Church of All Saints

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

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

379381

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Smith, M Q, The Medieval Churches of Bristol, ()
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: North Somerset and Bristol, (1958), 386
The Church of All Saints Bristol Church Guide, ()
Gomme, A H, Jenner, M, Little, B D G, Bristol, An Architectural History, (1979), 13
Gomme, A H, Jenner, M, Little, B D G, Bristol, An Architectural History, (1979), 159
Gomme, A H, Jenner, M, Little, B D G, Bristol, An Architectural History, (1979), 121
Gomme, A H, Jenner, M, Little, B D G, Bristol, An Architectural History, (1979), 163

End of official list entry

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