5: Bristol Urban Excursionist - Following the Horfield Brook - St Judes to Purdown - May 2018

Episode five follows another ancient Bristol watercourse, the Horfield Brook. We make an early start as day is breaking with the dawn chorus of birdsong accompanied by luminescent orange and blue skies. To get to the start of our journey we glide through the deserted early morning streets of central Bristol with the light reflecting of the palaces of glass and steel as late-night revellers head home. A cloudless sky is broken only by silver vapour-trails of the jetliners with the moon following behind us. We join up with our old friend the River Frome and head east out of the city on two wheels to find it's confluence with the Horfield Brook in St.Judes. The beginning of our journey involves us crossing high above the motorway to find a relic of early 19th Century transport - a parish boundary marker on the old turnpike road to Stapleton and points East.

The old stone wall marks the course of the stream as we head past the Methodist Church, the Old Duke of York public house and over the humpback bridge we go to find our first sighting of open water emerging from it's subterranean darkness. Two Mallard Ducks fishing for pondweed are the only creatures to disturb this placid Sunday morning and we can hear the sound of water rushing over the underground weir on it's way to the Frome. We follow a curving stone wall along the watercourse wending it's way through Mina Road Park to meet the river at close quarters. The brook peacefully gurgles it's way amongst the greenery overlooked by an old red-brick factory chimney before promptly disappearing beneath the suburban streets of St Werburghs. We pause to take in the desolate sight of forgotten industry - the crushed brickwork all that remains of the old Brooks Dye Works making way for new housing.

Heading for points North we travel along the wonderfully named Minto Road in search of the underground river until we hear the sound of rushing water behind an old iron grating and we find two rusty iron artefacts from the age of Brunel: a piece of original Bridge Rail and a Great Western Railway boundary marker. Past the sheltered Lynmouth Road allotments we go onwards to find the location of Watercress beds that once fed the city and pause to admire the sun rising over the City Farm in the Vale of Ashley. The whisper of running water beneath our feet points us towards Boiling Wells lane past the fantastical Hobbit House of carved wood and through the chasm under the GWR's Bristol and South Wales Railway to find the brook emerging once again to collect water from the local springs.

We take off along the Concord way towards Filton as the morning sun illuminates the new growth of spring, past the sight of the old and new Horfield Station and find ourselves in a deep valley with breathtaking scenes of the morning sun on the dewy green grass. There is a last sighting of the Horfield Brook before it goes underground to meet it's watershed near the old gasworks. Another detour beckons up an overgrown pathway and into the scented wilderness to find Tortoiseshell caterpillars feeding on Comfrey at the hidden Horfield Allotments. We're in the heart of 1930's suburbia but wander up an old track to find an original creeper-covered farmhouse from a previous century, but the neatly trimmed Privet hedge leads us back to some charming 1920's workers cottages. We head off the beaten track to see the historic site of the old gasworks and over the main railway with panoramic views of Bristol to the South as a freight train rushes down the bank.

We soon find ourselves in a semi-detached wilderness of brick and pebbledash dwarfed by massive steel electricity pylons crackling overhead as we race to the top of the hill with Central Bristol far back behind us in the haze. There is a crossroads and we take the cycle-path North towards Abbey Wood and find more running water from the same source as the brook, but become lost in a maze of cycle-ways, retail centres and roundabouts before doubling back towards Lockleaze. We glide under the futuristic 21st Century MOD footbridge, stop to gaze at the endless new housing development and follow the stream back towards the high ground.

At last we crest Purdown to behold magnificent views to the East and stop to catch our breath and watch the early morning joggers and dog-walkers - and overlooking all this is a 1960's concrete icon: the Purdown Telecommunications Tower.

Original accompanying music specially produced by The Fascinator.