Details
BRISTOL
ST5873SE CORN STREET, Centre
901-1/11/575 (South side)
08/01/59 Church of All Saints
(Formerly Listed as:
CORN STREET
(South side)
Church of All Saints with the Glebe
House)
GV II*
Church, now study centre. Early C12 west end of nave, C15 east
nave and aisles, 1716 north-east tower by William Paul,
completed by George Townesend, lantern rebuilt by Luke Henwood
in 1807, chancel rebuilt mid C19. Pennant rubble and Bath
stone ashlar.
C12 west nave; C15 work forms an unclerestoreyed hall church,
with W aisled nave; chancel and NE tower. The two W nave bays
are Norman, the remaining are Perpendicular Gothic; early
Georgian tower. 5-light E window is hidden by adjoining
buildings. The base of the 4-stage tower has pilasters with
moulded caps flanking a round-arched window, surrounded by
rustication, within a larger arch with coved reveals and a
key; a 3-light segmental-arched window to the second stage
within an open segmental pediment on pilasters, and a 3-light
Perpendicular-style third-stage window, with a hood and head
stops; the tall belfry has a raised louvred oculus set in a
sunken panel; at the top a balustrade with corner urns
surrounds a raised octagonal cupola with paired Corinthian
shafts to an entablature, which breaks back over tall open
arches, with urns above; dome with ball and urn finial and a
gilded ball and cross.
The S chancel has three 3-light windows with square stops, set
within the traces of a larger window, with door with a timber
label in between. Mid C15 three-bay N elevation, a weathered
plinth with buttresses rising through an open quatrefoil
parapet to crocketed pinnacles, large 4-light windows with
cinquefoil heads, and a corbel table above a blind trefoil
band; S elevation c1420 has 3-light windows with transoms,
head stops to hoodmoulds and offset buttresses.
The C15 W end has a pointed doorway with splayed reveals and
Tudor roses in hollow mouldings, and a label mould with angel
stops and traceried spandrels; buttresses either side, and a
band of sunken quatrefoil panels in between above the door;
above is a rebuilt Perpendicular 6-light window.
INTERIOR: mid-C19 reredos of 3 cusped arches with deep bays
behind, ogee crocketed hoods and angels with scrolls to the
spandrels, divided by pinnacle buttresses; late C19 piscina
and 3 sedilia in a similar style; the hood to the E window
runs into gable-hooded panels to each side; to the N is a
painted doorway with head stops and a ribbed door to the organ
loft, and a panelled timber oriel with Tudor flowers.
The mid C19 chancel arch has 3 attached shafts; 5-bay nave
arcade, the three E bays have piers with attached shafts,
foliate capitals and pointed arches, the two W bays have stout
Norman piers with wide scalloped capitals and square-section
semicircular arches to a W respond; braced collar beam roof.
The N aisle has a moulded arch dying in to the jambs at the E
end, enclosing the organ, and a drip mould below with dragon
stops and Tudor flowers; the N windows continue down into an
arcade of blind panels with cinquefoil heads; at the Norman
end of the nave, the aisles were built over in the early C15,
forming what is now the coffee shop to the N and Glebe House
(qv) to the S; at the W end of the narrower S aisle is a
trefoil-headed window to Glebe House.
FITTINGS: choir stalls with open front desks and poppy heads
and traceried bench ends; late C17 communion table; arms of
Charles ll; stone steps up to an octagonal pulpit with
Perpendicular panels and angel brackets.
Memorials: various late C18 and C19 memorials including a wall
tablet to William Clutterbuck d.1708, a panel with drapes,
apron, sides and a scrolled top; a painted marble cartouche to
Hester Becher d.1714, a heart-shaped panel with leaves and
winged cherub's heads below and to the top; wall tablet to
Francis Wall d.1761, a pedimented panel below a cartouche and
obelisk; and a large dresser tomb to Edward Colston d.1721
designed by James Gibbs, a grey marble plinth carrying a
finely-carved recumbent figure of a man on his elbow by
Rysbrack, in front of a Tuscan aedicule with side pilasters, a
bay-leaf frieze a pediment with children at the ends and a
cartouche; wall tablet to Mrs Tooth Blisset d.1805, by
Flaxman, a half-reclining figure under a segmental arch with
pointed hoodmould.
The Norman work is most important surviving in a Bristol
church (Gomme). The tower replaced a medieval one.
(Gomme A, Jenner M and Little B: Bristol, An Architectural
History: Bristol: 1979-: 13, 159, 121, 163; The Buildings of
England: Pevsner N: North Somerset and Bristol: London: 1958-:
386; The Church of All Saints, Bristol: Bristol; Smith M Q:
The Medieval Churches of Bristol: Bristol: 5, 21).
Listing NGR: ST5888073030
