Situated on the grass verge near the junction of Bellevue Road/Wells Road (Very close to Three Lamps)
Ravenswell is the source of a medieval water pipe in Bristol. In 1370 the monks of Austin Friars who were
building a religious house in Temple Parish (the area around Temple Meads Station and the leaning tower of
Temple Church) negotiated a grant of spring water from Sir John de Gourney whose family had acquired the Manor of Knowle. The monks constructed a reservoir and a conduit to conduct the water from the Pylle Hill area to Temple Gate so that the Friars would have access to pure water.
Medieval monasteries were notable for water engineering innovation, and Temple Pipe is one of several such spring-to-monastery conduits in Bristol. The water was intended for the use of the orders but where there was an excess the use was extended to local parishioners. The top water-collection chambers of the conduit are subterranean, several metres below ground level and are located beneath the lower end of Cambridge Street in Totterdown.