St Mary Redcliffe

St Mary Redcliffe
St Mary Redcliffe
	St. Mary Redcliffe from the north west
	Shown within Bristol
Basic information
Location	Bristol, England
Geographic coordinates	51°26′54″N 2°35′24″W / 51.4482°N 2.5899°WCoordinates: 51°26′54″N 2°35′24″W / 51.4482°N 2.5899°W
Affiliation	Anglican
Ecclesiastical or organisational status	parish church
Architectural description
Completed	15th century
Specifications
Length	240 ft (73 m)
Width	44 ft (13 m)
Width (nave)	59 ft (18 m)
Height (max)	54 ft 9 in (16.69 m)
Spire height	292 ft (89 m)

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St. Mary Redcliffe is an Anglican parish church located in the Redcliffe district of the English port city of Bristol, close to the city centre. Constructed from the 12th to the 15th centuries, the church is a Grade 1 listed building,^[1] St. Mary Redcliffe is renowned for the beauty of its Gothic architecture, having been described by Queen Elizabeth I as "the fairest, goodliest, and most famous parish church in England."^[2]^[3]

The 292 ft (89 m) spire is the third tallest of England's parish churches,^{[citation needed]} after the Roman Catholic Church of St. Walburge, Preston and the Anglican Church of St. James, Louth. It is the tallest building in Bristol.

[edit] History

The first church on this site was built in Saxon times, as the port of Bristol first began. The present building is probably the fourth or fifth church that has been built on this site.

In medieval times, St. Mary Redcliffe, sitting on a red cliff above the River Avon, was a sign to seafarers, who would pray in it at their departure, and give thanks there upon their return. The church was built and beautified by Bristol's wealthy merchants, who paid to have masses sung for their souls and many of whom are commemorated there.^[4]

tomb of William II Canynges (d.1474), south aisle

Parts of the church date to the beginning of the 12th century. Although its plan dates from an earlier period, much of the church as it now stands was built between 1292 and 1370, with the south aisle and transept in the Decorated Gothic of the 13th century and the greater part of the building in the late 14th century Perpendicular. The patrons included Simon de Burton, Mayor of Bristol, and William I Canynges(d.1396), merchant, 5 times Mayor of Bristol and 3 times MP. In the 15th century Canynges' grandson, the great merchant William II Canynges (d.1474), also 5 times Mayor and 3 times MP, assumed responsibility for bringing the work of the interior to completion and filling the windows with stained glass. In 1446 much of this work was damaged when the spire was struck by lightning, and fell, causing considerable damage to the interior. Although the spire was to remain damaged for the next 400 years, Canynges continued in his commitment to restore and beautify the church. He took Holy Orders after the death of his wife, and is buried in the church.^[5] Other families associated with St Mary Redcliffe include the Penns, the Cabots, the Jays, the Ameryks and the Medes.^[4]

In 1571, the school that was to become St Mary Redcliffe and Temple School was formed in a chapel in the churchyard. The church and school have remained closely linked in many aspects of their operations.

The 17th century saw the loss of many of the church fittings and much of the stained glass during the Reformation and the English Civil War. During the reign of Queen Anne, and partially funded by her, the interior of St. Mary Redcliffe was refitted in the Baroque style.^[6]

Thomas Chatterton, whose father was sexton of St Mary Redcliffe, was born in the house next to the church in 1752. He studied the church records in a room above the south porch, and wrote several works which he attempted to pass as genuine medieval documents. He committed suicide in London at the age of seventeen.^[2] In 1795 the church saw the marriages of Samuel Taylor Coleridge to Sarah Fricker and Robert Southey to Sarah's sister Elizabeth.^[7]

The upper part of the spire, missing since being struck by lightning in 1446,^[8] was reconstructed in 1872 to a height of 292 ft (89 m).^[2]

During the Second World War a bomb exploded in a nearby street, throwing a rail from the tramway over the houses and into the churchyard of St Mary Redcliffe, where it became embedded in the ground. The rail is left there as a monument.^[9]

View east towards the chancel

[edit] Architecture and fittings

St Mary Redcliffe is cruciform in plan, with a chapel extending to the east of the chancel, and a large tower placed asymmetrically to the north of the west front.^[10] There is a rectangular 13th century porch on either side of the nave, that on the north side having been extended with a more elaborate polygonal outer porch in the 14th century.^[4]

The north porch has an inner component dating from 1200, with black Purbeck Marble columns, and an outer hexagonal portion built in 1325 which is ogee-cusped with a Moorish appearance.^[2] A wrought-iron chancel screen built by William Edney in 1710 still stands under the tower.

The church is adorned with monuments to individuals from the history of the city, including Sir William Penn (the father of William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania). His helm and half-armour are hung on the wall, together with the tattered banners of the Dutch ships that he captured in battle.^[11]

Little of the early stained glass remains. In the west window of St John's Chapel, for instance, the medieval glass barely survived the destruction (said to have been caused by Oliver Cromwell's men). Most of the higher portions went untouched, but others were severely damaged. In some cases the windows were impossible to repair, and clear glass was eventually introduced to replace the missing scenes. The Victorian stained-glass windows were created by some of the finest studios of that period.

The tower contains four bells dating from 1763 and made by Thomas Bilbie of the Bilbie family.^[12] Two of these bells, along with an older Purdue bell are included in the 50cwt ring of 12 bells, cast by John Taylor & Co in 1903.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Hogarth's tryptych

A great altarpiece tryptych by William Hogarth was commissioned in 1756 to fill the east end of the chancel. The churchwardens paid him £525 for his paintings of the Ascension flanked by The Sealing of the Sepulchre and the Three Marys at the Tomb. This was removed from the church by mid-Victorian liturgists and stored at various sites, including a tobacco warehouse (as this provided suitable humidity), before being displayed at the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery; it is now stored in the redundant church of St Nicholas, Bristol.^[2]

[edit] Music

[edit] Choir

The choir have released numerous recordings, as well as touring Europe and North America.

[edit] Organ

In St Mary Redcliffe, the Harrison & Harrison organ console of 1911, restored in 1990

The first pipe organ in the church, built by Harris and Byfield in 1726, was of three manuals and 26 stops.

In 1912 a four-manual, 71-stop organ having over 4,300 pipes was installed by Harrison & Harrison.^[13] Towards the end of his life Arthur Harrison said that he regarded the organ at St Mary Redcliffe as his "finest and most characteristic work". The organ remains essentially as he designed it in 1911.

Kevin Bowyer recorded Kaikhosru Sorabji's First Organ Symphony on it in 1988, for which the organ was an "ideal choice"; the notes to the recording describe the church as "acoustically ideal, with a reverberation period of 3½ seconds", and notes that the organ has "a luxuriousness of tone" and "a range of volume from practically inaudible to fiendishly loud".^{[citation needed]} William McVicker, organist at the Royal Festival Hall, has called the organ "the finest high-Romantic organ ever constructed".^[14]

November 2010 saw the first performances on the organ after an 18-month renovation by its original builders Harrison & Harrison, costing around £800,000. The organ had been disassembled and some of it taken away to the builders' workshop in Durham.^[15] The pipes were cleaned and the leather of the bellows was replaced. The manuals were also fitted with an electronic panel for storing combinations of stop settings.^[16]