our 18-month period working at the church, we found that it offered a glimpse of the lamp-lit world of pre-war Bristol. One diary entry we came across relates the
destruction of the area and adjacent church during the Blitz of 1940: “Christening of William Duncan at St James Presbyterian Church The Barton, Bristol. … Church completely burned out that night. … This evening a tremendous air raid began about 6pm – ended about midnight – Bristol was demolished in parts and fires started over a tremendously wide area.” Doris Ogilvie, 24 November 1940
ST JAMES is an anonymous but miraculous Blitz survivor. Its ancient roof structure still bears much evidence of the terrible events that occurred between November 1940 and April 1941, when nearly 1,300 citizens were killed and thousands of Bristol’s old buildings were destroyed. Unrepaired areas of charred sarking board were evidence that incendiaries had burned on the roof; evidently, hose-wielding parishioners had somehow extinguished the flames. Inside, the north and south arcades and
clerestory are original work of the 12th century, and in the chancel and elsewhere there is much sympathetic Victorian fakery. The impressive timber wagon roof covering the nave is early, but probably not Norman. As the faces of the timbers have the remains of nail holes for fixing laths, it would previously have created a plastered tunnel vault. The plaster vault was taken down, and the nails removed, probably in the 1860s. The replacement infill panels followed a new line between the rafters. Outside, the upper gabled tier of the west
front is built of Oolitic Dundry stone, sourced from below the lonely tower of the ancient Merchant Venturers’ Guild church that sits atop the tor-like hill of the same name, a few miles outside the city walls. The lower section of the west front was of red
sandstone rubble construction, extracted from Brandon Hill a few streets distant. This rubble was formerly rendered. This was removed in the 1860s, and the decision taken during the recent work to reinstate this covering with a trowelled hydraulic lime render of the same colour as the remaining render fragments. Compared to what was going on at that time
in the rest of Europe, developments in provincial Bristol were rather low key. I am sure that the austere St Bernard of Clairvaux – who wrote in 1125 about the new craze of sculptured adornment as this “ridiculous monstrosity, this shapely misshapenness, this misshapen
70 Cornerstone, Vol 32, No 3 2011
Above, the St James’s beauty and her leadwork cuirass, before conservation. Too earthy for 18th-century Methodists? Right, Andrew Ziminski inspects conserved fine Jacobean plasterwork in the church house. Right, below, intricate Romanesque blind arcading, which would have been more visible, confidently and ostentatiously modern, when built in the 13th century
‘UNREPAIRED AREAS OF
INCENDIARIES BURNED ON THE ROOF. EVIDENTLY, HOSE-
BOARDWERE EVIDENCE THAT
CHARRED SARKING
PARISHIONERS HAD
WIELDING
shapeliness” – would have approved of its lack of embellishment. Ironically, Bernard, in his enthusiasm for the Second Crusade, indirectly assisted in introducing Islamic architectural forms to Northern Europe. Provincial or not, the sea-borne traffic to the
EXTINGUISHED THEFLAMES
’
great port would have exposed local thinkers to the influence not only of Rome but also of distant Islam in the form of these abstract architectural remnants. This influence may also be seen in a more developed sense in the scalloped opening of the famous nearby 14th-century North Porch of St Mary Redcliffe, which Pevsner felt may have been the first expression of Orientalism in Western architecture.
OVER the centuries St James’s position by the wharf, and the famous annual fair, ensured that it
would have continued to attract visitors and congregants. Indeed the 15-day fair became so well known that merchant ships sailing in the Bristol Channel were often attacked by Turkish pirates, well aware of the increased number of lucrative cargoes to be found during the festive period. Attractions at the church recorded in the 18th century included a shaved monkey exhibited as a genuine fairy. I haven’t even seen one of those at Glastonbury. The area developed rapidly in the 18th century, and St James continued to attract souls from around the world. One such arrival, who had returned recently from the American colonies, was preacher John Wesley. Before John Wesley built his first Methodist
Chapel in 1739 (the nearby New Room), St James was Wesley’s parish church. I am sure he would have known the west elevation well, as
ANDREWZIMINSKI
ANDREWZIMINSKI
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