Barrs Court

Barrs Court is a suburb on the east side of Bristol (UK), located near Longwell Green and Kingswood.

Barrs Court is a new housing estate, but has some previous history surrounding its local moat, a 2-acre (8,100 m²) site designated as an ancient monument.

Barrs Court has one school (Barrs Court Primary), a large Asda Hypermarket and a leisure area called Aspects with a multiplex Vue cinema, Bowlplex centre, gym, four restaurants and two pubs. All these businesses claim to be in the better known, and larger, Longwell Green, but all are geographically Barrs Court.

The history

Barrs Court Moat was initially part of Kingswood Chase, a royal hunting forest (successor to the larger forest of Kingswood, deforested in 1228). The name comes from Lady Jane Barre who owned the land in the mid 15th Century. The moat itself borders a range of old ruins, these are of the large mansion owned by the Newton family, this stood until around 1740.

One corner of the moat is now in-filled. Following the demolition of the mansion a farmhouse was developed from what was originally the outbuildings of the original mansion house. One of these original outbuildings, the large cruciform barn, was converted in the late 1980s into a public house.

There are a number of fine monuments in Bristol Cathedral to the Newton family.

External links

• Barrs Court moat
• More on the Moat