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© Mr Ben White

IoE Number: 380890
Location: CHURCH OF ST JAMES, WHITSON STREET (east side)
  BRISTOL, BRISTOL, BRISTOL
Photographer: Mr Ben White
Date Photographed: 17 March 2007
Date listed: 08 January 1959
Date of last amendment: 08 January 1959
Grade I

BRISTOLST5873SEWHITSON STREET901-1/11/348(East side)

BRISTOL ST5873SE WHITSON STREET 901-1/11/348 (East side) 08/01/59 Church of St James I Church, former priory. Founded 1129 as a Benedictine cell, from when the nave survives, tower c1374, S aisle widened and rebuilt 1698, porch late C18, and N aisle rebuilt 1864. MATERIALS: Pennant rubble with limestone dressings, and limestone ashlar to the porch and part of the tower and W end. PLAN: aisled nave, SE tower and SW porch. Norman W end and nave, late Perpendicular Gothic Survival style S aisle, mid Georgian porch and mid C19 N aisle. EXTERIOR: blank, rubble E end with a course of weathering beneath three C19 round-arched windows, and an oval light in the apex. 4-stage unbuttressed tower with a small doorway on the E side, and a square SW stair tower, flush with the W side, with an octagonal spirelet with a pyramidal top and finial; on the S side is a small flat-headed window to the lower stage, a small lancet to the second stage, and a clock; 2-light belfry windows, a string with corner gargoyles and a crenellated parapet with gableted pinnacles. C19 north aisle of 5 gables with 2-light plate tracery windows, and semicircular-arched clerestory windows. The late C17 south aisle of 5 bays has 4-light windows with square heads, separated by buttresses; there is an arched doorway below the E window with shafts and moulded capitals and a label mould below a weathering; clerestory windows set in a band of blank arcading, 2-storey late C18 porch at the W end with side windows as the S aisle, and S doorway with pilasters of 2 panels separated by sunken diapers (see St Paul's, Portland Square (qv)) and a band of trefoil-headed panels above with foliate spandrels. C12 west end has clasping buttresses to the lower rubble section and a much restored segmental-arched doorway within a round arch with shafts and cushion caps; above is a sill band to the ashlar upper part, which contains a fine arcade of interlacing arches pierced by 3 round-arched windows, the middle one wider; betweeen the tops of the buttresses is a string, and a c1160 wheel window of plate tracery forming 8 circles around a central one within a zigzag ring, but the interlacing moulding which made it remarkable has mostly disappeared; above is an upper string and an arrow slit; wide, gabled N aisle with a pointed doorway with foliated capitals, and a window as the N aisle, and a semicircular-arched window to the S gable INTERIOR: C19 blind E arcade of interlacing round-arched mouldings, below an arcade of round-arched niches with cushion capitals; a billet moulding runs above this around the church, and the 3 windows above it have a diamond moulding to the arches. Late C12 five-bay nave of stout columns with 4 half-round minor shafts; wide, scalloped capitals, and square-section semicircular arches and lozenge hoodmoulding which runs on into the E wall; ornamented string course below deeply splayed clerestory windows, and late C14 arch-braced collar roof on corbels. 5-bay C19 north aisle is 2 bays wide: an arcade of red granite columns, probably following the line of the old aisle, and respond shafts in the N wall, wide capitals with undercut foliage, with shallow pointed arches, and half-arches to the nave. Late C17 south aisle has fine painted corbels to a timber pitched roof. The W windows have attached shafts and a zigzag moulding forming lozenges to the arches. FITTINGS: large late C19 pulpit on 4 granite shafts, with octagonal top with marble shafts and interlacing arches; C19 Norman-style font with zigzag moulded column base, late C19 Norman-style altar table with massive twisted front legs and cushion capitals, wrought-iron altar railing, choir stalls with poppy heads, plain pews with doors. MEMORIALS: N aisle: marble wall tablet to Isaac Bough d.1713, a sarcophagus on animal feet, with a bowed tablet above and a framed urn on top, with a slate backing; wall memorial to Sir Charles Somerset d.1598, of a panelled pedestal beneath an aedicule with Corinthian columns to an entablature, corner obelisks and a central coat of arms; in the centre is a couple and their daughter kneeling either side of an altar. W end: marble wall tablet to Dighton family c1730 has a winged cupid apron and a pedimented top. Marble tablet to Joan Wood and others, c1708, brackets to a Corinthian aedicule with scrolls and fruit supporting the sides. Wall memorial to Henry Dighton d.1673, a marble aedicule with Corinthian columns, apron and side panels with military motifs, canon on top and a central heraldic cartouche. S aisle: marble wall memorial on brackets with an apron and scrolled sides, a high panel with head reliefs and a shell. Wall memorial to Thomas Edwards d.1735, a Corinthian aedicule on brackets with a broken pediment and cartouche. Wall memorial to Martha Noble d.1754, a panel on brackets bearing a sarcophagus with a skull, below an open pediment with a crown and open book on the top. Wall tomb of Robert Earl of Gloucester, a wide moulded arch containing a C12 recumbent effigy in robes: 'extremely interesting' (Pevsner). Above the W door is a Royal Coat of Arms. Various mid C18-C19 wall tablets. HISTORICAL NOTE: the priory nave became a parish church in 1374. (The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: North Somerset and Bristol: London: 1958-: 390; Gomme A, Jenner M and Little B: Bristol, An Architectural History: Bristol: 1979-: 14-17, 31, 60, 178).