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St Werburgh’s – A church on the move

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According to Arrowsmith’s Dictionary of Bristol (1884), there has been a St Werburgh’s church in Bristol from as early as 1190. It was an important church with many mayors and sheriffs of Bristol buried within the church and churchyard.

The church suffered during the dissolution of the monasteries. Accounts for 1547-48 show that 15s 0d was paid to ‘carpenters and labourers for having down the Rode‘, (Rood Screen), and there were numerous other payments for whitewashing the walls and other parts of the church, presumably to obliterate wall-paintings. The destruction at St Werburgh even extended to the churchyard cross.

Churchwarden records document inventories of the goods of St Werburgh. Before the Reformation the church possessed a large quantity of plate, crosses, jewels, vestments, paintings, books etc, and the interior of the church was dominated by the great Rood Screen. In 1567 an inventory of the church goods shows that all that remained of all these possessions were: ‘a communion cup, a quart pot, a pewter pot of a pynt, a bible, the paraphrases of Erasmus, the homilies, a cope and pall of velvet, a white cloth for the communion table, a surplice, carpet, prayer book and a chest’.

Originally the church was without a tower, this being added in 1385 and the whole church was largely rebuilt in 1760 as it had decayed over the years as its importance and parishioners declined.

St Werburgh’s Church, c.1870

The church was situated at the corner of Corn Street and Small Street in the centre of Bristol. The population of the parish had been dwindling for many years and in the 1871 Census stood at just 18 people. The area was, however, one of Bristol’s main thoroughfares and the Church building was causing congestion for large horse-drawn carriages.

The Rev. Canon John Hall, Rector of St. Werburgh’s since 1832, died on 3 August 1871. Almost immediately the Streets Improvement Committee of Bristol Council recommended that the costs and options for removing the church and churchyard be investigated.

Opinions, both inside Bristol Council and amongst the general population of the city, were divided as to whether the church and tower should be removed, the church should be removed and the tower retained, or both church and tower should be left in situ. The Council wanted to demolish the church, sell the site that it occupied, and use the funds to build a new church in another district. Improvements in traffic flow could then be implemented in the city centre.

St Werburghs Church, c.1870

A private bill, The St. Werburgh’s Church, Bristol, Bill, was laid before the House of Commons in January 1876. It proposed the removal of the church and tower, uniting the parishes of St. Werburgh’s and All Saints, and building a replacement church in the new parish.

However, as the Bill progressed through Parliament, a desire to keep the church tower gained momentum. One idea considered was to keep just the tower and then build a passageway through its base for pedestrians. At a meeting at the Council House on 3 March 1876, attended by the Lord Mayor and the local MP, a resolution was passed for the removal of the church but the retention of the tower.

The St. Werburgh Church (Bristol) Act, dated 24 July 1876, received its Royal Assent on 5 August. The Act was:

“to provide for the uniting the parish of Saint Werburgh, in the city of Bristol, to the adjoining parish of All Saints, and for the removing the parish church of Saint Werburgh, and the re-erecting the same in a new parish to be formed in the said city; and for other purposes.”

Section 8 of the Act specifically allowed for the retention of the tower if the church authorities and City Council so decided:

“Provided that the rector and churchwardens may agree with the corporation for the retention of the tower of the old church upon its present site (if the corporation shall consider retention desirable), upon such terms as shall be approved of by the bishop and the archdeacon.”

From the date of Royal Assent the old parish of St. Werburgh ceased to exist for both ecclesiastical and civil purposes. This was not, however, the end of the debate. A special meeting of Bristol Council was held on 5 December to consider Section 8 of the Act. On December 6, 1876, by a majority of seven, the meeting decided not to retain the tower on its present site on the grounds that they could not vote public monies towards retaining public monuments, and that the Tower was an obstruction to traffic.

This decision galvanised supporters of the tower’s retention into action. A ‘St. Werburgh’s Tower Retention Fund’ was set up, with prominent contributors including the Duchess of Beaufort, the Headmaster of Clifton College, Dr. Percival, and the local MP, Mr. W. K. Wait.

A petition was sent to the Earl of Limerick:

“I beg your Lordship’s influnce and powerful protection for a petition with above eleven hundred signatures (1,121) of inhabitants of Bristol against the destruction of St, Werburgh’s Church.”

There was much correspondence from all sides of the debate in the newspapers;

“Although many letters hare been written and much public attention given to this subject, it is not yet quite exhausted.”

In the Western Daily Press a letter stated:

“As to the argument that “the public safety is endangered,” [Rev. Rawnsley] says this is contradicted by the public certificate of a competent Bristol architect, after a most careful survey. … sooner or later a new main street will be run in a straight line between Bristol Bridge and the Drawbridge; and that a slow traffic in a street is of greater monetary value to the shop-holders, with regard to customers, than a street with the possibilities of rapid transit.”

A later letter to the same newspaper:

“It is objected that St. Werburgh’s tower is not architecturally of such merit as to warrant its preservation. And a whisper is abroad, probably worth little credit, that the Bristol citizens have misconstrued the interest taken in their royal old monuments by the external world into an unwarrantable meddlesomeness. ‘We are not going to be dictated to by a pack of antiquarians!’ ”

The success of the public campaign was such that Bristol Council, at its meeting on 13 February 1877, reversed the decision made in December of the previous year and voted to keep the tower.

The future of the tower, however, was still not certain. Legal issues were raised and The London & South Western Bank entered the fray by offering to buy the site at a higher price than Bristol Council were prepared to pay. As no contract existed between the Council and church authorities, the latter were duty bound to obtain the best price.

In the end, financial considerations prevailed and the Bank purchased the whole site. Plans for the new church were developed which included the re-erection of the church and tower using as much of the old buildings as practicable. The plans showed that ‘The tower will be reproduced exactly, the only addition being at the top’.

The last service was held on 12th August 1877, and the work to dismantle the church and tower began 10 days later. Parts of the original building, particularly the tower, were re-used in the construction of the new church under the direction of the architect John Bevan,

Public interest in the fate of church continued, The Western Daily Press reported that:

“Scaffolding is now being erected in order to take down the church of St. Werburgh, in Corn Street, and is the utmost interest appears to be taken in the operations going forward, to judge, by the number of persons who congregate in the vicinity of the sacred structure to watch the workmen. 

Mr J. Bevan, architect, St. Leonard’s Chambers, Nicholas Street, has been entrusted with the task of superintending the removal of the church and re-erecting it … and under his supervision it is intended at first to take down the tower as far as the roof of the body of the edifice.

To prevent any accident to passers by while this responsible task goes forward, the scaffolding near the top will be boarded in, so as to form a platform on which any chance stones may fall instead of descend into the street. This precaution has been considered by some needless, but the duty of providing against accident should not be neglected.

The bodies that were interred in vaults in the church are carried away early in the morning to Greenbank Cemetery, where they are re-interred…”

The Church had changed over the last few hundred years and changed again on the new site. It was built from designs produced by the architect John Bevan, who retained much of the detail of the old church, although, where appropriate, he introduced some changes to the architecture. The floor of the building, as far as the old portion was concerned, was exactly the same, but the nave was now 75 feet, 17 feet longer than previously.

With regard to the tower, the only alteration was in the position of the turret, which originally stood on the north-west angle of the tower, but was moved to the south-west angle. This was to give additional support to the structure. The style of architecture is of the perpendicular period, but the outside walls are modern. The old tower was perpendicular, or, as some described it at the time, “poor” perpendicular. The windows of the nave in the old building were not much in keeping with the general architectures of the church prior to the restoration in 1761, and Bevan, who had to draw upon his imagination in several places, substituted windows of a more appropriate style, and these two designs alternate.

The new, reconstructed church held its first service on 30 September 1879 and continued to be used until late in the twentieth century. The last service at St. Werburgh’s Church was held on Remembrance Sunday 1988. The building was sold and the interior is now an indoor climbing centre. The exterior has been retained and is a Grade II listed building.

A note about St Werburgh herself…

Werburgh was born at Stone (now in Staffordshire), and was the daughter of King Wulfhere of Mercia (himself the Christian son of the pagan King Penda of Mercia) and his wife Ermenilda, who was daughter of the King of Kent. Werburgh obtained her father’s consent to enter the Abbey of Ely, which had been founded by her great-aunt Etheldreda (or Audrey), the first Abbess of Ely and former queen of Northumbria, whose fame was widespread. Werburgh was instrumental in convent reform across England. She eventually succeeded her mother Ermenilda, her grandmother Seaxburh, and great-aunt Etheldreda as fourth Abbess of Ely.

Her most famous claim to fame was the miracle of the goose. According to William Of Malmesbury;

St Werburgh had land in the country beyond the walls of Chester whose crops were being preyed upon by wild geese. The bailiff in charge did all he could to drive them away, but with little success. So, one day, when he was in attendance on his mistress. he put in a complaint about the matter. ‘Go,’ she said, ‘and shut them all up indoors.’

When he realised she was not joking, he went back to the geese and laid down the law in a loud voice: they must follow him as his lady commanded. The geese duly formed a flock, lowered their necks, trooped after the bailiff, and were all penned up. The bailiff, however, took the opportunity to steal one of them away for supper.

St Werburgh arrived the following dawn. She reproached the birds for stealing things that did not belong to them, and told them to be gone. But the birds, sensing that not all of them were present, refused to move. God inspired her to realise that the birds were not making all this fuss for nothing, so she closely questioned the bailiff and discovered the fate of the missing goose. She told the bailiff to assemble the goose’s bones and bring them to her. At a gesture of her hand, skin and flesh immediately formed on the bones and the skin began to sprout feathers: then the bird came to life and launched itself into the sky along with the rest of the flock.

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