Henbury was first mentioned in 692 as
Heanburg. The name is from the
Old English hēan byrig, meaning 'high fortified place'. It was mentioned in the
Domesday Book of 1086 as
Henberie. By a charter purported to date from the 690s
Æthelred, king of
Mercia, granted land at Henbury to
Oftfor,
bishop of Worcester, but the authenticity of the charter has been disputed. An 8th century charter grants land at "
Heanburu" to the church at Worcester, but the reference may be to
Hanbury in
Worcestershire. There is more secure evidence that by the 790s Henbury was held by the Bishop of Worcester. Henbury was historically a very large parish and the centre of a
hundred of the same name. The parish extended to the
River Severn and included
King's Weston,
Lawrence Weston,
Hallen,
Charlton,
Pilning,
Northwick and
Aust. When the
civil parish was created in 1866, parts of the ancient parish were separated to form the civil parishes of Redwick and Northwick (later Pilning and Severn Beach) and Aust. The parish of
Compton Greenfield, including the village of
Easter Compton, was added to the civil parish of Henbury in 1885. In 1901, part of the civil parish was absorbed into Bristol, and further parts were absorbed into Bristol between then and 1933. In 1935, the civil parish was abolished, when the remaining parts were absorbed into the civil parishes of Pilning and Severn Beach, and
Almondsbury. In 1931 the parish had a population of 2823.
Botany Bay is an old name for the area of Henbury centred on the modern Marmion Crescent believed to derive from the nineteenth-century name of a row of cottages. The Great House, Henbury was the home of the Astry family, and of the slave or manservant Scipio Africanus (see below). Nearby Henbury Court was built by Thomas Stock to replace the Great House. Henbury Court was demolished in the 1950s. A large council housing estate was built in the area during the 1950s and 1960s to clear slums in central areas of Bristol such as Easton and St Paul's, that at the time, was extremely overpopulated and were considered as slums. A landmark of the skyline in Henbury is the two high-rise tower blocks that overlook the estate. == Churches ==