Catbrain Hill, simply known as Catbrain, is a small village in
South Gloucestershire
South Gloucestershire is a unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of Gloucestershire, South West England. Towns in the area include Yate, Chipping Sodbury, Kingswood, Thornbury, Filton, Patchway and Bradley Stoke. The southern p ...
, England, part of the suburban
North Fringe of Bristol. It is located near
Cribbs Causeway, on a road that contains many car dealerships. A new
housing estate
A housing estate (or sometimes housing complex, housing development, subdivision (land), subdivision or community) is a group of homes and other buildings built together as a single development. The exact form may vary from country to count ...
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. It comes from the Middle English "Cattes Brazen", referring to a rough clay mix used in soil at the time. There are other Catbrains in Wiltshire, Oxfordshire, Warwickshire, Northamptonshire, Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Gloucestershire and Surrey. Catbrain has frequently been noted on lists of
unusual place names, within the UK and beyond.
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.
Measurements of pollution by the city council are made monthly.
See also
Catbrain attenuation reservoir
References
{{South Gloucestershire
Villages in South Gloucestershire District
Areas of Bristol