History of Chipping Sodbury
Page 2 of A Short History of the Sodburys, provided by Jim Elsworth
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The New Town covered only 108 acres and was built on a cross roads of the east west Bristol to Oxford road and the north south ancient salt route and pilgrims’ way – between Kingswood and Keynsham Abbeys. The choice of the site was also influenced by the presence of the river. The market town conferred certain rights on the residents as well as providing an income for the Lord of the Manor and it became the focal point and farming centre for the area.
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The town has never been particularly prosperous, and has never had any major rebuilding phases, so the medieval planned layout of the town can still been seen in many aspects of our townscape of today. The wide street for the market, the houses which front right on to the market pitchings, the buildings which form a pinch point on the western side of the main street to close in the market, the long thin burgage plots behind each of the houses, the presence of the medieval Town Hall and the plentiful supply of market pubs and coaching inns are all a reflection of the original planned town. |
 Reproduced courtesy of The Francis Frith Collection. |
| Over the centuries the
population of Chipping Sodbury has been around 1000 and it
was not until the developments of improved communication in
the nineteenth and twentieth centuries that the population
expanded to that which we have today. The parish boundary
has been changed so it is impossible to do a comparison, but
those living within the old 108 acres must still be fairly
close to 1000. The major difference is that in earlier times
all of those who lived in Chipping Sodbury made their living
from agriculture or directly related business. |
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