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is a town in Grafton County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 3,033 at the 2000 census. It is home to Wellington State Park and Sugar Hill State Forest. Surrounded by hills and lakes, Bristol includes the lower two-thirds of Newfound Lake, a resort area. The primary settlement in town, where over 55% of the population resides, is defined by the U.S. Census Bureau as the Bristol census-designated place (CDP) and is located at the intersection of New Hampshire Routes 3A and 104.
The town was incorporated in 1819. Extensive deposits of fine sand or clay similar to the "Bristol sand" used in Bristol, England to make fine china and pottery gave the town its name. Here the sand was used to make a superior quality brick, marketed as "Bristol brick." With water power from the Pemigewasset River, the town was a center of manufacturing in the early days for goods such as paper, leather, woolens, flannel, bedsteads and piano stools.
Bristol is one of four towns with shoreline on Newfound Lake, which has been a tourist destination since the mid-1800s. Farmers at first rented rooms and provided meals, but in the 1870s, hotels including the Hotel Bristol and G.G. Brown Hotel were built. In the 1920s, W.F. Darling created a compound of about 100 cottages for rent, first known as "Hiland Park" and later as "Bungalo Village". In 2004, the compound was sold to a proprietor who sold individual cottages to permanent owners.