All Saints' Church is a

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...

in the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

located in

Bryher, Isles of Scilly Bryher ( kw, Breyer "place of hills") is one of the smallest inhabited islands of the Isles of Scilly, with a population of 84 in 2011, spread across . History The name of the island is recorded as ''Brayer'' in 1336 and ''Brear'' in 1500. G ...

History

Bryher is the most westerly settlement in England, therefore All Saints'

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

church can claim to be the most westerly church in the Anglican

provinces A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outsi ...

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. ...

and

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

. The earliest record of a permanent church on Bryher is the account of the dedication of a small building to 'God and All Saints' by the

Chaplain A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a Minister (Christianity), minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a laity, lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secularity, secular institution (such as a hosp ...

of St Mary's, Revd Paul Hathaway, in 1742. It was approximately 24 feet by 13 feet and also served the community on

Samson Samson (; , '' he, Šīmšōn, label= none'', "man of the sun") was the last of the judges of the ancient Israelites mentioned in the Book of Judges (chapters 13 to 16) and one of the last leaders who "judged" Israel before the institution o ...

. The church is built of granite rubble on a rectangular plan and was enlarged in 1822 by the surveyor Christopher Strick to provide seating for 154 people. There were repairs in 1832 and 1833 by Thomas Downing, carpenter and William Williams. The tower and porch were added in 1860. There is a plain

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font is a matched set of type, with a piece (a "sort") for each glyph. A typeface consists of a range of such fonts that shared an overall design. In mod ...

dated 1861. There were additions and alterations in 1882 and a new

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ove ...

was added in 1897 and new roof (6 feet higher than the previous) in 1930. The church has been listed since 1975. The

stained glass Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

windows were replaced, the work being completed in 2007; all four lights are by Oriel Hicks of Phoenix Studio and represent sayings of

Jesus Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

Parish structure

All Saints' Church is within the United Benefice of the

Isles of Scilly The Isles of Scilly (; kw, Syllan, ', or ) is an archipelago off the southwestern tip of Cornwall, England. One of the islands, St Agnes, is the most southerly point in Britain, being over further south than the most southerly point of the ...

parishes, which also includes: *

St Agnes' Church, St Agnes St Agnes' Church is a parish church in the Church of England located in St Agnes, Isles of Scilly, UK. History The Anglican church is dedicated to St Agnes of Rome. The first church was built in the sixteenth or seventeenth century, but it w ...

St Martin's Church, St Martin's St Martin's Church, St Martin's is a Grade II listed parish church in the Church of England located in St Martin's, Isles of Scilly, UK. History The Anglican church was built in 1683 by Thomas Ekin, the Godolphin Steward. Originally only long ...

St Mary's Church, St Mary's St Mary's Church, St Mary's is a parish church in the Church of England located in Hugh Town, St Mary's, Isles of Scilly, UK. The Church was consecrated on 7 September 1838 and replaced the church at Old Town which was inconvenient for the Hugh ...

St Mary's Old Church, St Mary's St Mary's Old Church, St Mary's is a parish church in the Church of England located in Old Town on St Mary's, Isles of Scilly, Cornwall, United Kingdom. History The Anglican church of St Mary was built at Old Town, Isles of Scilly during the 1 ...

St Nicholas's Church, Tresco St Nicholas's Church, Tresco, is a parish church in the Church of England located in Tresco, Isles of Scilly, UK. History Originally two old cottages were used by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK) as a church. Augustus Smith ...

Services

Services are held once a week at the church, in addition to special occasions such as weddings and christenings. The first

confirmation In Christian denominations that practice infant baptism, confirmation is seen as the sealing of the covenant created in baptism. Those being confirmed are known as confirmands. For adults, it is an affirmation of belief. It involves laying on ...

service ever recorded at the church took place in 2013.

Sources

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (1 ...

(1970) ''The Buildings of England, Cornwall''

References

{{Reflist

Bryher Bryher ( kw, Breyer "place of hills") is one of the smallest inhabited islands of the Isles of Scilly, with a population of 84 in 2011, spread across . History The name of the island is recorded as ''Brayer'' in 1336 and ''Brear'' in 1500. Ge ...

Churches completed in 1822

Bryher