Geograph - photograph every grid square

The monumental crescent on the heights of Clifton was completed over a protracted period at the beginning of the 19th century after the financial uncertainty of the Napoleonic Wars caused several investors to fail. One who suffered severe losses was William Watts of Redcliffe, having committed much of his money from the manufacture of lead shot.

It is said that Watts's wife had had a dream in which she saw drops of molten lead falling and that this was the genesis of her husband's invention of the shot tower (one of which he erected in his Bristol garden). He patented the invention in 1792 and made a fortune but, sadly, never recovered from the property crash.