Blaise Estate lies in the parish of Henbury in North Bristol. It takes its name from St. Blasius,
a Bishop of Sebaste in Armenia and the patron saint of wool-combers. In the 13th century a
chapel dedicated to St. Blasius was built on the hill where the gothic folly known as Blaise Castle
stands today. The folly, which also stands on the site of both a Roman temple and an Iron Age
hill fort, was built in 1766. It was designed by Robert Mylne for Thomas Farr, a merchant who
became mayor of Bristol in 1775. Farr had bought the estate in 1762 from the Smyth family of
Ashton Court, but was bankrupted as a result of the American War of Independence and sold
the estate to Denham Skeate of Bath in 1778.