Bannerleigh

On 23 June 1792, the land on which 15 Woodland Road and adjacent houses is built was leased by the Dean and Chapter of Bristol Cathedral for 100 years to Messrs. Thomas Griffith Vaughan, John Weekes and James Weekes.  Two days later, part of the land was assigned to Thomas Onesiphorous Tyndall and it became part of the Tyndall family estate.  Leasehold possession of the land remained in the Tyndall family until 27 November 1862 when Thomas Tyndall purchased it outright from the church for £2272  thus terminating the lease.  Five years later, on 25 June 1867, Thomas Tyndall sold the land to George Gay, a local builder from Cotham Park, for the sum of £2272.  The land was to be held leasehold by Gay and his heirs for the term of 10,000 years and Tyndall, who lived in the Royal Fort, imposed a number of restrictions or covenants on its future use.  For example, any buildings which Gay might seek to erect had to be of 'freestone or stucco or Roman cement'.  Slate roofs had to be used and gateways had to be of ornamental design.  There also had to be a 'hothouse or conservatory, or coachhouse and stables'.  There were to be no shops, trade or business, except 'girls schools or boarding or lodging houses'.  Gay also undertook to construct a new road, apparently Woodland Road, and on the 15th July 1868 he purchased more adjacent land needed for this from 'The Bristol Free Grammar School', for the sum of £1500.  This land was then in use as a vegetable garden - rent £9 per year.

With the necessary land obtained and all the legal requirements satisfied by the summer of 1868, it appears that George Gay began building what is now 15 Woodland Road almost at once.  Certainly the house was completed by November 1869 because on the 11^th of that month Messrs. J P Sturge and Sons, 34 Corn Street, Bristol wrote the following report.

"We have inspected the house No.3 Woodland Road, recently erected by you and as Surveyors to the late T G Tyndall Esq, we find that the said house and the road in front of the same are constructed in accordance with the Covenant contained in the contract between Mr Tyndall and yourself for the sale and purchase of the land".

The first purchaser of the house, then known as No.3 West End Woodland Road, was Lydia Bull of the Vicarage, Dorchester and spinster of the said parish.  She brought the property from the builder, George Gay on 11 November 1870 for £2800 and accepted the Covenants on it, one of which was that it should be used 'for quiet enjoyment'.  At the time of purchase, Miss Bull named the house 'Bannerleigh' and the name can still be seen on the right-hand gate pillar at the front of the house.

Miss Bull appears to have occupied the house together with her sister, Ann Matilda Fisher, until her death in January 1875.  Later in that year, (3 November ), it was sold by Ann Fisher to Reverend Nathaniel Heywood of Clifton for the sum of £4590.  Reverend Heywood retained possession until 1893 when he sold it to a Bristol solicitor, George Pearson for £2250.  The various rights of way at the rear of the property were retained, eg for the passage of 'horses, cattle, other animals, carts, carriages, goods etc'  (now a car-park).

In October 1918, George Pearson sold the house to Henry Herbert Wills of Barleywood, Wrington, Somerset for the sum of £2250.  Mr Wills did not buy the house for his own residence.  His stated intention was to donate it to 'The Bristol Asylum or School of Industry for the Blind' and in the following year, 1919, he formally gave the property to the latter, for the establishment of a Hostel for Blind Working Woman and Girls. 

The property was used for this purpose until 1979 when it was acquired by the University.