Cathedral of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, including Chapter House and Cloisters

Bristol Cathedral, originally St Augustine's Abbey, is a major historic church complex that traces its origins to 1140 when Robert Fitzhardinge founded an Augustinian abbey. The Chapter House was built around 1160 under Fitzhardinge, along with parts of the cloister. The Elder Lady Chapel dates from 1220 under Abbot David; the Berkeley Chapel from 1300; the Eastern Lady Chapel and chancel from 1300-1330 under Abbot Knowle; and the Newton Chapel from 1330-1340. The crossing tower was built circa 1470-1515. The north transept has Norman lower walls and was completed 1460-1480, whilst the south transept was remodelled in the early 14th century. The late 15th century east walk of the cloister survives. The abbey was given cathedral rank by Henry VIII in 1542. The nave and west towers are Victorian work by GE Street, built 1868-1877, with the towers completed by JL Pearson in 1888.

The medieval sections are built of Dundry and Felton limestone ashlar, with rubble and ashlar dressings to the Elder Lady Chapel and transept. Street's work uses Bath ashlar limestone.

Plan and Architectural Style

The building comprises a two-bay Elder Lady Chapel north of a five-bay aisled chancel and presbytery, with a two-bay Eastern Lady Chapel. To the south are a one-bay sacristy and two-bay Berkeley Chapel. Transepts project one bay and there is an aisled nave of six bays. The Chapter House lies south of the transept, with cloisters south of the nave. The Chapter House is in late Norman style, the Elder Lady Chapel in Early English style, the chancel and Eastern Lady Chapel in Decorated style, and the nave and west towers in Middle Pointed Gothic Revival style.

Exterior

The building features deep buttresses with finials to weathered tops, crenellated parapets with crocketed pinnacles throughout. The Lady Chapel's east end has angle buttresses with keeled shafts swallowed by head stops, flanking a nine-light east window with reticulated tracery beneath a three-light mullion window. A label mould runs into a string course, with a central niche to the parapet above and a drip mould. The two-bay Lady Chapel has transomed four-light and three-light windows to north and south. The five-bay north aisle has transomed four-light windows, all displaying two alternating patterns of reticulated tracery.

The single-storey Elder Lady Chapel extends for four bays with three stepped lancet windows to each bay, and a circa 1275 Decorated east window of five lights. It has buttresses with gargoyles and tall diagonally-set pinnacles between a parapet of pierced trefoils, and a large square clasping buttress at the east end with a tall octagonal pinnacle.

The north transept features a six-light east window with rectilinear tracery, a west window and door, and a Geometrical six-light north window by Street with a three-light mullion window above covered by a clock. It has a gabled, crenellated parapet with square, crenellated turrets. The two-stage crossing tower has a north-east stair turret, angle buttresses to the lower stage and diagonal ones to the belfry. Each stage has five transomed two-light Perpendicular windows, louvred to the centre of the belfry, separated by thin buttresses with finials. Above is weathering, a blind arcade, and a crenellated parapet with corner pinnacles.

The five-bay nave has four-light transomed windows with Geometrical tracery, separated by deep buttresses with pinnacles linked to those on the parapet by flying buttresses. Above runs a course of weathering and a parapet of pierced trefoils.

An ornate north porch features an arch of three orders below a statuary panel of the Adoration, with two-light transom lancets to each side and above. It has set-back buttresses with round, weathered tops, and attached shafts to canopied niches with statues. Inside, the porch has two bays, each with a bench and two niches styled after the Elder Lady Chapel, with Purbeck marble shafts and trefoil tympana joined by hoods with foliate stops. Purbeck marble shafts support a sexpartite vault. Lancet windows with quatrefoil heads appear in the north bay. The entrance arch has three orders with Purbeck marble shafts and a rose window in the tympanum, running foliage to the lintel, and a two-leaf door with strap hinges.

The Berkeley Chapel has three-light windows to the east, a four-light south window, and a rounded triangular window with three trefoil openings to the west. It has gableted buttresses with diagonally-set pinnacles and a crenellated parapet, with an octagonal stair turret with a weathered top on the south-west corner. The Sacristy has two mullion windows and buttressing matching the adjoining chapel. The Newton Chapel, in the angle against the south transept, has a five-light east window and a small mullion window just below a plain parapet, with a five-light south window. The south transept has a four-light south window with reticulated tracery and a small 12th century lancet above, a four-light west window by Street, and a coped parapet.

The west front features two large flanking three-stage towers. The lower stage has a four-light window, the second stage a blind arcade of four lancets with engaged shafts, with set-back buttresses and a band of trefoil panels at the top. The belfry has two louvred two-light windows flanked by narrower blind two-light lancets with crocketed gable hoods. Below the top corners are statues in canopied niches, and broad octagonal gableted pinnacles. On the rear outer corners are octagonal stair turrets with panels on the belfry stage and gabled panels above. Between the towers is a deep entrance arch of six orders with Purbeck marble colonnettes and enriched mouldings to the arch. The tympanum contains an empty niche, and a trumeau divides two square-headed doorways with 20th century glazing. Pinnacled buttresses flank the entrance, and a gabled hood with large crockets breaks a pierced and trefoil-headed parapet. Above this lower gable is a large rose window with a crocketed gable hood, fronting blind pointed-arched panels of two tiers forming a parapet, divided by diagonally-set buttresses with large finials.

Interior: Lady Chapel and Chancel

The Lady Chapel has a richly decorated stone 14th century reredos of three large, cusped, crocketed ogee-arched niches with ball flowers, flanked by pinnacle buttresses, with narrow gabled niches in between and shields in the spandrels above. Diaper work decorates the backs of the niches. The original cornice with heads and fleurons sits beneath an elaborate crested parapet added by Abbot Burton 1526-39. Four 19th century sedilia by Pearson in similar style have slender shafts to cinquefoil arches formed from intersecting ogee arches. Three very fine 14th century stellate memorial niches appear, two on the north side, with five foliate finials linked by convex curved labels with naturalistic crockets and head stops, surrounding on three sides an octagonal stilted arch with open cusps and trefoil spandrels. All these are painted by E Tristram, circa 1930s. The window reveals are splayed, above a gallery through the piers with concave-headed doorways and head keys and a parapet of pierced, slanted quatrefoils. Banded Purbeck marble shafts with foliate capitals support a lierne vault with richly carved bosses.

The chancel has a five-bay arcade of steep, pointed arches without capitals—a remarkably early example—with attached shafts with foliate capitals to vaults matching the Lady Chapel but with cusped lozenges. Similar galleries run along the aisles, which are the same height as the chancel but bridged by horizontal stone beams on pointed arches with pierced mouchette spandrels. The aisle vault rests with fine head corbels on the beam and is made open by the absence of the two lower cells. The north aisle has two stellate niches, and the two west bays are pierced by shallow Perpendicular arches dying into the jambs, with quatrefoil panelled intrados and large naturalistic foliate bosses.

Elder Lady Chapel

These openings give onto the Elder Lady Chapel, entered from the north transept by an arch of three orders with Purbeck marble shafts, bases and capitals. The chapel has four bays, each with a lower arcade of four deeply moulded trefoil arches with Purbeck shafts and stiff leaf capitals enriched with anthropomorphic masks. Hoods have finely carved foliate and animate stops and spandrels with various genre scenes. Above runs a horizontal roll moulding swallowed at the ends by head stops. Three stepped rere arches to each bay, the outer ones with a cusp, on Purbeck marble shafts, capitals and bases, are separated by banded shafts to a sexpartite vault. On the south side the rere arches are cut short for the openings to the chancel, with three stiff leaf corbels in the east bay.

South Aisle and Chapels

The south aisle has three similar stellate niches, the eastern one opening to the Berkeley Chapel. This is entered by a cuspate arch with ball flowers and a crocketed ogee hood, flanked by niches with gabled hoods, with pinnacle buttresses dividing them.

The Ante Chapel or Sacristy has three south niches with cuspate, convex hoods and fine, foliate finials and carved leaves on the spandrels. Between are gabled niches and pinnacle buttresses, and the east niche has a flue to a chimney in the pinnacle above. In the north-east corner is a niche with a crocketed gable beneath a gargoyle head. The arch to the Berkeley Chapel has small pomegranates which fade into the jambs, and an ogee hood with coiled sea shells beneath a canopied niche. The ceiling is flat, with a flying vault of three bays beneath it, described by Pevsner as a tour de force.

The Berkeley Chapel has an aumbry, two canopied piscinas, and three small trefoil-headed niches in the south wall with carved heads to spandrels and a label mould. Fine naturalistic foliate carving and ball flowers and fleurons decorate the south window soffits. Beneath the open stellate niche is a running moulding of five rings encircling stiff leaves above five shields. Shafts with foliate capitals support a quadripartite vault.

The Newton Chapel is one bay with part of a blind round arch in the south wall and a quadripartite vault. It borders a small bay to the south aisle with an octopartite vault.

Transepts

The transepts have chamfered arches to the east and west aisles dying into the jambs, and lierne vaults after the chancel, that to the north with fine bosses. To the south is a cusped arched door, a blocked Norman lancet, and a Norman stair to the Dormitory.

Nave

The six-bay arcade has Purbeck marble corner shafts and foliate capitals to piers, with a tierceron vault. The aisle vaults follow the chancel aisles but with the vault springing from the beam forming two open arches. Splayed window reveals and rere arches rest on Purbeck marble shafts, with a gallery with a pierced trefoil parapet. The west arcade bays are closed by blind tracery. The west end has four crocketed gable hoods separated by buttresses, with an arcade of trefoil niches below the rose and flanking Purbeck marble shafts. The rooms below the towers have trefoil arcades after the Elder Lady Chapel. Each bay has a memorial niche of cinquefoil arches flanked by pinnacle buttresses.

Chapter House

The Chapter House dates from 1150-70. It is entered from the east cloister through three semicircular arches to a two-bay quadripartite vaulted lobby with columns with half shafts and scallop capitals, very early pointed ribs, and beaded soffits. The very fine Chapter House has two quadripartite vaulted bays with an arcade of semicircular-arched seat niches from the ground beneath side arcades of interlacing semicircular arches, effectively forming pointed arches, on enriched shafts with scallop and foliate capitals, rope moulding, and semicircular-arched tympana above decorated with basket weave and chevron. The west end has three semicircular arches, the outer ones containing two-light windows with a black marble central shaft, the central one a 19th century double door with wrought-iron, beneath an arcade as the side, with a further arcade rising across the arched wall above. Part was destroyed in the Bristol riots of 1831. The rebuilt east end has three semicircular-arched windows with rope moulded surrounds and mid 20th century engraved glass.

Monuments

The stellate memorial niches in the Lady Chapel hold recumbent figures of Abbots Walter Newbery died 1473, William Hunt died 1481 and John Newland died 1515, the former with a crocketed ogee arcade to the front. A chest tomb to Bishop Bush died 1558 has six fluted Ionic columns with an entablature canopy containing a crudely carved cadaver figure.

The north aisle includes a large wall memorial in the east end incorporating sections of a Perpendicular reredos to Robert Codrinton died 1618, with a plinth with kneeling mourners in relief and angels holding the curtains of a baldacchino to reveal a kneeling couple facing one another. A marble wall tablet to Phillip Freke died 1729 is a cartouche with winged cherubs and a skull beneath. In the open arch to the Elder Lady Chapel is the chest tomb of Maurice Berkeley died 1368, with ogee panels separated by pinnacled buttresses and a recumbent knight and lady on top.

The south aisle includes a 19th century stellate bay in the east end with a depressed ogee arch containing a cast-iron chest tomb with Perpendicular panelling. A chest tomb in the open stellate niche to the Berkeley Chapel has panels with elliptical arches on Ionic pilasters. An oval slate wall tablet to Ronsland Searchfield died 1622 sits within a wreath of bay leaves. In the stellate niches are recumbent figures in armour of Lord Berkeley died 1326 and Thomas Berkeley died 1243.

The Newton Chapel includes an incomplete dresser tomb of 1444 with a panelled plinth, twisted shafts and a trefoil panelled cove; a dresser tomb of Henry Newton died 1599 has an alabaster plinth with kneeling mourners and a recumbent couple in front of a wide panel with scrolled roundels on top and a kneeling knight; a large dresser tomb of John Newton died 1561 has a panelled plinth with helical Corinthian shafts to an entablature and swan's neck pediment with a shield held by maidens and a knight on top, framing a recumbent figure with two round-arched panels behind.

The north transept includes a coffin lid of Abbot David died 1234 with a shallow relief effigy. The south transept includes an important late Saxon stone panel of the Harrowing of Hell, resting on a pair of attached Norman shafts from the cloister with scalloped capitals. The narthex includes a dresser tomb of Dame Joan and Sir John Young died 1606 by Samuel Baldwin, with a plinth with a relief of kneeling mourners and corner buttresses of kneeling angels, and Corinthian shafts to an entablature canopy with winged cherubs on the front, and a decorated panel above with strapwork to a shield between curtains; beneath is a recumbent figure of a woman, behind which are heraldic shields and cherubs; a dresser tomb to Sir Charles Vaughan in Classical style has a panelled base with cartouches, with marble Corinthian shafts to a broken pediment with fruit and a heraldic panel with recumbent women on top; beneath lies a recumbent knight on one elbow, and to the sides are two classical figures.

18th to early 20th century monuments include Mrs Morgan died 1767 by John Bacon to a design of James Stuart; a bust by Bailey to Robert Southey died 1843; an obelisk with classical base and seated genius by J Paine to William Powell died 1769; a monument by Bailey to William Brane Elwyn died 1841 surrounded by mourning relatives; Elizabeth Charlotte Stanhope died 1816 by Westmacott; Emma Crawfuird died 1823 by Chantrey with a double portrait; an effigy to Dean Pigou died 1916 by NA Trent. Aisle floors have slate and marble memorial slabs.

Fittings

The high altar stone reredos by JL Pearson of 1899 in Perpendicular style has blind tracery panels and crocketed niches with statues, a piscina and five sedilia on both sides with ogee-arched canopies. There are three rows of choir stalls, mostly late 19th century with flamboyant traceried ends, and misericords of circa 1520 and one of early 17th century to the back row, with varied genre scenes such as Adam and Eve, Reynard the Fox. A pair of organ cases from 1682-5 have rich carving. A stone screen to the crossing by JL Pearson 1904 has three ogee arches with panels and statues in niches and a pair of brass gates to the centre.

In the Berkeley Chapel is a very rare candelabrum of 1450 from the Temple Church. A 15th century timber entrance screen to the Newton Chapel has four bays with traceried panels and a central gate. An ornate pulpit of 1903 with red marble shafts has an arched stair. A 19th century brass eagle lectern has marble balls inset in the base. A 15th century octagonal font in the north transept and a late 19th century font at the west end of the south aisle both have covers of curved wooden brackets. The remains of a 15th century Perpendicular stone reredos stand against the east wall of the north chancel. Remains of a Rood Screen, given in 1542 by Thomas White, survive behind the stalls. 15th century tiles cover the east end of the north chancel.

Stained Glass

Stained glass includes remains from the mid 14th century east Jesse window, including a seated Virgin, much restored 1847; an early 17th century east north chancel window, said to be a gift of Nell Gwynne; and 19th and 20th century glass.

Historical Note

Work on the abbey church stopped in the mid 14th century when the south transept was half complete. After a long break the transept was finished and the nave built as far as sill height by the early 16th century. Street's work followed the existing foundations. The 14th century work with its tall aisles, remarkable vaulting and spatial effects is one of the earliest major hall churches, superior to anything else built in England and indeed in Europe at the same time according to Pevsner, and is an exceptionally early example of a hall-type church which achieved more popularity on the continent.

Cloister

A mid 19th century entrance from the south transept leads to the cloister, which occupies five bays to the south side of the nave. Each bay has two three-light Perpendicular windows, articulated by buttresses with crocketed pinnacles breaking through the cornice with gargoyles to the middle. A similar east cloister walk without pinnacles is much restored 19th century. To the south end is a deep ogee gable with crockets to the gable and jambs.

The interior has an early 14th century door. Monuments include Elizabeth Draper died 1780 by John Bacon with two allegorical figures. Glass includes fragments of medieval glass.

The Dormitory has Norman, 14th century and 17th century windows.

The interior includes 13th to 16th century floor tiles and late 16th century drawings.