The Knowhere Guide

Local Heroes in Thornbury, Gloucestershire*

Thornbury, Gloucestershire Famous Residents

Cringing Cult of Celebrity (Famous residents and ex-residents.)

• The shop on the TV show "Open All Hours" with Ronnie Barker is said to be based on L.E. Riddiford's, a shop on the high street. Apparently Mr Barker was staying in the castle at the time, and went for a walk at some god-awful time in the morning, discovering that Riddiford's is regularly open into the wee small hours. Riddiford's has a website if you're interested, just google for riddifords thornbury.
• Martin Blunos now owns a restaurant in Bath which is in the Michelin Guide. He has been on TV regularly as a judge on the food programme Master Chef and other food programmes. He lived in Thornbury and attended the Castle School 1971-1976.
• I once saw richard wilson in a land rover, and my mate chased the manager of birmingham city FC up the high street a coupla months ago!
• Kermit the frog was to be seen staggering from the white lion
• Princess Diana came to Thornbury and Michaela Strachan got married at Thornbury Castle, also Henry the 8th and one of his wives stayed at the castle to Escape the Black Plague so there!
• What about John Craven. He used to live in Thornbury.
• I think Rob was a bit harsh about the poor show of celebrities in Thornbury. For one thing, TV detective/antique dealer Lovejoy used to regularly purchase a whole range of sandwiches from the local bakery, and I'm sure I saw Sean Connery walking his dog just metres from where Rob lives. Also, walking back from the pub one night I heard the Cockney tones of "Open the bloody door, woman!", obviously Michael Cane. Ex-English Teacher and now (rumoured) NCP Car Park attendent Mr Quaz, is close, as he looks kinda like Tony Target off News West. And, actor Tony Britton used to go to the local secondary school, "The Castle School", and that bits true! I think.
• Angus Deaton once came to Thornbury Castle. And apparently he liked it too.
• None. Ex-Bristol City manager (and complete defensively obsessed moron) Russell Osman lives in the nearby village of Tortworth and has been seen in Thornbury on several occasions. Apart from him, and Mrs E.M. Stuart (mad religious woman, see above) Thornbury has no famous residents, and never has.

Buskers, Street Entertainers

• Glass dodging, every Friday night...
• Apart from mad religious woman, who always tries to start singing hymns in the High Street until dragged off by the police, there are no regular street entertainers. However it has been known to happen occasionally.

The Knowhere Guide started out as a list of places to skateboard in the UK. It is a compilation of (unedited) information and views supplied by users like yourself. It is not a conventional tourist guide!

In most cases, the information in each section has been submitted by more than one contributor (the credits at the bottom of the page list some, but not all, of the contributors) and some of it dates back to the 1970s.

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Credits

Last updated: 2006-10-25