Meet the ordinary working people who helped to support an extraordinary project. Recent research at Clifton Suspension Bridge has uncovered the lives of those who subscribed to a single share in the Bridge in the early 1860s.
- Free drop-in entry
- 11am-2pm, 12th and 13th September
- Education Workshop, Clifton Suspension Bridge Museum
The early history of the Clifton Suspension Bridge is fraught with failures – poor management, withheld subscriptions, money running out. Eventually the project was abandoned. In the early 1860s it was revived, and this time managed much more efficiently. The fundraisers approached ‘small investors’ as well as the more wealthy, and the people of Bristol, and Clifton in particular, responded with gusto – they wanted to be part of this grand project.
The people who bought single shares are representative of Victorian society of the time. There are bakers, butchers, candle makers, carpenters, dressmakers, baby linen sellers, builders, undertakers, grocers, confectioners, toy dealers, road surveyors, accountants, bank clerks, and wine merchants. Some of them sold alcohol, others were active in the temperance movement. There are women running businesses in their own right, and a widow who took over her husband’s business after his death from consumption, a disease that ravaged much of the population at this time.
Explore these individual biographies with the Archive Team and learn about the families, work and lives of the small investors. View original cash books from our Archive and explore the growing database of names involved with the building of the bridge as we ask ‘Is Yours a Suspension Bridge Family?’. Learn about the pitfalls of family history research with ‘Remembering Annie’ – a story about the importance of using multiple sources.