The Church of St Mary the Virgin is located on Darlington Street in the

Bathwick Bathwick is an electoral ward in the City of Bath, England, on the opposite bank of the River Avon to the historic city centre. Bathwick was part of the hundred of Bath Forum. The district became part of the Bath urban area with the 18th centu ...

area of

Bath, Somerset Bath () is a city in the Bath and North East Somerset unitary area in the county of Somerset, England, known for and named after its Roman-built baths. At the 2021 Census, the population was 101,557. Bath is in the valley of the River Avon, ...

, England. The church is

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 ...

and located near Pinch's

Sydney Place Sydney Place in the Bathwick area of Bath, Somerset, England was built around 1800. Many of the properties are listed buildings. Numbers 1 to 12 were planned by Thomas Baldwin around 1795. The 3-storey buildings have mansard roofs. Jane Aus ...

(1808) and Bath's famed Sydney Pleasure Gardens. The church was constructed by the Pulteney family, who used it to replace the medieval parish church of St Mary's, Bathwick, known even in

Georgian Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group ** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three scrip ...

times as Bathwick Old Church. The churchyard is now part of

Smallcombe Cemetery Smallcombe Cemetery is on the edge of Bath, Somerset, England, in a valley between Widcombe Hill and Bathwick Hill. It has two distinct parts, the Anglican section known as St Mary's Churchyard and the nonconformist section known as Smallcombe ...

. The Church of St Mary the Virgin was where the band

Muse In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Muses ( grc, Μοῦσαι, Moûsai, el, Μούσες, Múses) are the inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the ...

recorded the organ parts on their second studio album ''

Origin of Symmetry ''Origin of Symmetry'' is the second studio album by English rock band Muse, released on 18 June 2001 through Taste Media. It was produced by John Leckie, who produced Muse's debut album '' Showbiz'' (1999), and David Bottrill. ''Origin of Symm ...

''.

History

William Pulteney commissioned a

bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

across the Avon when he inherited

land Land, also known as dry land, ground, or earth, is the solid terrestrial surface of the planet Earth that is not submerged by the ocean or other bodies of water. It makes up 29% of Earth's surface and includes the continents and various islan ...

across the river in what was then rural countryside. When the bridge was completed in 1774, it encouraged new settlement into the Bathwick Estate and the population increased here. The needs of a congregation called for a new church and a committee was formed in 1810. William Vane, Earl of Darlington, as a patron, provided a site at the lower end of Bathwick hill for the construction of a new church with John Pinch in charge of the design. In September 1814, the ceremony for the erection of the foundation stone was made. This occurred during a lull in the

Napoleonic War The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

, and so the inscription stone read: After this, the nearby Bathwick Old Church was demolished in 1818. On February 4, 1820, St Mary the Virgin was officially consecrated as the place of divine worship for the parish of Bathwick.

Pevsner's description

"St Mary he Virgin Raby Place,

. 1814–20 by Pinch ( John Pinch the Elder). The

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 ...

G.E. Street George Edmund Street (20 June 1824 – 18 December 1881), also known as G. E. Street, was an English architect, born at Woodford, London, Woodford in Essex. Stylistically, Street was a leading practitioner of the Gothic Revival architecture, Vi ...

, 1873–5. Meant to be in the Somerset Gothic style, though of course the result is typical of early C19. W tower with pierced

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). Whe ...

and polygonal pinnacles.

Nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

, aisles, clerestory, high and a little pinched. Perp ndicular

tracery Tracery is an architecture, architectural device by which windows (or screens, panels, and vaults) are divided into sections of various proportions by stone ''bars'' or ''ribs'' of Molding (decorative), moulding. Most commonly, it refers to the s ...

in the tall aisle windows and the lower

clerestory In architecture, a clerestory ( ; , also clearstory, clearstorey, or overstorey) is a high section of wall that contains windows above eye level. Its purpose is to admit light, fresh air, or both. Historically, ''clerestory'' denoted an upper l ...

windows with thin four-centered heads. Very tall thin piers of standard Somerset section (four hollows). Three galleries. No arcade arches, but a flat timber

lintel A lintel or lintol is a type of beam (a horizontal structural element) that spans openings such as portals, doors, windows and fireplaces. It can be a decorative architectural element, or a combined ornamented structural item. In the case of w ...

running through. This was originally plastered. Ribbed coved ceiling. The chancel not of particular interest. – PAINTING. On the altar early C16

polyptych A polyptych ( ; Greek: ''poly-'' "many" and ''ptychē'' "fold") is a painting (usually panel painting) which is divided into sections, or panels. Specifically, a "diptych" is a two-part work of art; a "triptych" is a three-part work; a tetrapty ...

, four winds, Netherlandish. – The original altar painting, an Adoration of the Child by Benjamin Barker, hangs high up against the W wall. – PLATE. Chalice and Cover 1572; Paten by Fawdery 1723; Chalice and Paten 1837."

Music

The organ in St. Mary's is the only example in the city of the work of Father Henry Willis. The musical tradition of the church dates back to the late 1800s when the

Oxford Movement The Oxford Movement was a movement of high church members of the Church of England which began in the 1830s and eventually developed into Anglo-Catholicism. The movement, whose original devotees were mostly associated with the University of O ...

's influence caused the establishment of a robed choir. For many years the reputation of the church choir rode high but during the 1970s and 1980s it proved difficult to maintain the numbers of boy trebles, prompting the formation of an all-adult choir. In the 1990s and into the new millennium the standards once again rose, and the choir of St. Mary's came to be held in high regard, making several recital tours within the UK and abroad, and broadcasting on radio and television.

References

Citations

Sources

* Nikolaus Pevsner (1958). ''The Buildings of England: North Somerset and Bristol''. Harmondsworth: