Jacobs Wells Road

Further Info

This story was made on a five-day digital storytelling workshop for members of Watershed staff and local artists, led by Ruth Jacobs, Liz Milner and Beth Trimmer,

The course took place at Watershed during May 2005 and was supported by Bristol’s Museums, Galleries & Archives.

Transcript

[jazz music]

Years ago, when we first settled in Bristol (my daughter was about seven). We were walking down Jacobs Wells Road when she suddenly went pale and froze. “I have a really bad feeling”, she said. “I don’t like this place”. Later she talked about sensing “dead people”. We dug into local history and unearthed a story of how hundreds of people had been poisoned by the well waters in the middle ages. The road is criss-crossed by medieval subterranean conduits.

A few years later my wife was cycling down constitution hill which leads directly to Jacobs Wells Road. It’s famous in Bristol for being a very steep hill.

[sounds of bicycle bell and screeching tyres]

About half way down her brakes failed - both of them. She tried to zig-zag but the bike just went faster and faster.

When she reached the bottom she’d steered up into Jacobs Wells Road. It saved her life, and luckily no traffic was passing.

At the spot where she’d stopped, local history society archeologists later discovered a 12th Century mikvah or Jewish ritual bath: Apparently Jews were often accused of poisoning wells as a prelude to a pogrom.

[sounds of a mob shouting]

Some places seems to carry an imprint of the past, but intuition is not an exact science. What had my daughter sensed? The past, or the future?

[jazz music]

Credits

All media not otherwise credited created by the story author, or permission obtained, used under copyright licence.