Catbrain Hill, simply known as Catbrain, is a small village in England north of the city of
Bristol, within the county of
South Gloucestershire. It is located near
Cribbs Causeway, on a road that contains many car dealerships. A new
housing estate has been recently constructed at Catbrain, with more developments nearby underway as of 2022. At the bottom of the hill lies the runway of the former
Bristol Filton Airport.
The area belongs to the postcode area BS10.
Name history
"Cat's brain" is a common name for fields in the south of England, and likely indicates soil type (the rough stony clay found here supposedly resembling
feline brain matter).
There are other Catbrains in Wiltshire, Oxfordshire, Warwickshire, Northamptonshire, Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, and Surrey.
[ Catbrain has frequently been noted on lists of ]unusual place names
Unusual place names are names for cities, towns, and other regions which are considered non-ordinary in some manner. This can include place names which are also offensive words, inadvertently humorous or highly charged words, as well as place ...
, within the UK and beyond.
Hazel Brook
The Hazel Brook rises in nearby Cribbs Causeway and its flow into the River Trym
A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...
is controlled by an attenuation reservoir at Catbrain, which reduces the silt flowing into the system from the many shopping malls in the area.
See also
Catbrain attenuation reservoir
References
{{South Gloucestershire
Villages in South Gloucestershire District
Areas of Bristol