Stapleton is an area in the northeastern suburbs of the city of Bristol, England. The name is colloquially used today to describe the ribbon village along Bell Hill and Park Road in the Frome Valley. It borders Eastville to the South and Begbrook and Frenchay to the North. It comprises an eclectic mix of housing mainly from the Victorian, Edwardian, inter-war and late 20th century periods. It is a popular residential area on three counts. It is convenient for the M32 motorway (with rapid access the M4 and M5), it is a semi rural area within two miles of central Bristol and it boasts a popular public school. Stapleton's church is a prominent Bristol landmark, visible from the M32 motorway as motorists pass by. History The name is from the Old English word "stapol" meaning post and "ton" meaning settlement. The antiquary John Weever, quoting the 16th-century Tuscan merchant Lodovico Guicciardini, defined a staple town "to be a place, to which by the prince's authority and privilege wool, hides of beasts, wine, corn or grain, and other exotic or foreign merchandize are transferred, carried or conveyed to be sold". In European historiography, the term "staple" refers to the entire medieval system of trade and its taxation. Under this system, the government or the ruler required that all overseas trade in certain goods be transacted at specific designated market "staple towns" or ports, referred to as the "staple ports". The ancient parish of Stapleton covered Fishponds and Eastville and was originally within Kingswood Forest. The Saxon hamlet of Stapleton, first documented in 1208, stood at the edge of the forest, just north of the River Frome. Finds of Roman coins point to even earlier habitation. Even in the 18th century, it was still heavily wooded. The hamlet was donated to Tewkesbury Abbey in 1174 by William, Earl of Gloucester. By the late 16th century, it was the property of the Berkeley family of Stoke Gifford, and was passed down to the Duke of Beaufort who retained the estate until the early 20th century, selling it in 1917. Stapleton was enclosed in 1781, Stapleton Common being sold as 9 lots, mostly to the Duke of Beaufort. Stapleton, then in Gloucestershire, became a civil parish in 1866, but in 1898 the parish was abolished and absorbed into Bristol. Mining Coal was mined in the area, there being some 70 pits by 1700, and