Saturday, 2 June 2012

Roundheads and Cavaliers

Over in Clifton, Leigh Road has been rebranded "jubileigh road"

No doubt they will having a street party.

We shall be down at Stokes Croft, obviously -though the exact festivities are not yet planned.

We do recall last year's impromptu street festival on Stokes Croft during the Royal Wedding.
 
The police closed the road to help people enjoy this national holiday, while they themselves were invited into one of the local households for a cup of tea -"Telepathic Heights", was its name.

The wearing of helmets, so as to give this, our New Model Army, "Round Heads", was clearly a conscious decision to refer to the battle over the nature of our country: one in which the king ruled by divine right vs one that belonged to the population.
 

The siege of Bristol took place in this very area -Cromwell Road in the far distance being where the original roundheads besieged the city, Priory Fort at the top of Ninetree Hill kept them out of Stokes Croft by way of its cannons, and Bristol remained a royalist stronghold.

That is, until it fell, and Cromwell went on to behead one of the ancestors of the crown -this led to the free and democratic society we have today, when anyone who went to either of the universities can become its leader.

Happy Jubilee! Celebrate!

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