Yate a modern English town.
A mixture of Industry, housing, shopping and amenities, all centered around the main Yate Shopping Centre, which has shops of all varieties with free parking. Adjacent Leisure Centre and local pubs with varied menus.

Many people think of Yate as just a new town with its many houses and industrial estates, but from evidence and data being collected at the Yate Heritage Centre there is a long and interesting history to the town.

Artifact evidence indicates that the Romans were in the area in the 2nd Century BC and documentary records show that a religious house was created around 770 AD by the Church of Worcester. The name Yate is derived from the Saxon Giete or Gete meaning "a gateway into the forest area". (During the Saxon period and well into medieval times most of South Gloucestershire was covered by scrub, woodland and forested areas, the later being used as royal hunting reserves.)

From Saxon Charters and similar documents we know that there were 3 main manors.. viz. Yate (Court), Brimsham and Stanshawes, and as the woodland was cleared agriculture became the mainstay of a very rural economy. Brimsham Manor dates to the 13th century, but the manor house itself vanished in Tudor times. Stanshawes Manor (formerly Stone House) is believed to be 1231 but in 1871 the estate was purchased by Mr. Robert Hooper, who demolished the old manor and built a magnificent Victorian Mansion, which survives to this day as the Stanshawes Court Hotel.

Yate Parish once covered some 3500 acres and the Tithe Map of 1842 shows 360 acres of Arable land , 2400 acres of Pasture land, 80 of woodland and over 600 acres of Common land. Also shown were about 25 farms many of which were the typical gabled houses of the area. Later many large country residences were built as the wealthy businessmen moved out of the city. Of the 3 manors we have most data on Yate Court, from its moat and castle fortifications of the 13th Century, to its medieval deer park and then its partial demolition during the Civil War.

The parish church of St. Mary dates back to Norman times and was much rebuilt in the 14th and 15th Century's and then extensively restored in the 19th Century with more restoration work taking place in the 1970's. Within the church are the remains of an old wall painting and many fine memorial brasses, one of which depicts Alexander Staples (d. 1590) his two wives and eleven children.

Some fragments of glass in a north window are a reminder of the Civil War skirmishes and the Lynch Gate and Parnall Memorial are in memory of those who died during two World Wars. The Churchyard also has a large number of chest tombs. The peal of 6 bells is regularly rung, the treble bell being a gift from Robert Stanshawe.

Outside of the churchyard wall in the early 1800's were the Poor House and a two room School. The former was demolished and the National School, (later to become St. Mary's C of E school), built on the site in 1855. The small schoolroom then became the Headmasters House. Across the road was the large house known as Yate Lawns and on the corner of Church Road was the Lion Inn with its meeting room used by many local organizations like the Friendly Society. This area outside the church was very much the 'hub' of the village well into the 1900's.

The old Chipping Sodbury Union Workhouse, know as the Spike, was built in the 1830's to serve the whole Union area. Today its known as Ridgewood and is used for many community activities.

 Rebuilt front of Parnalls Aircraft Factory following war time bombing

Yate parish has had three interesting mineral deposits each of which has, in its way, shaped today's landscape. Limestone was to the east, Celestine or Spar in the centre and Coal to the west. Limestone had been widely used for building purposes and, after burning to produce lime, for 'manuring' the ground, but it was the advent of the Turnpike Roads, and later metalled roads which created the demand for stone aggregate. This has been perpetuated by the motorways and industrial/residential developments. Today the quarries are part of the ARC Group and since boundary changes are now in Sodbury Parish. The extraction of Coal developed due to the diminishing supply of timber and later increased greatly to cope with the needs of Bristol's industrial development. The Yate Coalfield, mainly located around Engine Common, consisted of 8 mines which were at their peak from about 1830 to 1890.

Celestine, or Spar as its generally know, was first dug in the late 1880's and was initially used for the refining of sugar beet. At on time Yates Spar fields accounted for over 70% of the worlds production. Later it was widely used in pyrotechnics and flares and in more recent times in the electronics industries. Initially deposits, stretching from Stanshawes towards Wickwar, were dug by hand and then later mechanical means. The National importance of this mineral meant that the land could not be built upon until all the mineral had been extracted. The closure, in 1994, of the Bristol Mineral and Land Co. Ltd brought to an end this important industry.

The opening of Yate Railway Station in 1844 gave much impetus to the movement of extracted minerals and to the growth of other local trades and businesses. Station Road became the 'central thoroughfare' with, over the years, the cattle and produce markets, cycle business - later the garage, provisions shops, post office, co-op stores, YMCA hall, parish hall - used as a cinema during the second world war, religious houses, as well as hotels and public houses.

In the early 1900's an Aerodrome was built alongside the Station Road, between the railway line and Poole Court. At the western end a Depot dealt with the repair of WW1 air frames. Later Parnalls transferred their aircraft manufacturing there from Bristol. They built gun-turrets during WW2 and afterwards turned to the manufacture of domestic appliances. Today the Creda factory sits on the site and they are part of a multi-national making tumble dryers and washing machines. The Depot at the east end of the airdrome dealt with engine repairs during WW1 and the manufacture of munitions during WW2. After the war Newman's Industries bought the site and became one of the leading electric motor manufactures until their closure around 1988. Poole Court which featured prominently in the sites industrial past was saved from demolition and refurbished. It is now the base for Yate Town Council and houses the Yate Heritage Centre.

Although some housing estates had been built in the 1920's ( the Moorlands estates) and the 1950's (the Ridge estate), it was not until the mid 1960's that the development of Yate, as we know it today, really started. One of the first areas to be built was on the old Stanshawes Estate. The spar mineral had all been worked out, and with the County having already designated Yate as a potential development area, the building boom started. Included in the creation of this 'new Town' was a large retail area, sports and leisure facilities, public buildings etc. Since those early beginnings the housing has steadily crept northwards following the path of the old spar workings. Light industrial and warehousing buildings have been mainly kept to the outer perimeter of the new town in order to try to reduce the amount of heavy goods vehicles that need to come through the centre.

The Yate Heritage Centre was created in 1995 to provide facilities for displaying aspects of Yates past history and for providing archive ( and research ) facilities, for the storage of artefacts, documents, maps, and photographs relevant to Yate and surrounding district. The display cabinets in the foyer of Poole Court house regular exhibitions and the Archive Room contains much local data.