Taveners Walk in the town of Nailsea

Taveners Walk in Nailsea may well lend its name to the more traditionally spelt word “Tavern”, based on the history of the land on which it is situated.

In the mid 1990’s, Rosemead Homes applied for planning consent to build a small complex of new build houses on a patch of commercial land adjacent to French Close, which was then the home of the (now demolished) Taveners Industrial Estate.

The land on which the Taveners Industrial estate covered was between the East of Heath Road and North of Friendship Road. It bordered the west side of French Lane and the adjoining corner as you turn on to Southfield Road.

Taveners Walk itself is now located in the centre of the former industrial estate plot and can be accessed roughly midway down French Close via a small road, opening up in to a cul-de-sac with island.

The new complex which replaced Taveners Industrial estate consisted of a mixture of 2/3 bedroom terraces, semi-detached and detached properties, on French Lane, Southfield Road and a relatively newly created Taveners Walk.

There are 6 properties in total on Taveners Walk, all of which are detached surrounding the circular cul-de-sac island.

The proposed new housing estate was named the The Briars during it’s development by Rosemeads Homes, following successful planning permission being obtained in the mid 1990’s and construction occuring in the late 1990’s. Completion and sale of all the properties on the newly built estate was in 2001.

As previously mentioned, the land on which the properties now reside was formerly the Taveners Industrial Estate and was possibly once part of the wider Southfield Road Trading Estate, which is within very close proximity, however this is unconfirmed and information on the former Taveners Industrial Estate is extremely limited. It was not possible to ascertain when the Industrial Estate came into existence or what companies operated from there during it’s time. Details submitted during the planning permission application for the residential complex, made by Rosemeads, suggests there were between 10-15 industrial units/buildings on the land at the time in the 1990's.

However, the area of land on which the Taveners Industrial Estate once resided appears to go back a little further and had previously been part of the land within or adjacent to the Nailsea Heath Brewery, with the Brewery itself being situated in the region of what is now Heath Road.

French Close appears to cross a section of land which was within/very near the former brewery estate, called French Row.

When followed South, French Row would lead to the Friendship Inn public house, previously situated on Stock Way North near the current Tesco roundabout. Friendship Road sits immediately behind where the pub once existed and likely the reason for the street name.

The Friendship Inn was popular with workers of the nearby (now flattened) and famous Glasswork factory; Nailsea Glassworks. The ground which Nailsea Glassworks previously occupied is now under the foundations of the current Tesco Car Park in Nailsea, a few minutes away from Taveners Walk. The carpark was specially constructed in order to preserve any historical remains and for easier access should any future potential archaeological digs be undertaken.

Obviously not all gaps in history could be accounted for, and there may well be another reason or meaning for the name “Taveners” in the young street’s history, but at least that gives an idea of what once sat in that space of land (and also some surrounding areas) in the years prior to its current makeup; Brewery, Popular Tavern, Local Glasswork factory and more recently, and industrial estate from which Taveners Walk adopted its name.