Description

BRISTOL

ST5872NW ST STEPHEN'S AVENUE, Centre 901-1/16/667 (North side) 08/01/59 Church of St Stephen

GV I

Church. C14, rebuilt c1470, clerestory repaired after a storm in 1703, aisle and E windows restored 1873. Bath stone ashlar and Pennant rubble S aisle. PLAN: aisled, clerestoreyed nave and chancel, SW tower, S porch and SE vestry. Perpendicular Gothic with a Somerset-type tower. EXTERIOR: tall 5-light transomed E window, and a S buttress forming an octagonal chimney. 5-bay N aisle of 3-light windows above a sill drip mould, with a crenellated parapet; clerestorey of 4-light Tudor-arched windows separated by thin buttresses which run up through a drip mould into a crenellated parapet; porch with a Tudor arch hung with open cusps, and splayed reveals with hollow mouldings and Tudor roses; ogee hood with crockets growing larger to the finial, with blind tracery in the spandrel; angle buttresses with crocketed pinacles, blind tracery panels beneath a drip mould and parallel gable. Inside, the porch has a fan vault with pendants, and the church door has casement reveals set with foliage in the arch, and a cranked hood. C19 SE crenellated octagonal vestry with 3-light mullion windows with cinquefoil heads and sill bands between buttresses; similar fenestration to N aisle not visible. Large W nave window has a flat Tudor arch and 6-light transomed lights. 4-stage tower divided by deep drip moulds, with weathered plinths between setback buttresses, diminishing upwards to slender shafts: NW octagonal stair tower, the top 3 stages having blind panelling with cinquefoil heads; ground-floor 4-light W window with a hood and raked stops; the remaining windows are blind, paired lancet cross windows with ogee hoods with crockets and finials, and blind, tripartite belfry windows with ornate panels and louvres to the upper halves; a deep dripmould with gargoyle beasts and an open traceried castellated parapet, open square turrets with thin buttresses bearing on gargoyle corbels and a similar octagonal spirelet to the stair turret. INTERIOR: panelled reredos by Hansom, with defaced angels above. 7-bay nave, columns with 4 attached shafts to painted angel capitals holding scrolls, and similar corbels to the shallow roof; the chancel not structurally differentiated but the two E bays have raised floor; door in N aisle to a rood loft stair; lower N aisle wall with wall tombs is C14. Base of tower has tall narrow arches with attached shafts and bell capitals, bearing on angel corbels, with vestigial fan vaults. C15 arch-braced tie beam roof with gilded bosses. FITTINGS: wrought-iron gates and piers, early C18 by William Edney, removed from the Church of St Nicholas after the Second World War. An ornate large marble pulpit of 1890 by Harry Hems of Exeter with canopied niches containing statues, ramped steps and wrought-iron handrail; panelled choir stalls with poppy heads and pews with carved bench ends of 1886; wrought-iron sword rest by William or Simon Edney, early C18, with considerable foliage; ornate font of 1882, a square base with marble shafts rising to an octagonal basin with trefoil panels. Wrought-iron gates with piers, early C17, by William Edney. MEMORIALS: Royal Arms of Charles II over S door. N aisle: 3 ogee-arched chest tombs, to the W that to Edmund Blanket d.1371, a crocketed ogee arch with open cusps, containing recumbent figures of a man and wife praying, and trefoil panels with figures to the chest beneath. It was transferred from the previous church on this site. Dresser tomb to Martin Pringe d.1626, an oval tablet with allegorical figures on the corners in an aedicule with Corinthian pilasters to a broken segmental pediment bearing a cartouche and 2 recumbent statues; a painted apron with hourglass, tools and merman and mermaid bearing the plaque. S aisle: marble wall tablet to David Peloquin d.1766, a sarcophagus with small side urns and a large one in the centre, with an obelisk with drapes behind and an apron with winged cherubs beneath. Dresser tomb to Sir George Snygge d.1617, a panelled plinth with 3/4 Corinthian columns bearing a dentil cornice, with obelisks either side and a heraldic panel above; inside is an arch with roundels and strapwork and plaster figures, and an alabaster recumbent figure resting on his elbow. Wall tablet to Robert Kitchin d.1594, a rectangular painted frame with fleurs-de-lys at the corners and a kneeling couple inscribed on a brass plate. Various late C18 and C19 marble wall tablets. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: attached to the W of the stair tower is a crenellated wall and elliptical-arched gateway, flanked by buttresses. HISTORICAL NOTE: the parish church of Bristol; the tower and E window were paid for by John Shipward, Mayor of Bristol in the 1480s. It originally stood beside the quays by the River Frome, excavated mid C13. (Gomme A, Jenner M and Little B: Bristol, An Architectural History: Bristol: 1979-: 29, 62, 121; The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: North Somerset and Bristol: London: 1958-: 408; Bristol City Parish Church: Bristol: 1977-).

Listing NGR: ST5868672984

External Links

• St Stephen's Church, Bristol at Wikipedia
• St Stephen's Church, Bristol official website
• Wikidata Q7595473

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)
• 
  Harrow on the Hill: A photographic portrayal of listed buildings and structures (Historic Buildings Picture Guides)
• 
  ENGLAND GUIDE TO POST WAR LISTED: A Guide to Post-war Listed Buildings
• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)