The first mention of Yate is the existence of a religious house in about AD 770; Yate is also mentioned in the
Domesday Book of 1086. The name is derived from the
Old English word
giete or
gete, meaning 'a gateway into a forest area'. During the
Anglo-Saxon period and well into
medieval times, most of this part of south Gloucestershire was covered with forest. Through the centuries the land was cleared for farming. The town's parish church, St Mary's, dates from Norman times. It was altered during the 15th century and was extensively restored in 1970. St Mary's Primary School, situated outside the churchyard walls, was built on the site of a former
poorhouse. It was the opening of the railway station in 1844, as part of
Bristol and Gloucester Railway, that established Yate, with Station Road becoming the central thoroughfare. The cattle and produce markets were held around this road, and businesses were established there.
Yate railway station was closed by the
Beeching cuts in January 1965, but was reopened in May 1989; the
Brunel-built engine shed is preserved nearby. Major growth in Yate started in the early 1920s with the construction of the Moorland Road estates behind Station Road, close to the
Parnall aeroplane factory. In the 1950s the Ridge housing estate was developed. The area between these estates was still being mined for
celestine and therefore could not be built on until the mineral had been extracted. In the 1960s Yate was designated as a development area and the building boom began. The creation of a new town included a large retail shopping area, sports and leisure development together with public buildings. In the 1960s the area around Stanshawes was exhausted of celestine and the housing boom started with the major construction taking place in the south. Much of this development was planned using the
Radburn model, a design that created a vehicle-free environment by the use of green spaces and linking paths at the front of the houses. This model was used until the late 1980s and early 1990s, when the planners reverted to traditional street design methods for the development of the remainder of North Yate, Brimsham Park and the Newmans factory site. When a secondary school was built in the late 1970s, it was supposed to be called Brinsham Green School, after Brinsham Lane at nearby Yate Rocks. Owing to a spelling error, however, it was in fact called
Brimsham Green School. The town further expanded in the 1990s and 2000s with the construction of housing at North Yate. This housing estate continued to use the corrupted name of Brimsham. To locals the area is known as Brimsham Park.
Yate railway yard During the
Second World War, a railway transfer yard was constructed for the
United States Army, probably as part of
Operation Bolero to assist the buildup of troops and stores before
D-Day. Two large storage sheds survived on the site until 2008. At the end of the Second World War, the site was taken over by the
Royal Navy and became known as the Sea Transport Stores Depot. It was occupied by the
Highways Agency until the sheds were demolished for development.
Oxford Archaeology has been commissioned to undertake an investigation as to the military significance of this site. The opinion of Bristol Industrial Archaeological Society has also been sought. ==Administration==