Church of St John the Baptist and St John's Gate

Details

BRISTOL

ST5873SE BROAD STREET, Centre 901-1/11/536 (North West side) 08/01/59 Church of St John the Baptist and St John's Gate

GV I

Church and gateway. C14 and C15; late C16 vestry; narthex and side gateways formed c1820. Rubble with limestone dressings and limestone ashlar tower and spire. Nave, chancel and E vestry, and W tower over gateway. Perpendicular Gothic style. The E end forms a party wall. The N elevation includes at the E end St John's conduit, 2 lion heads and a tap below a carved panel of beasts to a shield inscribed 1866, recessed beneath a C19 four-centred arch dying into the jambs; above are 3 hemi-octagonal attached shafts below a C15 canted oriel window with cinquefoil lights and a crenellated cornice; to the W is an octagonal chimney on a carved corbel with a rendered stack; a deep drip over the C14 crypt of 6 bays, refenestrated with low, C15 three-light Tudor-arched windows, the W one blocked, and a small Tudor-arched ribbed door; 2-bay late C15 chancel of 3-light windows with a shallow buttress in between; C14 four-bay nave of larger 3-light windows, and a short 4-light Tudor-arched clerestory window above the first bay, with a crenellated parapet. S elevation of the chancel is 3 bays, windows as the N side with 2 doorways at either end with chamfered Tudor arches, that to the E is C19; at the W end of the chancel the nave steps out and is linked by an angled wall on corbels; the S nave is similar to the N but without the crypt windows. At the W end is the gateway: the N elevation has a tall moulded C14 arch brought forward with a crenellated parapet, and 3 chamfered orders separated by hollow moulds; either side are two C19 lower arches, with quatrefoil panels and head stops to label moulds, the E one under the end of the nave, the W beneath a parapeted wall. The S side of the central gateway has flanking niches with restored hoods and painted statues of Brennus and Bellinus, the mythical founders of Bristol, each holding an orb and sceptre; shields and a Royal Arms to the parapet above, and painted shield label stops to the outer arches; the E arch is paired with the entrance to the church, which has a C19 ribbed door with strap hinges. The main gateway has a ribbed fan vault with bell hole, the side gateways a ridge rib and drips each side. 2-stage tower has diagonal buttresses, a lower window with 2 trefoil-headed lights, a central clock and tall 2-light belfry windows, gargoyles below a crenellated parapet and crocketed pinnacles; octagonal spire with a midway foliate drip and a finial. INTERIOR: crypt in 2 sections: that to E is 3 bays, a tierceron vault with bosses on attached shafts with capitals; ogee memorial niche in S wall flanked by crocket finials, and 2 further plain, depressed ogee niches in N wall under windows; W section is 2 bays, with a more complex tierceron ribbed vault with bosses but no shafts, a fine ogee-arched memorial niche in S wall with cusping, shields to the spandrel below the label, and shields to the panelled front; 2 stoops, by door and in SW corner with a projecting shield. 2-bay chancel with relief crenellation across the middle of E wall, and 3 fine Tudor-arched studded doors with raised lozenges in panels, to each side and to S; billet moulding below the windows, and an arch and steps up behind the S chancel arch pier to the pulpit; 6-bay nave has splayed window reveals and attached shafts between the bays, with painted octagonal capitals; the raised E bay has clerestory windows to former rood loft and a C15 roof with tie beams and posts to angel corbels, while the rest has a timber cornice to a shallow C15 arch-braced collar beam roof; narthex with open-well stair of 1883 to the organ loft. FITTINGS: fine Laudian fittings include a very good communion table of 1635 with 6 legs and stretchers, a gated altar rail with twisted banisters, a plain panelled chest, 2 lecterns with scrolled brackets and guilloche moulding to the top, pews of 1621 with doors and a partially restored C17 west screen and organ loft with painted panels and fluted pilasters; brass 2-sided lectern c1690, and a C18 wrought-iron sword rest; a fine 1624 font has a square base on lion's feet, brackets to a basin, Greek cross in plan, with winged heads and roses, and an oak cover with 8 ogee brackets and a dove on top. A rare hour-glass (held in the City Museum) from the time of the Commonwealth is attached beside the octagonal pulpit with tracery panels and Tudor flowers. Memorials include a wall tablet, the Rowley Brass, to Thomas Rowley d.1478, with inscribed figures; table tomb to Walter Frampton d.1388 in an elliptical-arched recess in the chancel, with painted shields to the front panels and a recumbent praying effigy; wall tablet to Andrew Innys d.1723 signed by Rysbrack with flanking columns and cherub's heads. One of 4 churches built along the line of the town walls. Walter Frampton was chief benefactor for St John's until his death in 1388. The crypt provided space for guild or chantry chapels, another example of a crypt standing in the Church of St Nicholas (qv). (Gomme A, Jenner M and Little B: Bristol, An Architectural History: Bristol: 1979-: 53, 75, 89, 417; The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: North Somerset and Bristol: London: 1958-: 390; Hurst H C M: History of the Church of St John the Baptist: Bristol; Braikenridge Collection: View of the north side of St John the Baptist: Bristol: 1820-).

Listing NGR: ST5875573167

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

379019

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: North Somerset and Bristol, (1958), 390
Gomme, A H, Jenner, M, Little, B D G, Bristol, An Architectural History, (1979), 53
Gomme, A H, Jenner, M, Little, B D G, Bristol, An Architectural History, (1979), 75
Gomme, A H, Jenner, M, Little, B D G, Bristol, An Architectural History, (1979), 89
Gomme, A H, Jenner, M, Little, B D G, Bristol, An Architectural History, (1979), 417
Hurst, HCM, History of the Church of St John the Baptist Bristol, ()

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