Details
BRISTOL
ST5678NW CHURCH CLOSE, Henbury
901-1/17/1323 (South side)
08/01/59 Church of St Mary the Virgin
GV II*
Church. c1200 nave and lower tower, early C13 upper tower,
chancel and S chapel. N chapel and restoration by T Rickman
1836, further restoration by GE Street in 1875-7.
MATERIALS: Pennant rubble with limestone dressings and a slate
roof.
PLAN: chancel with chapels, aisled nave with porches and W
tower. Late Norman doorways to S and N, much restored Early
English nave, chancel and tower, Perpendicular Gothic
Revival-style nave windows.
EXTERIOR: chancel, set obliquely to nave, has an E gable with
5 stepped lancets, and a low C19 north vestry with
segmental-arched door and 3-light window in a label mould and
parapet; the E gables of the chapels have C19
Perpendicular-style 4-light windows with panel tracery.
C19 north chapel has 3 stepped lancets with head and foliate
hood stops and a diagonally-set E buttress; 3-bay N aisle has
varied buttresses, 3-light Perpendicular windows at each end
and a central window with 4 ogee-headed lights in a square
head above the porch, and a C19 crenellated brick parapet; the
crenellated porch has an arch and hood with a steel ogee gate
and brick parapet; inside is an important early C13
segmental-arched doorway with moulded doorway reveals, a
stilted arch on attached shafts and trumpet capitals and outer
moulded reveal, and a small trefoil-headed niche with
crockets; clerestory of c1300 has trefoil-headed windows.
The S chapel has 2 triple stepped lancet windows, and an
octagonal ashlar stack behind the parapet. S aisle as the N,
with a wide porch with trefoil-headed side windows with
splayed inside reveals.
A massive square 3-stage tower the width of the nave has a
much restored trefoil-headed doorway and matching hoodmould,
under a 3-light plate tracery window of 3 stepped lancets and
trefoil spandrels; narrow second-stage lancet, and 2-light
belfry windows with Y-tracery and ogee heads; corner gargoyles
and a C19 parapet of coursed Lias; on the N side is a shallow,
square stair turret with arrow slits, and an octagonal clock
in a label mould with the inscription PULBRIS ET UMBRA SUMUS;
N aisle has a wide, plain 4-light window with vestigial
cinquefoil heads and a label mould with face stops; the S
aisle has a W window as those on the sides.
INTERIOR: C19 reredos of cuspate panels, side buttresses and a
foliate frieze; C13 piscina has a cavetto-moulded arch forming
a cusp at the top, in a semicircular arch on attached shafts
and bell capitals; the E window has a pointed rere arch with
banded shafts. 3-bay chancel has square-section pointed arches
on square columns with half-round shafts to each face, and a
waggon roof with cuspate principal rafters; tall matching
chancel arch.
6-bay Transitional nave of round shafts to round bases,
slightly raised on the N side, round moulded capitals and
square-section gently pointed arches; C19 east bay and good
C13 respond corbels at the W end, either side of the
triple-chamfered arch to the tower, with no capitals and
widely splayed reveals; deep, splayed clerestory windows with
wide trefoil-headed rere arches, set above alternate piers;
C19 stilted waggon roof, the principals decorated with sunken
quatrefoils; the aisle roofs bear on good corbel heads,
painted to the S: the N aisle is pitched, the S a shallow
tie-beam roof.
FITTINGS: Coat of Arms; octagonal black marble font 1806; C19
round, stone pulpit, with pointed and trefoil panels; brass
eagle lecturn; C19 choir stalls with open, cusped fronts.
MEMORIALS: C17, C18 and C19 monuments include a wall monument
to Robert Southwell, d.1633, a marble panel and curved obelisk
with child's heads, shield and urn finial; wall monument to ?
Elizabeth Cromwell, d.1674, by Grinling Gibbons, a wide
sarcophagus with a gadrooned top, and an obelisk under a
baldacchino with wide drapes held by putti; wall monument to
Edward Capel, d.1681, an oval panel in a scrolled surround
with swag, winged cherubs and a shield; wall monument to
Edward Sampson, d.1695, a panel with flowers and gadrooned
base, apron with a shield and winged skull, and a segmental
pediment with cherubs and an urn; wall monument to Edward
Southwell, d.1705, a black panel, apron and sides with
rocaille, and an obelisk with garlands and finial; wall
monument to John Astrey, d.1712, an aedicule with fluted
Corinthian pilasters, rocaille apron and a top with cherubs to
a foliated shield; wall monument to Christopher Cole, d.1736,
a marble aedicule with a swept top above the entablature; wall
monument, inscription lost, with a sarcophagus bearing a
rotund urn, backed by an obelisk with swag and a cartouche;
wall monument to John Sampson d.1753, a pedimented panel in
coloured marble with bracketed sides and an apron, and an
obelisk with swag and palm leaves; wall monument to Mary
Teast, d.1766, by Drewett 1790, a marble panel with fluted
sides and slate obelisk with relief of a female figure leaning
on a vase; wall monument to Catherine Lewis, d.1782, a
pointed-arched panel flanked by urns on a slate background;
wall monument to Edward Sampson, d.1795, a panel with apron
and shield, and acroteria to an obelisk with a draped urn;
wall monument to Catherine Cave, d.1836, a bowed panel to an
obelisk with a bowl of flowers and a dove and clouds in
relief.
(The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: North Somerset and
Bristol: London: 1958-: 466; Gomme A, Jenner M and Little B:
Bristol, An Architectural History: Bristol: 1979-: 20).
Listing NGR: ST5633278790
