St Bridget's Church, Brean is the

Church of England parish church A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within each Church of England parish (the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative unit; since the 19th century sometimes ca ...

of the village of

Brean Brean is a village and civil parish between Weston-super-Mare and Burnham-on-Sea in Somerset, England. The name is derived from "Bryn" Brythonic and Modern Welsh for a hill and it has a population of 635. Close to the village is Brean Down, a pro ...

in Somerset, England. The parish is part of a

benefice A benefice () or living is a reward received in exchange for services rendered and as a retainer for future services. The Roman Empire used the Latin term as a benefit to an individual from the Empire for services rendered. Its use was adopted by ...

with the Parish

Church of St Mary, Berrow The Church of St Mary in Berrow, Somerset, England dates from the 13th century and was restored in the 19th. It has been designated as a grade I listed building. The church is built of limestone from the Mendip Hills with Hamstone for the dec ...

. The benefice is part of the Archdeaconry of Wells in the Diocese of Bath and Wells. Since the 1980s St Bridget's parish has been in a

local ecumenical partnership In England and Wales, a local ecumenical partnership (or project) is a partnership between churches of different denominations. First piloted in 1964, over 850 now exist to promote unity between different Christian denominations. The missiolo ...

(LEP) with Brean Methodist Church.

History

The dedication to Brigid of Kildare, an Irish abbess who died in 525, implies that Brean was a Celtic Christian settlement. The present church building has 13th-century origins but was largely rebuilt in the 15th century and again in 1882. The tower was damaged by lightning in the 18th century and rebuilt in 1729. The interior includes a 17th-century

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, access ...

and a 14th or 15th century octagonal stone

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 ...

. The church is a Grade II* listed building.

Bells

The tower has a

ring Ring may refer to: * Ring (jewellery), a round band, usually made of metal, worn as ornamental jewelry * To make a sound with a bell, and the sound made by a bell :(hence) to initiate a telephone connection Arts, entertainment and media Film and ...

of five bells. The third, fourth and tenor bells were cast at Bristol in about 1499. The Whitechapel Bell Foundry cast the second bell in 1880 and the treble bell in 2000. The bells are rung occasionally for services and weddings by a band of

bell ringer A bell-ringer is a person who rings a bell, usually a church bell, by means of a rope or other mechanism. Despite some automation of bells for random swinging, there are still many active bell-ringers in the world, particularly those with an adv ...

s from both churches.

Access

The church is open daily throughout the summer months. Next to the church is a church room with toilets and a kitchen.

References

Sources and further reading

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External links