestershire. Filton is represented in the House of Commons by Jack Lopresti , Conservative Party Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency of Filton and Bradley Stoke . An electoral ward with the same name exists. The area and population are identical to those of
837-576: Was built here in the late 1960s and 1970s; on 26 November 2003 Concorde 216 (G-BOAF) made the final flight of a Concorde, returning to Filton to be kept there permanently as the centrepiece of the Aerospace Bristol museum, which opened in 2017. This museum also houses the Bristol Aero Collection and examples of planes, helicopters, missiles and other engineering projects built in Filton and Bristol. Other employers include
868-402: Was concentrated on the western side of the A38 , in an area known as Filton Park. In the 1930s, the area on the eastern side of the A38 started to be developed. Eventually, Filton became part of the Bristol conurbation, although it remained, as it does now, outside the city boundary. During the 1920s and 1930s, two infant/primary schools and one secondary school were built in Filton to accommodate
899-697: Was fed by both the Hazel Brook and the Trym, can be seen here. Passing under Dingle Road bridge, the river then flows through Sea Mills river park, passing under the Portway and the Severn Beach railway line before joining the river Avon . A weir under the Portway prevents flooding upstream, except during the highest spring tides . Badock's Wood in Southmead is a nature reserve managed by Bristol City Council . Areas of beech, oak and ash woodland support
930-553: Was greatly extended for the Bristol Brabazon project. Charlton village was demolished and the pre-war Filton bypass was severed. In the early 1960s, a new bypass was constructed, roughly parallel to the old one, and this later became part of the M5 motorway . In the early 1950s the Bristol Aeroplane Company opened a purpose-built technical college to help train their apprentice intake. Attached to
961-592: Was separated as Rolls-Royce Motors . Rolls-Royce (1971) Limited (the engine division) was privatised in 1987 as Rolls-Royce plc . Later, the Ministry of Defence set up a large office complex, known as Abbey Wood , in the same area. Filton is twinned with: Filton has a temperate maritime climate, with comfortable, mostly dry summers and cold, mostly wet winters. The temperature is usually between at or below freezing (0 °C (32 °F)) on 39.4 days per year and 23.1 °C (73.6 °F), but between 2005 and 2022,