Cotham Church is a Gothic Revival style church in

Cotham, Bristol Cotham is an area of Bristol, England, about 1 mile north of the city centre. It is an affluent, leafy, inner city suburb situated north of the neighbourhoods of Kingsdown and St Paul’s and sandwiched between Gloucester Road (A38) to the eas ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. Since 1975, it has been a

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 Britai ...

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, ...

known as the Church of St Saviour with St Mary or simply as Cotham Parish Church.

History

Cotham Church was originally Highbury

Congregational Chapel Congregational churches (also Congregationalist churches or Congregationalism) are Protestant churches in the Calvinist tradition practising congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its ...

, built in 1842 and completed in 1843. The architect was

William Butterfield William Butterfield (7 September 1814 – 23 February 1900) was a Gothic Revival architect and associated with the Oxford Movement (or Tractarian Movement). He is noted for his use of polychromy. Biography William Butterfield was born in Lon ...

and this was his first commission, obtained through his family's connection with William Day Wills of the tobacco firm W. D. & H. O. Wills. The exact site seems to have been chosen in part because its association with the 'Marian Martyrs' who were burned to death for heresy on the site during the 1550s. There is a memorial to them on the exterior north wall of the church. Marian martyrs memorial cotham church

The church's

apse In architecture, an apse (plural apses; from Latin 'arch, vault' from Ancient Greek 'arch'; sometimes written apsis, plural apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an '' exedra''. ...

, tower, south transept and school were added in 1863 by

Edward William Godwin Edward William Godwin (26 May 1833, Bristol – 6 October 1886, London) was a progressive English architect-designer, who began his career working in the strongly polychromatic " Ruskinian Gothic" style of mid-Victorian Britain, inspired by ...

. The large stone low in the enclosing wall along Cotham Road is part of Bewell's Cross, which marked the boundary of the city until the nineteenth century. It has been designated by

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

as a

Grade II* listed building 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 Ir ...

Anglican church

In 1975, the

purchased it. It is now known as the Church of St Saviour with St Mary or simply as Cotham Parish Church. The

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one o ...

of "Cotham: St Saviour with St Mary" is part of a united benefice with St Paul's Church, Clifton, Bristol in the Archdeaconry of Bristol in the

Diocese of Bristol The Diocese of Bristol is an ecclesiastical jurisdiction or diocese of the Church of England in the Province of Canterbury, England. It is based in the city of Bristol and covers South Gloucestershire and parts of north Wiltshire, as far east ...

. The church stands in the Liberal Catholic

tradition A tradition is a belief or behavior (folk custom) passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examples include holidays or ...

of the Church of England.

References

{{Culture in Bristol Church of England church buildings in Bristol Churches completed in 1843 19th-century Church of England church buildings Grade II* listed churches in Bristol William Butterfield buildings 1843 establishments in England Highbury Congregational Chapel, Cotham

History

Anglican church

See also

References