This tale has been published elsewhere but without any evidence of sources. It may still be a folk tale or urban legend much like the Bristol Crocodile, but this is what I have been able to find out. Arachnophobes may want to look away now…
This story takes place in 1714 in Baldwin Street, Bristol. George Braque, a cooper, invited some friends to join him for the evening and they took their pipes into the garden. They intended to sit outside near a Summer House but finding it rather cooler than expected decided to go inside the Summer House. When they entered they discovered what they took to be an enormous cobweb. It stretched some 3½ feet from the top and from one side of the Summer House to the other.
The Summer House had been swept out a week or so previously with nothing untoward having been found. They (bravely?) searched for the web’s creator but (thankfully?) found nothing. The news of this spread and people came from far and wide to see it and unfortunately to take souvenirs, so it didn’t last.
That is the basic story, so what else do we know?
The earliest mention of the story that I can find comes from the “Annals of Bristol in the Eighteenth Century” published in 1893. This was compiled from official papers and from texts in the libraries of local notables. Much of this has probably been lost subsequently. I suspect that the original story circulated as word of mouth or at best as cheap, ephemeral broadsheets. Newspapers for the time were few and don’t seem to have survived for the year of 1714.
The story given in the Annals is basically as I have described it above. Again no detailed source is given.
The other evidence is from the collection of George Weare Braikenridge (1775–1856), an antiquarian who lived in Broomwell House, Brislington and collected a large collection of pictures, engravings and ephemera relating to Bristol and its history, sufficient to fill 36 portfolios. Amongst this is a handwritten document, recounting this tale. This document was written by another notable Antiquarian and scholar, Alexander Catcott, and is dated 1771 and confirmed in 1776. (Thanks to Bristol Central Library for access to this.)
“N.B. the foregoing account was given by Mrs A Bragge (Daughter of the before mentioned George Bragge) who upon seeing the (?) drawing of the web, which is a true Copy of the original done by Mr. Henry Blundell, in 1714, when it was in its (?) perfection, said it was an exact representation. She had procured a piece of the cobweb, together with a brief account written when (?) part of which she confessed to my brother Alex Catcott January 7, 1771.
N.B. She also confirmed the Truth of the above to me George Catcott, October 1776.”
(The questions marks in the above and following quotes are where I can’t decipher the original handwriting.)
From this account and the Annals, the house in Baldwin Street were this happened was between the junction with St Stephen Street (as it was then) and Queen Charlotte Street. The maps below show the street layout and cover the same area.
You can see which houses had gardens which narrows down where this house would have been.
According to the Annals the house had been in use by some of the conspirators of the Rye House Plot of 1683, an attempt to assassinate Charles II. This may have been John Roe (or Row or Rowe) who was one of the main conspirators in Bristol. This may also account for the description in the Braikenridge account for the ‘Crown and Globe’ ornament in the Summer House, a symbol of royalty.
According to this account…
“The rest … said, why have you just put up a Hatband round the Crown and Globe for the Queen? Mr. Braque upon seeing it, was much affected, and imagining it to be an Omen that some of his own Family would soon die, said no hands put it up. They soon discovered that it was a Cobweb spun enormous size, curiously wove round the Globe, which hanging a considerable way beneath it.”
“The cobweb hung from the Centre of the arched ceiling (surrounding a wooden Crown and Globe) measured 3 feet from the top to the bottom & was so capacious, that a man’s hat (?) might freely be passed up the Diamond at the lower part of the Globe.”
“The whole (?) was of a dark black colour entire (?) throughout…
Curiosity drew multitudes of people to see it, and some desirous to destroy it, and others to (?)(?) they were each tempted to (?) use it till at last a Bird which accidentally flew into the Summer House, pitched upon it, & by the fluttering of its wings, greatly damaged the whole; however part of it remained for more than ten years.”
None of the souvenirs have survived and the story doesn’t even seem to have been repeated down the years. I can find no trace of this in any surviving newspapers. So where did this tale come from? It doesn’t seem to match any elements of spider folklore. Did this have some symbolic meaning to people living in 1714 that has since been lost? For the moment this will have to be filed alongside the Bristol Crocodile of more recent times.
References
- Latimer, John. The Annals of Bristol in the Eighteenth Century. 1893. p106
https://archive.org/details/annalsbristolin02latigoog/page/106/mode/2up?q=cobweb - Cobweb -illustration of a remarkable cobweb found in Bristol MS.
Braikenridge. Vol. XVIII. Page: 651-2. Bristol Central Library - A map of Bristol in 1728, based on an earlier 1673 map by James Millerd
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Millerd%27s_Map_of_Bristol#/media/File:Millerd1728full.jpg - Know Your Place, Bristol
https://maps.bristol.gov.uk/kyp/?edition= - Revelle-Smith, Charlie. Weird Bristol. Independently Published, 2018.
