The first three images below are ( by my guess) pre-war, and show a lighter being loaded, together with a general view from Redcliffe.
The subsequent monochrome images of Redcliffe were obviously taken many years ago. Note the absence of vegetation & the presence of the original farmhouse.
The firstcolour image of Ridge was taken about 1990 – can anybody give a more exact date? Gover Close had not yet been built and other houses were either under construction or had recently been completed.
The two subsequent images were, I believe, taken in summer 2012 after the biblical rains we suffered. They show how well the floodplain works – although the causeway was briefly inundated, the bypass and almost every property in the surrounding area were not.
Ridge has a history which goes back many hundreds of years, and probably much longer, but very little appears to have been written down. Recently, two local people with considerable knowledge of the village passed on, so that we lost a great deal of information which could have been recorded here. What is proposed therefore, is to use the website to collect a history of the village and relevant adjacent areas, such as Pikes Tramway, Clay Mining, Ridge Wharf and the Frome. This process has already started, and will be added to as more information becomes available. If you have historical information (even if it is recent) then please leave a post it in the members area, so that you can be contacted. Your input is needed and valued!
Pikes Tramway.
A brief history of the Tramway from Sunnyside Farm to The Halfway Inn and beyond can be found at http://www.pmmmg.org/Pikes.htm .
Development of the Arne Road.
The image below was taken c. 1960. It shows Eva Biles’ daughter and friends outside one of the original houses in the Arne road. This house was subsequently demolished and replaced by the bungalow “Plein Soleil”. Below that is an image of one of a number of railway carriages used as dwellings. This one was on the site of Joan Jacobs’ house, The third image is of the wooden house which Mike & Dee Grace demolished in 1984 to build their bungalow.
Powell’s Cement Works
It seems difficult to believe that Ridge was quite highly industrialised at the turn of the 20th century, but here is proof in the form of an advert for the cement works situated in what is now Old Kiln Road. Note the lime kilns on the right of the picture.
