Next to the feeder canal and on route to Bath there is a quiet residential area that at first glance appears to be of little interest. If you enter St Anne’s from St George, you are greeted with a not particularly picturesque roundabout, next to a huge car park, a large Co-Op supermarket and a couple of cafes and fish and chip shops.
Mostly the area is residential but the streets seem to be filled with the noise of birds rather than people. But if you enter Abbie’s Cafe on the hill above, the place is filled with chatter and Abbie Brailsford and her sister Chelsea who own it seem to know all the customers who come and go.
“I know everyone around here, it’s a lovely area,” explained Abbie, who relocated the cafe to the neighbourhood in 2016. She said what she likes most about St Anne’s is the people and that despite its quiet appearance, there is always a lot going on.
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Lana Gale, who regularly visits the cafe, agrees that St Anne’s is a nice place to live and generally people have everything they need within the neighbourhood. “Everyone looks out for each other here,” explained the hairdresser.
Lana does a collection every Christmas and Easter for local women’s shelters, which the sisters at the cafe and other local businesses support. This summer, the cafe is offering children’s meals for £1 and once a year the local primary school children take over the space for a group ‘play cafe’ session.
“I find St Anne’s very friendly. The sisters at Abbie’s are always really warm and welcoming, it’s got a really nice vibe there. I like to walk my dog at St Anne’s Wood and some of the locals also like to go wild swimming at Conham river nearby,” added Lana.
Like Lana, many of the St Anne’s locals use the ancient woodland to walk their dogs but during the pandemic some of the locals met there hoping to find ancient artefacts from the past. One woman had visited this week after seeing it listed on a Facebook group as a site worth digging for treasures.
St Anne herself is believed to have been the grandmother of Jesus and the woods were once a famous place for pilgrims who would travel to see a shrine of Anne and make a wish upon the holy well which remains in the woods today. While there have been some attempts to find the ruins of her shrine, nobody has yet managed to find it.
While not all the locals are aware of the woodland’s history and they are spoilt for choice when it comes to green spaces. The woods remain relatively quiet these days. The pathways are full of nettles and the well no longer appears to be seen by many as a sacred site.
The well in the woods is not the only part of St Anne’s which appears to have been forgotten. Within this quiet community, there was also once a railway station. St Anne’s Park- closed over 50 years ago but local campaigners, supported by MP Kerry McCarthy, raised £50,000 ago to restre the old station.
Given they are located next to the huge Bristol Temple Quarter Development zone and currently only have one irregular bus in the neighbourhood (number 36), the plans are welcomed by many locals who rely on public transport.