Catbrain

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Catbrain
Gloucestershire

Fields by Elmsleigh Farm near Catbrain
Location
Grid reference: ST575805
Location: 51°31’21"N, 2°36’46"W
Data
Postcode: BS10
Local Government

Catbrain, or Catbrain Hill, is a small village in south-western Gloucestershire, to the north of Bristol. It stands by Cribbs Causeway. A new housing estate has been recently constructed at Catbrain.

At the bottom of the hill the lies Filton airfield.

Name history

The name of the village is from the hill, and that from the Middle English cattes braȝen, which refers to the rough clay mixed with stones that is widespread in the area. Baddesley and Bellows write that 'I think, from what I can gather, that the suffix may possibly refer to certain forms of oolite fossils which the quarrymen grimly liken to brains.'[1] It has been suggested that the particular clay of the distruct gained a name from a supposed resemblance to a cat's brain.[2] There are other Catbrains in Wiltshire, Oxfordshire, Warwickshire, Northamptonshire, Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, and Surrey.[2]

Hazel Brook

The Hazel Brook rises in nearby Cribbs Causeway and its flow into the River Trym is controlled by an attenuation reservoir at Catbrain, which reduces the silt flowing into the system from the many shopping malls in the area.[3] Measurements of pollution by the city council show the water to be relatively clean.[4]

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material
about Catbrain)

References