Church of St Philip and St Jacob

Details

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 30 November 2022 to amend the description, remove superfluous source details from text and to reformat the text to current standards

ST5973
901-1/40/298

BRISTOL
TOWER HILL (east side)
Church of St Philip and St Jacob

08/01/59

II*
Church. Early C13 chancel, nave and lower tower, mid C15 north chancel aisle and upper tower, nave altered 1764, north and south stair turrets to the nave, north porches and refenestration of 1836; restored 1850 by William Armstrong.

MATERIALS: Pennant rubble with limestone dressings; roof not visible.

PLAN: originally cruciform, the south transept now forms the base of the tower; unclerestoreyed nave and low, gabled aisles, chancel and north chancel aisle, and two north porches. Early English Gothic chancel and lower tower, Perpendicular Gothic north chancel aisle and upper tower, Perpendicular Gothic Revival-style nave.

EXTERIOR: C19 five-light east window and c1450 three-light window with ogee heads to the chancel aisle. Three bay north elevation of the chancel aisle has windows at the east end separated by buttresses, and a 1836 raised brick parapet and obelisk pinnacles; C19 porch with angle buttresses at the west end. Three bay south side of chancel has C15 two-light square-headed windows with cinquefoil ogee-heads. Five bay nave of tall C19 square-headed windows with two- and three-lights and trefoil heads beneath label moulds, the centre projecting stair turret, with a crenellated parapet and obelisk pinnacles; C19 porch at the west end has angle buttresses and a moulded door in a label with king's head stops and blank spandrels. Four stage tower, stepped at the upper stages, with pronounced flat, clasping buttresses and additional buttressing to the ground floor; on the south west corner is a square stair turret; small C17 panelled south door has a four-centred arch in a slightly projecting doorcase, with a drip mould above, and a large quatrefoil window with a hoodmould; a small lancet to the second stage, and paired blind lancets with chamfered reveals and attached shafts to flared capitals on the third stage; C15 belfry has louvred two-light windows with a central mullion and a clock above, a crenellated parapet with pinnacles and a panelled octagonal spirelet to the stair turret. The south aisle has a smaller central projecting stair turret forming a full-height bay with a two-light window. West end with mid C19 three-light Perpendicular windows to the aisles, and a similar tall five-light nave window, with a band of quatrefoil panels, hoodmould with unusual head stops, and a crenellated parapet, ramped up to the centre section of two pinnacles linked by a trefoil balustrade.

INTERIOR: a raised chancel with a C19 marble panelled reredos, three blind four-centred arches to the north with half-round shafts and a narrow soffit of trefoil panels, and the base of a winder stair to the former rood screen; the west pier is hollowed for a pulpit stair. The base of the tower has a tall blocked lancet with deep embrasures to the east; the arch to the south aisle has three attached shafts with stiffleaf capitals and an outer continuous arch; vestigial ribs and springers with black marble shafts and stiffleaf capitals of a demolished vault. Pointed chancel arch, and arches at the ends of the aisles with attached shafts to leaf capitals, and outer continuous arches; above the north aisle arch (to the old north transept) is a blocked lancet window with continuous moulding. A three bay nave arcade of wide segmental arches with moulded, square piers without capitals; the alternate piers were removed and the arches probably altered in the C18. Fine waggon roof, with bosses, on carved corbels, similar ones in the south aisle; arch-braced north chancel aisle roof.

FITTINGS: Laudian fittings including a fine pulpit and sounding board of 1631 having a moulded octagonal stone base with a two-tier oak top of arched panels, with a dentil cornice and caryatids at the angles; a fine square font cover dated 1623, having two tiers of open arched sides and a top of eight brackets to a finial, on a Norman font with a square scalloped basin; a fine communion table.

MEMORIALS: chancel: tablet of 1722 by Gilbert Barcroft originally in tribute to his two children. Barcroft's name added following his death in 1754, marble cartouche with cherubs holding drapes above a skull, and a number of late C18 and early C19 tablets. Chapel aisle: C14 head of a knight built into the wall; the upper half of the effigy of knight, c1470, 'which must, when complete, have been one of the largest effigies in England' (Little); wall monument to Richard Nelms d.1789, a square base surmounted by a pyramid with a classical figure in a panel, with drapes above. A similar wall monument to John Foyle d.1771, a moulded panel with balls on the sides, beneath a pyramid with head reliefs, by James Paty Jnr. Four other marble tablets. At the west end is a large wall monument to Henry Merrett d.1692, a marble aedicule with barleysugar columns and Corinthian capitals, a swan neck pediment containing a swagged segmental plinth and a cartouche, and in the centre is a half figure within an oval wreath, with skulls beneath and an apron. Various hatchments in the nave, a book of the Ten Commandments c1700 above the tower door, and a carved coat of arms of Queen Anne above the west porch. Glass: Day memorial window, 1856.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: eight bells from 1789. The south east extension was built in 1986. The projecting nave wings were built in 1836 for staircases to the galleries, which were removed in 1876.

Listing NGR: ST5949173003

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

380710

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: North Somerset and Bristol, (1958), 407
Gomme, A H, Jenner, M, Little, B D G, Bristol, An Architectural History, (1979), 20,22,60
Little, B, Churches in Bristol, (1978), 11

End of official list entry

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