Tucked away in a surprisingly tranquil location, sandwiched between St Mary Redcliffe church and Phoenix Wharf, is a small, triangular piece of land known as the Quaker’s Burial Ground.

As the name suggests this was the burial ground for the city’s Quaker population, from when it was established in 1665 until the final burial in 1923.

Now a public park, the area still holds one of the most intriguing remnants from Bristol’s history - The Hermit’s Cave.

The manmade cave was carved into the soft, sandstone rocks during the 14th century and in 1346 became home to its first hermit - a man named John Sparkes.

Sparkes was employed to live a solitary life where he would pray for the fortunes and good health of his master, Thomas Lord Berkeley and would in return be paid in food and shelter.

Although he was the first, John Sparkes was not the last hermit to take up residence in the cave. Over the centuries, this small alcove was the home of a succession of men who had chosen a humble life of self-denial and devotion.

Quakers Burial Ground

Very little is known of these hermits but by the 18th century the park had become a burial ground for the city’s large and influential Quaker population and the hermitage ceased to be used.

Although many of the most prominent Bristol Quaker families profited from the West African slave trade in its early years, they eventually became amongst the first religious organisations to oppose it.

Their campaigns in Bristol are thought to have played a major role in turning the public’s opinion against the trade in human beings.

By the 1920s the small burial ground was not only extremely crowded but seemed something of an extravagance for an organisation which now supported cremation as a means of body disposal and the plot of land was gifted to the city in the 1950s.

An eerie reminder of what happened next can be found in the Hermit’s Cave, where almost 180 headstones are now piled up behind the railings.

To allow for road expansions, it was decided the plot of land would become a small park and the headstones would be removed.

Few people when they visit this quiet green space are aware that beneath their feet are still buried the remains of countless bodies which were never exhumed.

Weird Bristol

Since early 2017, Bristol-based author Charlie Revelle-Smith has curated the @WeirdBristol feeds on Twitter and Instagram, in which he documents the secret, hidden and lesser-known history of Bristol.

His latest book Weird Bristol: The Ultimate Guide to a City’s Secrets is available in paperback and ebook from Amazon.