12 easy walks around Bristol’s green spaces

Includes:

• Maps

• Detailed walk instructions

• Photos

• Nature notes

• History & heritage

• Family-friendly ideas

• And more…

This book brings together 12 short walks – each around 2-4 miles – exploring the many green spaces across Bristol. From wooded valleys and wildflower meadows to reclaimed industrial sites now returned to nature, formal parkland and local nature reserves.

These walks have been selected for relatively easy walking and accessibility, with options for shortcuts, detours and extensions. As well as detailed walk descriptions and route maps, each walk has accompanying information on local history and heritage, nature notes, plus ideas and activities for families and children to help get the most out of your walk. There are also suggestions for public transport links and nearby car parking, plus ideas for refreshment stops along the way.

Bristol is a city with a wealth of green spaces and you don't need to go far to take a walk in nature. Walking in green spaces has many benefits for health and well-being, and it can also be an enjoyable way of discovering new parts of the city and finding out about its history and wildlife. If you want to immerse yourself in Bristol’s green spaces and discover something new along the way, Bristol Green Walks is the ideal first step.

Including South Wales & South Cotswolds

Where shall we go today? Crook Peak, the Avalon Marshes, the Wye Valley? Or perhaps Bruton, Glastonbury or Clevedon? This book is packed with ideas for great days out within around an hour or so’s drive, with suggestions to suit your mood, schedule and starting point. From the Mendip Hills and Somerset Levels, to South Wales, the southern Cotswolds, the Coast and its resorts. Quirky facts and background information provide context, while divided into micro-regions, maps provide orientation. This guide will help you explore what is on the doorstep or to venture further afield along paths less travelled.

Inside this book you will find the previously untold stories of 200 incredible women from Bath’s history. They were all women who helped to shape Bath into the extraordinary city that it is today. A few of them you will know… but most of them will be new names to you.

You can expect to find 26 suffragists, six artists, four doctors, two pioneering police officers and one big-hearted chicken in here… plus many more besides. Such as the sisters who enjoyed wild swimming into their 70s, the woman who founded a community of almshouses for single women, the doctor who travelled to her patients by horse so as not to be late, and the homeowner who made her voice heard by sunbathing in a scandalously yellow bikini. 

These women come from all walks of life and all parts of the city, spanning laundresses and workhouse inmates to theatre revolutionaries and city councillors. Every woman featured in these pages has made her mark on this city and deserves her moment in the sun.

Of Earth and Sky describes 30 projects created by international artist Luke Jerram from 2019 to 2025. As well as providing updates on the staggeringly popular Museum of the Moon and Gaia, it also features the very latest artworks including Helios, charitable creative projects from the new Jerram Foundation, and many more, most recently relating to planetary health.

A specialist in creating visual artwork which often attracts large audiences and publicity, Jerram gives an insight into how he works in collaboration with other artists, performers, scientists, anthropologists and members of the public, right around the world, to create these astonishing projects.

Explore how the artist expertly creates opportunities to bring people together.

By Robin Askew, Eugene Byrne, Melanie Kelly and Amy O’Beirne

Edited by Andrew Kelly

Follow in the footsteps of the Romantic poets and Brunel. Learn about Bristol’s council housing, commerce and public life. Discover the myths people tell about the city. Experience arts, music history and nature. And see how different the city might have looked if some projects had gone ahead. This book brings together a series of walks created and commissioned by Bristol Ideas to help you explore this unique city.

How much do you know about Bristol? Why does it look the way it looks? What secrets do its streets hide? What stories could its buildings tell if they had a voice?

Michael Manson takes you on a search to find the soul of the city where he has lived for more than 45 years.

How much do you know about the history of Bristol? Why does it look the way it does? What secrets do its streets hide? What stories would its buildings tell if they had a voice?

Each one of Bristol’s bridges has a fascinating story which is woven intimately into the 1,000-year history of the city. Why was it built? What was involved in its design, engineering and construction? What dramatic events sometimes swirled around and perhaps on it? In this book Jeff Lucas tells the story of each of the 45 bridges which span the main waterways of Bristol between Avonmouth and St Anne’s, and which can be crossed on foot.

Robin Prytherch was a man with a passion for birds and one in particular – the common buzzard. For over 40 years, rain or shine, armed with a cheese sandwich, a flask of coffee, a pair of binoculars and a telescope, he headed out to watch them. During his studies he sketched and observed generations of buzzards and got to know their behaviour, individual characters and family relationships intimately. He delighted in finding new and interesting things to say about what one might think is already a very well-known species, and was eager to share his discoveries with others. So, starting in 1995, he decided to do just that by designing and sending out his own buzzard- themed Christmas cards. Sadly, Robin passed away in 2021 but, partially as a tribute to his memory, in this book they are all collected together in one place for others to enjoy.

Compiled by Bristol music expert Richard Jones, it is an essential guide to Bristol music with a timeline of the key moments in the city’s music history from 1955 to the present day. It includes profiles of almost 100 bands, musicians, DJs and producers who have made a significant impact on the sound of the city from Russ Conway to Massive Attack.