[2] In 1857, concerned by Victorian-built houses encroaching on the open space as the city expanded, the Bristol Corporation acquired commoners' rights on the downs, and exercised them the following year by grazing sheep.

In November 1910 a Bristol Boxkite, which had been recently built by the British and Colonial Aeroplane Company's factory at the nearby village of Filton, landed on Durdham Down.

[6] The Down features clumps of scrubby hawthorns, the avenues of massive horse-chestnuts, the flat swathes of grass and the elegant bordering of Victorian houses.

The preamble to the 1861 Act noted that the Downs had 'been used as a place of public resort and recreation since time immemorial' and the intent was to safeguard this use.

Nowadays the sporting tradition carries on with the Bristol Downs Football League playing on permanently laid out pitches.

The Gloucestershire County Cricket Club played its initial first-class match, which was against Surrey CCC, at Durdham Down on 2, 3 and 4 June 1870.