The Frenchay Connection: Bristol

You can get to Bristol from here...

Clifton Suspension Bridge
Or perhaps you would like to read about the Bristol Oscar Winners:

Cary Grant, (real name Archibald Alexander Leach) who was born in Bristol in 1904;
and Aardman Animation , who made The Wrong Trousers, A Grand Day Out and Creature Comforts.

Congratulations to Aardman for the four British Animation Awards they received on 8 February 1996 for their latest Wallace and Gromit epic A Close Shave , and to Nick Park at Aardman for their third Academy Award on 25 March 1996.

Incidentally, Bristol City Council are about to erect a plaque in honour of Cary Grant at Fairfield Grammar School in Montpelier, even though he was expelled! And Aardman get their plaque in Gas Ferry Road.

On the subject of Aardman, not everyone was pleased with the plans on a new housing estate to name two of the roads Wallace Walk and Gromit Grove!

Aardman have got together with the University of the West of England, Bristol, to form a school for animators.

And a last point: the Bristol Christmas lights for 1996 will have a Wallace and Gromit theme...

Dave Taylor, Frenchay, Bristol, UK. email: d.taylor@dial.pipex.com