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© Ms Ruth Povey

IoE Number: 380710
Location: CHURCH OF ST PHILIP AND ST JACOB, TOWER HILL (east side)
  BRISTOL, BRISTOL, BRISTOL
Photographer: Ms Ruth Povey
Date Photographed: 30 June 2001
Date listed: 08 January 1959
Date of last amendment: 08 January 1959
Grade II*

BRISTOLST5973TOWER HILL901-1/40/298(East side)

BRISTOL ST5973 TOWER HILL 901-1/40/298 (East side) 08/01/59 Church of St Philip and St Jacob II* Church. Early C13 chancel, nave and lower tower, mid C15 N chancel aisle and upper tower, nave altered 1764, N and S stair turrets to the nave, N porches and refenestration of 1836; restored 1850 by William Armstrong. MATERIALS: Pennant rubble with limestone dressings; roof not visible. PLAN: originally cruciform, the S transept now forms the base of the tower; unclerestoreyed nave and low, gabled aisles, chancel and N chancel aisle, and 2 N porches. Early English Gothic chancel and lower tower, Perpendicular Gothic N chancel aisle and upper tower, Perpendicular Gothic Revival-style nave. EXTERIOR: C19 five-light E window and c1450 three-light window with ogee heads to the chancel aisle. 3-bay N elevation of the chancel aisle has windows at the E end separated by buttresses, and a 1836 raised brick parapet and obelisk pinnacles; C19 porch with angle buttresses at the W end. 3-bay S side of chancel has C15 two-light square-headed windows with cinquefoil ogee-heads. 5-bay nave of tall C19 square-headed windows with 2 and 3 lights and trefoil heads beneath label moulds, the centre projecting stair turret, with a crenellated parapet and obelisk pinnacles; C19 porch at the W end has angle buttresses and a moulded door in a label with king's head stops and blank spandrels. 4-stage tower, stepped at the upper stages, with pronounced flat, clasping buttresses and additional buttressing to the ground floor; on the SW corner is a square stair turret; small C17 panelled S door has a 4-centred arch in a slightly projecting doorcase, with a drip mould above, and a large quatrefoil window with a hoodmould; a small lancet to the second stage, and paired blind lancets with chamfered reveals and attached shafts to flared capitals on the third stage; C15 belfry has louvred 2-light windows with a central mullion and a clock above, a crenellated parapet with pinnacles and a panelled octagonal spirelet to the stair turret. The S aisle has a smaller central projecting stair turret forming a full-height bay with a 2-light window. W end with mid C19 three-light Perpendicular windows to the aisles, and a similar tall 5-light nave window, with a band of quatrefoil panels, hoodmould with unusual head stops, and a crenellated parapet, ramped up to the centre section of 2 pinnacles linked by a trefoil balustrade. INTERIOR: a raised chancel with a C19 marble panelled reredos, 3 blind 4-centred arches to the N with half-round shafts and a narrow soffit of trefoil panels, and the base of a winder stair to the former rood screen; the W pier is hollowed for a pulpit stair. The base of the tower has a tall blocked lancet with deep embrasures to the E; the arch to the S aisle has 3 attached shafts with stiffleaf capitals and an outer continuous arch; vestigial ribs and springers with black marble shafts and stiffleaf capitals of a demolished vault. Pointed chancel arch, and arches at the ends of the aisles with attached shafts to leaf capitals, and outer continuous arches; above the N aisle arch (to the old N transept) is a blocked lancet window with continuous moulding. A 3-bay nave arcade of wide segmental arches with moulded, square piers without capitals; the alternate piers were removed and the arches probably altered in the C18. Fine waggon roof, with bosses, on carved corbels, similar ones in the S aisle; arch-braced N chancel aisle roof. FITTINGS: Laudian fittings including a fine pulpit and sounding board of 1631 having a moulded octagonal stone base with a 2-tier oak top of arched panels, with a dentil cornice and caryatids at the angles; a fine square font cover dated 1623, having 2 tiers of open arched sides and a top of 8 brackets to a finial, on a Norman font with a square scalloped basin; a fine communion table. MEMORIALS: chancel: tablet to Gilbert Barcroft d.1722, marble cartouche with cherubs holding drapes above a skull, and a number of late C18 and early C19 tablets. Chapel aisle: C14 head of a knight built into the wall; the upper half of the effigy of knight, c1470, 'which must, when complete, have been one of the largest effigies in England' (Little); wall monument to Richard Nelms d.1789, a square base surmounted by a pyramid with a classical figure in a panel, with drapes above. A similar wall monument to John Foyle d.1771, a moulded panel with balls on the sides, beneath a pyramid with head reliefs, by James Paty Jnr. 4 other marble tablets. At the W end is a large wall monument to Henry Merrett d.1692, a marble aedicule with barleysugar columns and Corinthian capitals, a swan neck pediment containing a swagged segmental plinth and a cartouche, and in the centre is a half figure within an oval wreath, with skulls beneath and an apron. Various hatchments in the nave, a book of the Ten Commandments c1700 above the tower door, and a carved coat of arms of Queen Anne above the W porch. Glass: Day memorial window, 1856. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: 8 bells from 1789. The SE extension was built in 1986. The projecting nave wings were built in 1836 for staircases to the galleries, which were removed in 1876. (The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: North Somerset and Bristol: London: 1958-: 407; Gomme A, Jenner M and Little B: Bristol, An Architectural History: Bristol: 1979-: 2O, 22, 60; Little B: Churches in Bristol: Bristol: 1978-: 11).