The Priory Church of St James,

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

(), is a Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

in Horsefair, Whitson Street. It was founded in 1129 as a

Benedictine The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...

priory A priory is a monastery of men or women under religious vows that is headed by a prior or prioress. They were created by the Catholic Church. Priories may be monastic houses of monks or nuns (such as the Benedictines, the Cistercians, or t ...

Robert The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of ''Hrōþ, Hruod'' () "fame, glory, honour, prais ...

Earl of Gloucester The title of Earl of Gloucester was created several times in the Peerage of Peerage of England, England. A fictional earl is also a character in William Shakespeare's play ''King Lear.'' Earls of Gloucester, 1st Creation (1121) *Robert, 1st Earl ...

, the illegitimate son of Henry I. The early nave from 1129 survived the Dissolution of the Monasteries because an agreement in 1374 between the Abbot of Tewkesbury and the parishioners stated that the nave would become the parishioners responsibility,M Q Smith, "The Medieval Churches of Bristol", University of Bristol (Bristol Branch of the Historical Association), 1970, p5. and the tower was added around 1374. On 9 January 1540 the dissolution of the monasteries by

Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is known for his Wives of Henry VIII, six marriages and his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. ...

meant that St James Priory was surrendered to the crown. The priory buildings were demolished, keeping only the nave of the church. In 1543 the land and the right to hold a fair were sold to a London merchant-tailor. In 1604 there was concern that the national attraction of St James' Fair would increase the spread of the plague, so a royal proclamation was issued prohibiting Londoners from attending. The south aisle was widened and rebuilt in 1698. The porch dates from the late 18th century, and the north aisle was rebuilt in 1864. The traditional account, as told to John Leland,Joseph Bettey, St James Fair Bristol 1137-1837, Avon Local History and Archaeology Society, 2014 has it that every tenth stone brought from Normandy to build the Castle was set aside to build the Priory. Before the recent restoration (see below) the building was on the

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked with prot ...

Buildings at Risk Register and described as being in very bad condition. However, substantial restoration and reordering work was completed in 2011 and as of 2014 St James Priory is not on the Heritage Buildings at Risk Register. Today, it is an active church within the Catholic Diocese of Clifton, which until 1996 was a

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

place of worship.

St James's Fair

Earl Robert's endowment to the priory in 1137 included permission to hold an annual fair. From 1238 an annual fair held over fifteen days, was held here. Later charters show the original date of the fair to be

Whitsun Whitsun (also Whitsunday or Whit Sunday) is the name used in Britain, and other countries among Anglicans and Methodists, for the Christian holy day of Pentecost. It falls on the seventh Sunday after Easter and commemorates the descent of the H ...

Day, but the inconvenience of the festival changing date each year soon changed the fair day to 25 July, the feast day of St James. It was later changed to the first

fortnight A fortnight is a unit of time equal to 14 days (two weeks). The word derives from the Old English term , meaning "" (or "fourteen days", since the Anglo-Saxons counted by nights). Astronomy and tides In astronomy, a ''lunar fortnight'' is hal ...

in September. The fair, which was held in the Churchyard and adjoining streets, was regarded as the most important of the Bristol Fairs. The income from the Fair meant that St James Church could be richly decorated, in 1498 an elaborate

reredos A reredos ( , , ) is a large altarpiece, a screen, or decoration placed behind the altar in a Church (building), church. It often includes religious images. The term ''reredos'' may also be used for similar structures, if elaborate, in secular a ...

was built to go with the existing

rood screen The rood screen (also choir screen, chancel screen, or jubé) is a common feature in late medieval church architecture. It is typically an ornate partition between the chancel and nave, of more or less open tracery constructed of wood, stone, o ...

. The contract made it clear that the rood screen should be bigger and better than the one recently erected at

St Mary Redcliffe The Church of St Mary the Virgin, widely known as St Mary Redcliffe, is the main Church of England parish church for the Redcliffe district of the city of Bristol, England. The first reference to a church on the site appears in 1158, with the pr ...

. The papers from a court case in 1518-19 show that the fair was so popular it had overflowed the boundaries of the graveyard and stalls and booths were sited in the surrounding streets. The entertainments at the fair included theatre,

bear-baiting Bear-baiting was a historical blood sport in which a chained bear and one or more dogs were forced to fight one another. It also sometimes involved pitting a bear against another animal. Until the 19th century, it was commonly performed in Gr ...

, sports as well as minstrels and wrestling, exhibitions of wild animals, acrobats, puppets (including

Punch and Judy Punch and Judy is a traditional puppet show featuring Mr Punch and his wife Judy. The performance consists of a sequence of short scenes, each depicting an interaction between two characters, most typically the anarchic Mr Punch and one other ...

), magicians and musicians. One year the prize exhibition was 'Toby the salient Pig.' Further entertainments took place on 'The Marsh' which later became Queen Square. Amongst the groups of players on the Mayor's ledger books for the St James Fair are the

Lord Chamberlain's Men The Lord Chamberlain's Men was an English company of actors, or a "playing company" (as it then would likely have been described), for which William Shakespeare wrote during most of his career. Richard Burbage played most of the lead roles, includ ...

, which could suggest that

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

performed in Bristol. The Ledger kept by the merchant John Smyth shows how he (and other city merchants) planned their year so that their goods (such as wine, dyes, oil, iron, fruit, and luxury goods) would be in stock in time for the fair. By the 17th century the fair was so prominent that merchant ships sailing into Bristol for it were frequently attacked by Turkish pirates in the

Bristol Channel The Bristol Channel (, literal translation: "Severn Sea") is a major inlet in the island of Great Britain, separating South Wales (from Pembrokeshire to the Vale of Glamorgan) and South West England (from Devon to North Somerset). It extends ...

. The last fair was held in 1837 under pressure from moralists and strict religious people concerned about the corruption of the young and disapproving of such frivolities set in a graveyard. It also subsequently left its mark on the geography of Bristol as a nearby road in Broadmead is called the Horsefair. The St James Barton roundabout ( The Bearpit) retains the name of the Barton or Priory Farm, on which's land the Fair was once held.

St James Priory Project

After the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the nave of the priory church continued in use as an Anglican parish church. It fell into disuse in the 1980s and declared a

redundant church A redundant church, now referred to as a closed church, is a church building that is no longer used for Christian worship. The term most frequently refers to former Anglican churches in the United Kingdom, but may also be used for disused churche ...

before the

Church Commissioners The Church Commissioners is a body which administers the property assets of the Church of England. It was established in 1948 and combined the assets of Queen Anne's Bounty, a fund dating from 1704 for the relief of poor clergy, and of the Eccle ...

put it up for sale. In 1996 the Little Brothers of Nazareth re-established it as a Catholic church, and set up the St James Priory Project which offers support to vulnerable people especially those with a history of substance dependency and mental illness.

Restoration

Following the award of a

Heritage Lottery Fund The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom. History The fund's predecessor bodies were ...

grant of £3.2 million to conserve, repair, and develop the Priory, building work started in November 2009. The St James Priory charity had to fundraise a further £1.2 million of matched funding toward the restoration work. Conservation, restoration and development lasted 21 months and the Priory Church was re-opened on 25 July 2011. Archaeologists from Bristol and Region Archaeological Services were on site during the restoration works, and uncovered a fragment of what may be the earliest scientific

sundial A sundial is a horology, horological device that tells the time of day (referred to as civil time in modern usage) when direct sunlight shines by the position of the Sun, apparent position of the Sun in the sky. In the narrowest sense of the ...

in Britain. The sundial is a block of

Bath stone Bath Stone is an oolitic limestone comprising granular fragments of calcium carbonate originally obtained from the Middle Jurassic aged Great Oolite Group of the Combe Down and Bathampton Down Mines under Combe Down, Somerset, England. Its h ...

carved with hour lines and

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

Arabic numerals The ten Arabic numerals (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9) are the most commonly used symbols for writing numbers. The term often also implies a positional notation number with a decimal base, in particular when contrasted with Roman numera ...

in a style that suggests it was probably made in the 15th century. The discovery that a statue in the church had originally been topless made headlines around the world.

Burials at St James' Priory, Bristol

Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester Robert FitzRoy, 1st Earl of Gloucester (c. 1090 – 31 October 1147 David Crouch, 'Robert, first earl of Gloucester (b. c. 1090, d. 1147)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 200Retrieved 1 ...

Mabel FitzRobert, Countess of Gloucester Mabel FitzRobert, Countess of Gloucester (c. 1100 – 29 September 1157) was an Anglo-Norman noblewoman, and a wealthy heiress who brought the lordship of Gloucester, among other prestigious honours to her husband, Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucest ...

Eleanor, Fair Maid of Brittany Eleanor, Fair Maid of Brittany ( – 10 August 1241), also known as Damsel of Brittany, Pearl of Brittany, or Beauty of Brittany, was the eldest daughter of Geoffrey II, Duke of Brittany, and Constance, Duchess of Brittany. Her father was the ...

File:St James' Priory Church, Bristol, BRO Picbox-4-BCh-21, 1250x1250.jpg, Monochrome print of St James' church from c.1838. The image shows the church from the south east aspect in the background, with the graveyard (the site of St James' Fair) in the foreground. In the graveyard can be seen a mother with three children standing at a grave. File:St James' Priory Church, Bristol, BRO Picbox-4-BCh-22, 1250x1250.jpg, Monochrome illustration of St James' church and Priory ruins, published in 1630. The image shows the church from the south east aspect in the background on the left, with the Priory ruins in the foreground in the centre and on the right. Amongst the ruins can be seen men and women in seventeenth century costume. File:St James' Priory Church, Bristol, BRO Picbox-4-BCh-23, 1250x1250.jpg, Monochrome illustration of the west end of St James' church, published in 1820. The image shows the parts of the priory stonemasonry incorporated into the church facade and a jumble of non-ecclesiastical buildings in the foreground including a tall chimney.

References

External links

ChurchCrawler's Page on St James with numerous photographsVideo interview with Director Sue Jotcham about St James Priory
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BizView.tvHistory from about-bristol.co.ukBristol and Region Archaeological Services
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bristol, Saint James Buildings and structures completed in 1129 Saint James Saint James Grade I listed monasteries Structures on the Heritage at Risk register 12th-century church buildings in England 12th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United Kingdom Saint James Saint James 1129 establishments in England Christian monasteries established in the 1120s