Celebrating Handel Cossham

A CONFERENCE is being held to mark the bi-centenary of the birth of Handel Cossham.

The industrialist, philanthropist, educationalist and politician, who left money to found Cossham Hospital following his death in 1890, owned local collieries including Parkfield and Brandy Bottom, which lie beneath the area from Lyde Green to Pucklechurch.

The conference is being held in Thornbury, the town where Cossham was born in 1824, at Turnberrie’s Community Centre in Bath Road on April 13 from 10am to 4.30pm.

Organised by Avon Local History & Archaeology and Bristol & Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, places can be booked online at www.alha.org.uk, via Eventbrite or by writing to William Evans, 5 Parry’s Grove, Bristol BS9 1TT.