• Time from Bristol to Craig y Nos Castle Wedding Venue: 1 hour 38 minutes

• Distance from Bristol to Craig y Nos Castle Wedding Reception Venue: 83 miles

1. Population of Bristol City: 433,100, or including the outskirts / Bristol urban zone: 1,070,000, though its area may be counted in different ways - the built up area, or 'Greater Bristol', or the County of Bristol. Bristol is England's 6th largest city and Britain's 8th largest city.

2. In 1373 Bristol became a County though it lost its county status briefly in April 1974, when the County of Avon was created. Avon was short-lived as it was abolished in April 1966, whereupon Bristol resumed its status as a County in its own right. In 1542 Bristol officially became a city with the founding of Bristol Cathedral (formerly the Abbey of St. Augustine).

3. For 500 years from C.13th, Bristol was one of the top four cities in the UK, ranking with York and Norwich (London being the largest city of course). It was an important enough trading centre to mint its own coins. By C.12th Bristol Port handled most of England's trade with Ireland (including slaves). Bristol in C.12 and C.13 became a shipbuilding port. With the Industrial Revolution, Bristol was overtaken by Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester. The sea port of Bristol accounted for Bristol's earlier wealth, while today the city's income derives mainly from media, electronics and aerospace industries, together with tourism - the city docks have been regenerated as a heritage and cultural centre. The old central 'floating dock' area, once a derelict eyesore, is now recognised as an asset and has been redeveloped into a key Bristol leisure facility. There are 17,500 businesses in Bristol.

Bristol is a dominant player in the aerospace industry and houses the Ministry of defence procurement HQ (8,000 employees). Media and information technology, and the financial services sector (59,000 employees), together with tourism (9 million visitors a year) are its principal commercial sectors. Visitors to Bristol spend £750 million per year in the city. Bristol remains a major seaport and is the largest importer of cars to Britain.

4. There are 34 other cities and towns worldwide named Bristol. People living in Bristol are called Bristolians.

5. Bristol was originally named Brigstow (Brycgstow in old English) because of the bridge built there. An ‘L’ was added due to the local Bristolese dialect and it was renamed Bristol. Bristol was founded circa 1000 and its old name Brycgstow translates as 'the place at the bridge'.

6. The Black Death (1348-1349) killed off half the population of Bristol. Thie event held back population levels at 10,000 for 200 years, during the C.15 and C.16th century.

7. During the C.14th many Bristolians sailed across to the New World (USA as it became) for trade, including William Weston who in 1499 headed the first English expedition to North America. In 1497 John Cabot sailed for mainland America, funded by the Sheriff of Bristol, Richard Ameryck, after whom some believe America was named. For this reason Bristol is regarded as 'the birthplace of America'.

8. In C.16th Bristolian traders turned their attention to Spain and the American Colonies. Smuggling accounted for much of Bristol's economy. In the C.17th Bristol experienced renewed growth with a three-way trade arrangement between England, Africa and America, benefiting particularly from the slave trade. British manufactured goods were exported to Africa in return for slaves who were then shipped to America in appalling conditions, in return for sugar, tobacco, rum, rice and cotton from the plantations of America. From 1700 to 1807, 2,000 ships fitted out for slave transport worked the seas shipping over 500,000 slaves from Africa to America.

9. Bristol suffered from the French maritime wars and competition from the port of Liverpool, plus the abolition of slavery in 1807. The manufacturing cities of the North grew at a faster pace and Birmingham lost its place as one of the four largest cities in the UK. Bristol's population did however increase fivefold during the C.19th, as new industries developed.

10. Isambard Kingdom Brunel designed the Great Western Railway between Bristol and Paddington in London, while the Clifton Suspension Bridge further improved transport routes. Isambard Kingdom Brunel never got to see the Clifton Suspension Bridge that he designed as he died before it was finished in 1864.

11. Bombing in WW2 killed 1300 people in Bristol and destroyed or damaged 100,000 buildings. Bristol suffered further in the 1960's due to the building of many cheap and ugly tower blocks and more roads. It was not until the 1980's that restoration works to preserve the original architecture began, with the restoration of Queen Square from the Georgian era and Portland Square and the demolition of some of the 1960's tower blocks.

12. The M4 and M5 motorways were built in the 1960's and 1970's, linking Bristol to London, Birmingham, Cardiff and Exeter.

13. Bristol has four constituencies: Bristol West, Bristol East, Bristol South and Bristol North West. The four MPs comprise two Labour, one Conservative and one Liberal Democrat.

14. Famous political persons from Bristol include Edmund Burke and Tony Benn.

15. The towns and villages within Bristol are:  Whitchurch, Filton, Patchway, Bradley Stoke, Kingswood, Mangotsfield, Stoke Gifford, Winterbourne, Frampton Cotterell, Almondsbury and Easton in Gordano.

16. Bristol is one of the warmest and sunniest cities in the UK. Bristol has also been ranked as Britain's most sustainable city due to its efforts on green policies, climate change, and recycling.

17. Deals used to be struck in the Corn Exchange over bronze tables known as The Nails, possibly giving rise to the phrase 'cash on the nail'.

18. Aircraft production started in Filton, Bristol, in 1910, only two years after the first powered flight. The World War One 'Bristol Fighter' and the WW2 Blenheim and Beaufighter were built at Bristol, and in the 1960's Bristol designed and built Concorde in partnership with France. Concorde was retired in 2003.

19. The international Balloon Fiesta in August is Europe's largest hot air balloon event and Bristol based Cameron Balloons Ltd is the world’s largest manufacturer of Hot Air Balloons.

20. Bristol has a number of theatres: (i) The Theatre Royal, Grade One listed and the oldest continually running theatre in England, staging shows since 1766 (ii) The New Vic, (iii) The Bristol Hippodrome, (iv) The Tobacco Factory, (v) QEH, (vi) The Redgrave Theatre at Clifton College, (vii) the Alma Tavern.

21. Bristol has many live music venues:  (i) Colston Hall, (ii) the Bristol Academy, (iii) The Fleeece, (iv) The Croft, (v) The Exchange, (vi) Fiddlers, (vii) Victoria Rooms, (viii) Trinity Centre, (ix) St George's Bristol, (x) The Old Duke (jazz pub), (xi) The Fleece and Firkin (rock music pub) and (x) the Louisiana (Indie music pub).

22. Banksy, the graffitti artist, comes from Bristol as did the C.18th poet Thomas Chatterton. The pirate Captain Blackbeard, who had a hideaway cave under St. Mary Redcliffe Church hailed from Bristol, as does Holloywood actor Cary Grant. Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling comes from Bristol.

23. The accent and dialect in Bristol is known as Bristolese, or Bristolian, or even as Brizzle or Bristle. An 'l' sound, as in the 'ol' of Bristol, or even a 'w', is added to words ending in 'a' or 'o'.

24. Bristol is 45 miles by boat from Bristol to Cardiff. Might wedding guests sail to your castle wedding at Craig y Nos?

25. Harvey's Bristol Cream Sherry was created in Bristol. J.S. Fry invented the first chocolate bar in Bristol in 1847,

26. Over 25% of the world's Natural History Programmes are made in Bristol, due in part to Bristol being the HQ for the BBC's Natural History Unit.

27. E4's 'Skins' is filmed in Bristol and until recently 'Casualty' was filmed in Bristol.

28. Bristol has won several awards, including the 'UK's first cycling city', and 'European city of the year' as well as 'UK's most sustainable city'.

4. If there are any aircraft enthusiasts among you or your guests, or a connection with aviation or airforce, it might be appropriate to link to the planes built at Bristol, such as the Bristol Fighter, the Blenheim, Beau Figher and Concorde.

5. Link in to Cameron Balloon's various balloons manufactured. You could do a lot with balloons possibly in the evening party room, rather than in the main wedding reception room. Don't forget that at Craiig y Nos Castle you have the use of two separate function rooms for your wedding, so you can decorate the evening function room in a party theme, linked in some way to Bristol - maybe something along the lines of miniatures of the Balloons manufactured by Cameron Balloons.

6. There are plenty of theatres in Bristol; might you tie the names of the theatres in Bristol with the Patti theatre at Craig y Nos Castle, and use these as your wedding guest table names? This would tie in with the theatrical element of the castle and its opera house, lending some relevance to a theatre theme, though this would ideally suit couples or wedding guests involved in some way in the arts or entertainment.

7. Similarly if you have a musical interest, tie in with the names of the various live music venues in Bristol.

8. Tie in with the inventions from Bristol such as Harveys Bristol Cream, Fry's chocolate, Tarmac, Ribena etc.

These are only some of the ideas for wedding venue decoration and wedding themes based on Bristol's past and present. You may come up with plenty more ideas and inspiration from reading the interesting facts about Bristol City on this page.

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