Bristol: St Jude & St Matthias
Overview
Grid reference: ST 598 733
The church is an essay in the Decorated style. The west tower is of four unequal stages with a two-centred arched doorway with moulded jambs and arch in the west face and a three- light window with reticulated tracery in the stage above.
Visiting and facilities
Building is closed for worship
Building
Ground Plan Description and Dimensions
Ground plan:
West tower, aisleless nave of five bays, chancel with south organ chamber (now a chapel) and mortuary chapel and north sacristy and parish rooms.
Footprint of Church buildings: 508 m²
Description of Archaeology and History
The church was designed by S.B. Gabriel and built in 1849. Samuel Burleigh Gabriel (d.1865) worked in partnership with S.J. Hicks for a time and had a hand in all seven of the second batch of Commissioners churches built in Bristol. Hicks retired or died in about 1850 and Gabriel was afterwards in partnership with J.H. Hirst. Only about four churches by him alone are known, together with the chancel of St. John's, Clifton, and one of the four has already been demolished. St. Jude's cost £2,500. The first stone was laid on 17 August 1848 and the church was completed a year later.
Exterior Description
The west tower is of four unequal stages with a two-centred arched doorway with moulded jambs and arch in the west face and a three-light window with reticulated tracery in the stage above. This stage also has tiny lights to north and south. The third stage is very shallow and is blind on all sides and the uppermost stage has paired bell-openings with a pointed quatrefoil tracery light in all four faces. The openings are filled with stone slabs pierced with different repeating patterns. The base of the tower has a moulded plinth and at the angles are diagonal buttresses which eventually rise into diagonally placed pinnacles above the parapet. The parapet has a moulded stringcourse decorated with fleurons and a wavy cusped band between this and the moulded capping. There are decorative gargoyles at the angles. Access to the upper floors is by a spiral stair within a square turret at the south-east corner which terminates at the second stage.
The nave is of five bays, divided by buttresses (some with weatherings and some with gablets) with two-light windows with Decorated tracery (all different) in most of the bays except the second from the west on the south side where there is a doorway with moulded surround and large hood stops carved as heads, and the fourth bay from the west on the north which is blind for no very apparent reason. The roof is steeply pitched as the Ecclesiologist expected. The chancel is lower and narrower, but almost invisible from the surrounding streets because of lower flanking buildings. On the north these take the form of a two storeyed wing of sacristies, vestries and parish rooms with a turret like western termination, and on the south there is a small chamber under a pent roof which seems to have been intended as an organ chamber, and a mortuary chapel under a gable at right-angles to the chancel. The chancel east window has five lights and cusped flowing tracery.
Building Fabric and Features
Stained Glass
c.1883
Only in the east window, depicting Christ flanked by The Four Evangelists in the main lights and Christ in Glory surrounded by angels above.
Interior
Interior Description
The interior of the church has plastered and whitened walls and an open timber roof in the nave with arch-braced collars, and principals supported on stone corbels carved with all manner of foliage and heads of green men peering out of some of them. The alley is paved with plain red tiles although there are some buff and black tiles included round the font at the west end. The tall tower arch, with mouldings which die into the responds, is spanned by a gallery with an arcaded front on cast iron columns which reaches across the width of the church. The windows are all glazed with green and pink glass edged with blue.
There are two step at the chancel arch, and beyond it the chancel is paved with a fine tile carpet of red and buff tiles of several different patterns, those in the sanctuary arranged in groups to form larger patterns and dividied by strips of black tiles. The chancel arch has three orders of moulding, the outer reaching to the floor, the middle to massive foliate corbels and the innermost to small attached colonettes which rest on those corbels. The chancel roof is panelled and divided into squares by moulded ribs with fleurons at the intersections. There is ball-flower on the cornices of the north and south walls and the roof is painted red and blue. In the north wall of the sanctuary is a credence under a pointed crocketted arch with a finial, and a green man in the spandrel, and on the south is a piscina with a sexfoil drain under an ogee moulded arch and sedilia with ogee arches and big ballflowers at the ends of the moulded hood, all painted bright red and white. A doorway on the north gives access to the sacristies, and an arch on the south opens into a small chamber arranged as a chapel.
Fixtures and fittings
Altar
The altar is of oak with chamfered legs.
Reredos
c.1894
The reredos is of stone and has three arches enclosing carvings of The Crucifixion flanked by St. Mary and St. John, all painted. There are colonettes between the arches and crocketted pinnacles above.
Pulpit
1850
The pulpit has three faces of stone, painted white, each with the same design of a blind two-light gothic window.
Font (object)
c.1894
The font is of marble on four red marble colonettes and a drum, with an octagonal bowl with vesicas depicting various symbols.
Rail
The communion rails are of iron painted gold with moulded oak capping.
Churchyard
Grid reference: ST 598 733
Burial and War Grave Information
It is unknown whether the building is consecrated.
It is unknown whether the churchyard has been used for burial.
It is unknown whether the churchyard is used for burial.
It is unknown whether the churchyard has war graves.
National Heritage record for England designations
There are no records of National Heritage assets within the curtilage of this site.
Environment
Ancient, Veteran & Notable Trees
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
There are no records of Ancient, Veteran or Notable Trees within the curtilage of this site.
Renewables
| Renewable | Installed |
|---|---|
| Solar PV Panels | No |
| Solar Thermal Panels | No |
| Biomass | No |
| Wind Turbine | No |
| Air Source Heat Pump | No |
| Ground Source Heat Pump | No |
| Ev Charging | No |
Species summary
There are no records of species within the curtilage of this site.
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
'Seek advice' Species
More information on species and action to be taken upon discovery.
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
Further information
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