The scents and sensitivity of young Bill's trip to the city

We were recently sent this article written by a gentleman living in Wraxall who simply wishes to be known as Bill. We thought you might find his memories of the smells of Bristol when he was a lad quite evocative.

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LONG time ago, when things were different around 1950 people from the countryside made bus journeys into the big city to collect what they couldn't get in the local villages. It might mean going into town three or four times a year.

The thing I noticed as a six-year-old, were the smells - totally different to home.

Our bus trip to town came to an end at the four-way traffic lights at Ashton Gate, which for some reason we knew as Ashton Cars. A delivery was usually made to the other side of Smyth Park where there was the first smell, that of two tanneries on Clift House Road. It was a smell hard to describe, but not unpleasant.

Back across the park to catch what could have been a number 9, which on one occasion had wooden slat seats, most unusual.

The journey through Bedminster Bridge was always broken up with intermittent stops, Baker Bakers on the right hand side being one. The early part of our expedition was covered by the all-prevailing smell of W.D. & H.O. Wills Tobacco products. Quite a clean smell it seemed at the time.