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 Church of St. Mary Redcliffe
 
 
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 THE LIBRARY 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 1 1,' 
 
 '>i.i 
 
 11
 
 St. Mary Redcliffe, Bristol.
 
 X-jtC^ 
 
 St. Mary Redcliffe, Bristol
 
 The Church of 
 
 St. Mary Redcliffe, 
 Bristol. 
 
 u4.D. 1890. 
 
 NOTES BY 
 
 JOHN TAYLOR, L.S.A. 
 
 City Librarian, Bristol. 
 
 --^ 
 
 BRISTOL: FROST AND REED, 
 
 PRINTSELLERS AND PUBLISHERS, 
 
 8, CLARE STREET. 
 
 ESTABLISHED 1808.
 
 s>nr«rj«LicalliiiMMiMHMMIB
 
 
 Cburcb of St. riDai^ IRebcIiffe. 
 
 UEEN Elizabeth on her visit to Bristol 
 in 1574, pronounced RedclifFe "one 
 of the most famouse, absolute, fairest 
 and goodliest parish churches in 
 England," an estimate of its superiority which few 
 will dispute. Why the magnitude and beauty 
 of the edifice did not cause it to be raised to the 
 dignity of a cathedral, instead of the neighbouring 
 house of Augustinian Canons, is answered by the 
 quaint old Fuller, who says that this church " was 
 not sufficiently accommodated like St. Augustine's with 
 public buildings about it for a dean or chapter." He 
 characteristically adds that "as the town of Hague 
 in Holland would never be built about, as accounting 
 it more credit to be the biggest of villages in Europe, 
 than a lesser city, so Redcliffe Church esteemeth it a 
 
 -"- ^ ■ *~. -'• ".. V..J '—9
 
 8 
 
 greater grace to lead the van of all parochial, than to 
 follow in the rear after many cathedral churches in 
 England." 
 
 The origin of the name "Redcliffe" will be at 
 once explained by entry into the Quakers' Burial 
 Ground, which lies at the end of Jones' Lane, opposite 
 the western front of the church, where on the northern 
 side the bare red sandstone rises high above the green 
 turf just as it did centuries ago. Excavated in this 
 rock is a veritable fourteenth century hermit's cell, 
 with a Pointed doorway and rude sedilia, the con- 
 struction of which chamber shows that this part of 
 the cliff has remained unmutilated from the time that 
 the anchorite who first occupied it retired from the 
 hurrying life of the world. The founder of the cell 
 was Thomas, 8th Lord Berkeley, who appointed 
 (a.d. 1346) John Sparkes as his bedesman. The 
 Berkeleys were lords of Bedminster and Redcliffe, 
 and as such there can be no doubt that they erected 
 the thirteenth century church of St. Mary's, some 
 valuable remains of which are incorporated in the 
 present fifteenth century structure. In the wall 
 of the south aisle of the church are monumental 
 recesses, similar in character to the Berkeley tombs 
 in the Cathedral, the stellated arches enshrining
 
 ■which are known as Berkeley Arches. In the 
 absence of historical record of the early Church, 
 these arches may be assumed to be evidence of the 
 connection of the Berkeleys with the fabric ; and 
 the existence of a mailed eiSgy in the north 
 transept, said to be that of one of the Knights 
 of Berkeley, strengthens this conclusion. There 
 are evidences, both documentary and consti-uctive, 
 of a Norman Church on this site, but we need 
 not here enter into the subject. The Early English 
 or thirteenth century remains may still, to a 
 considerable extent, be traced by a careful eye, 
 the lower stage of the tower and the inner north 
 porch, with their arcading, being manifestly of 
 this period. The local histories state that Simon 
 de Burton, several times mayor of Bristol, began 
 to build RedclifFe Church in 1294. A church 
 certainly existed here a century earlier than this, 
 and it is possible that the Decorated outer porch, 
 which is about the time of Simon de Burton, may 
 be assigned to his munificence, the Manor of 
 RedclifFe ha\'ing at that period been alienated 
 from the Berkeleys. 
 
 In the reign of Edward III., just as Decorated 
 architecture was passing into Perpendicular, the
 
 lO 
 
 thirteenth century Church appears to have been 
 to a great extent demolished to provide for a new 
 structure. The builders began with the south 
 transept, which belongs to the reigns of Edward 
 II. and Edward III. The tall south window, 
 the finest window in the church, agrees in date 
 with Abbot Knowles' windows in the Cathedral, 
 or the time of Edward II. (murdered in 1326). 
 The windows of the clerestory, with their rims 
 of quatrefoils, are somewhat later, and belong to 
 the Decorated period, as do also the piers, arcade, 
 and groining of the same transept. The south 
 porch is also of this date. Then, at the time 
 (c. 1367) when the nave of Winchester Cathedral 
 was being rebuilt by William of Wykeham, who 
 was (A.D. 1 361) a prebendary of Redcliffe, came 
 the building of all the other aisles. 
 
 About the middle of the fifteenth century, 
 William Canynges the younger, transformed the 
 Church into the Perpendicular style (a style that is 
 detested by Mr. Ruskin, but is dignified by St. 
 Mary Redcliffe), raising the clerestory throughout, 
 vaulting it with exquisite lierne groining, and 
 glazing its windows, finishing the North transept 
 in imitation of the South, In this church, remarks
 
 II 
 
 Archdeacon Norn's "all the deep shadows are 
 below, and the highest story is full of light. It 
 is not so in our Cathedral ; there the chief light 
 falls on the pavement, and the vault is shadowy. 
 So it is in Westminster Abbey." The strong 
 contrasts of light and shadow here contribute 
 much to the impressiveness and mysterious beauty 
 of the building. The fifteenth century builders 
 lifted the vault, glazing the whole space between 
 buttress and buttress. The work of the younger 
 Canynges is precisely that portion which has its 
 external walls panelled. The clerestory of nave, 
 chancel and north transept are panelled, and the 
 windows of these portions have uniform tracery, but 
 the clerestory windows of the south transept are 
 wholly different, showing difference of date and 
 builder. The Lady Chapel at the extreme east 
 was being constructed in 1386. 
 
 The ground plan is a cross within a cross, the 
 outer lines being formed by the walls, and the inner 
 by the ranges of clustered columns, which follow 
 not only the course of the nave, but likewise the 
 transept and chancel. The double aisles to the 
 transepts are a very uncommon arrangement, and 
 give the idea, when viewed from beneath either
 
 12 
 
 of the tall windows of these stately wings, of one 
 spacious church intersecting another at right 
 angles, the four tall central arches apparently 
 giving support to an external or central tower, 
 which was in fact their intention. The fluted 
 columns, bounding majestically upward, and rami- 
 fying into the symmetrical tracery of the vaulted 
 roof of the tripled aisles, foliate al the points 
 of junction into literally a thousand forms. There 
 are in fact 1,185 bosses, mostly of leafage and 
 flowers, carved with sprightly fancy, and no two 
 alike. 
 
 The special features of the exterior of the 
 church are the magnificent but somewhat mere- 
 tricious north porch and the yet more noble tower. 
 But from these the eye wanders off towards the 
 fabric as a whole, the balanced proportion of its 
 members and its sustained grandeur captivating 
 the attention like a magnificent piece of sculpture. 
 This, in fact, the structure is, being a fretted mass 
 from end to end. 
 
 Throughout the late restoration, which has cost 
 over ^^40,000, there has been an honourable en- 
 deavour to bring back to view the exact structure 
 that existed in the fifteenth century. The rebuilding
 
 13 
 
 of the spire is so successful a work that it almost 
 reconciles us to the absence of a central tower. 
 
 The total length of the church externally is 
 250 feet; height of tower, no feet; of spire, 
 151 feet; total of tower, cap and finial, 267 feet 
 from pavement. 
 
 Before leaving the stately pile, the visitor will 
 ascend the staircase in the hexagonal north porch 
 to the room with the stone grilled windows at the 
 crest, where lie the mouldering chests which once 
 supplied the Rowley Poems, or their idea, to 
 Chatterton. Boswell tells of a visit he made 
 to this muniment room with his distinguished 
 chief — where George Calcott, a boon companion 
 of the poet, and a profound disbeliever in his 
 Rowleian genius, demonstrated the authenticity of 
 the poems by pointing out the chests where they 
 were found (.?). That Rowley and Chatterton are 
 one and the same has been proved ; but in days 
 when identity is establi hed in a certain order of 
 minds between Bacon and Shakespeare, a division 
 of the former two may still be attempted. Thomas 
 Chatterton was born on the twentieth of Novem- 
 ber, 1752. It seems impossible to state with 
 confidence whether he first saw the light at the
 
 14 
 
 Pile Street School-house opposite his monument 
 in Redcliffe Churchyard, or on Redchffe Hill. His 
 birth occurred three months after his father's 
 death, an event that entailed the removal of the 
 widow to fresh lodgings, in order to make room 
 for a successor to her husband in the mastership 
 of the school. Whether the removal took place 
 before her confinement is not certain, but it is 
 certain that at an early age the boy-poet was 
 among the humble scholars of the same school. 
 A visitor to the Church, the shrine and inspiration 
 of young Rowley's genius, may yet see the school- 
 room and master's house attached to the same, in 
 like condition as when the Chattertons were in 
 possession, the name of the father appearing 
 among the list of schoolmasters on a board affixed 
 within the school. Chatterton's boyhood was 
 spent beneath the shadow of the magnificent fane 
 whose influence inspired his imagination and 
 medisevalised his spirit. As has been many times 
 told, the boy-poet went to London to seek his 
 livelihood by writing for journals and magazines. 
 He failed in his aim, and to save dying for want 
 of bread, he finished his course by his own hand. 
 On the twenty-fourth of August, 1770, his land-
 
 lady in Grove Street, Holborn, begged him to 
 dine with her. He declined with customary 
 hauteur of manner, alleging that he was not 
 hungry. Shortly afterwards he left the house. He 
 was heard to return — to enter his room — to lock 
 the door. The next morning he Wi^s missed at his 
 usual hour of appearance, and no sound was heard 
 within his room. The door was broken open, and 
 he was found stretched upon his bed, cold and 
 stiff, a victim to despair, and self-destroyed by 
 poison. 
 
 Nearly opposite the south transept of the 
 Church, a little within the lower wall of the grave- 
 yard, is a tombstone inscribed with the names of 
 Chatterton's parents and some of his near rela- 
 tives. There is a tradition that the poet was 
 secretly brought from London, and interred in 
 the family grave. But as the primary evidence 
 of the fact depends upon the testimony of a 
 single person, it seems hardly of due authen- 
 ticity, though one might wish it to be true. 
 Mr. Le Grice, writing in the Gentleman's 
 Magazine (August, 1838), in referring to this story, 
 declares it to be "perfectly absurd." ''His 
 remains " he says, ' ' were deposited in a pit
 
 i6 
 
 which admitted of many bodies, prepared for 
 those who died in the Workhouse of St. 
 Andrew's, Holborn. The admittance for the 
 corpse was by a door, like a horizontal cellar- 
 door, so it was pointed out to me many years 
 ago. I wished to stand on his grave, the precise 
 spot. ' That,' said the sexton, ' cannot be marked.' " 
 In this Church were married the poets Southey 
 and Coleridge.
 
 [^Advertisement'^ 
 
 The Church of 
 
 St. Mary Redcliffe, Bristol. 
 
 jMrssrs. Frost and Reed hnve m\ich pleasure 
 
 fn announcint;; that tliey have commissioned Mr. 
 
 Bird to etch for lliem an original plate of this 
 
 famous subject. 
 
 An early proof may now be seen either at 
 
 47, Queen's Road, Clifton, or 8, Clare Street, 
 
 Bristol, where orders may be received for the 
 
 first impressions. 
 
 Size or Plate, exclusive of margin, 26i high x ^&l wide. 
 The issue v^dl he iiniifrrl to the foUnvliig : 
 
 PRICE. 
 
 .\rti'=t's Proofs, signed, (limited to ijo; - -^•■440 
 Lettered Impressions iio 
 
 ■lAN'l'ARy, A.D. I?90.
 
 The Etching herein vcfeiied to of 
 The Church of 
 
 St. Mary Redcliffe, Bristol, 
 
 will form a centre to the two well-known 
 Etchings by Air. Chas. Bird 
 
 OF 
 
 St. Augustine's Gateway, Bristol, 
 
 AND 
 
 St. Peter's Hospital, Bristol.
 
 Frost & Reed, 
 
 Bcalers in Worlds of art, 
 Iprlntaellers anO 3fine Brt ipublisbers, 
 
 Clare Street, BRISTOL. 
 
 £ngravings and Etchings of the High 
 our Pcrtfolhs, including fforis 
 
 Sir F. Leighton, P.R.A. | 
 Sir J. E. Millai?, R.A. I 
 
 E. Long, R.A. 
 Thomas Faed, R.A. 
 V. Cole, R.A. 
 
 F. DiCKSEE, A. R.A. 
 Seymour Lucas, A. R.A. 
 C. Burton Barber. 
 S. E. Waller. 
 J. S. Noble. 
 Eugene de Blaas. 
 
 •est Class ma) always he found in 
 by the folloving Artists — 
 
 David Law. 
 
 C. T. Farrer. 
 
 Jules Breton. 
 
 L. Alma Tade.ma, R.A. 
 
 G. D. Leslie, R.A. 
 
 Frank Holl, R.A. 
 
 G. Goodall, R.A. 
 
 B. W. Leader, A. R.A. 
 
 BiBKET Foster. 
 
 Thos. Blinks. 
 
 L. Lhermitte.
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
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