Church Of St Mary

The Church of St Mary, located on High Street in Shirehampton, Bristol, was built in 1929 by architect P Hartland Thomas. This church features a structure made of reinforced concrete, clad with Pennant rubble and limestone dressings, topped with a pantile roof. It is designed in a Modernist Gothic Revival style, comprising an aisled nave and chancel with side chapels, as well as a west porch.

At the eastern end, there is a single-storey parapeted vestry with roll top coping beneath a gable, supported by angle buttresses, and a prominent 5-light, 2-centred arched window divided by a transom. The north chancel has three bays, separated by buttresses, and features a 3-light mullion window with a flat head at the eastern end, along with a drip course beneath the parapet. The taller nave's eastern end showcases a tall stepped gable bellcote with weathered coping, which contains two flat-headed openings for bells and a central louvred panel, topped with a cross.

The gable extends down to form a weathered buttress at the end of the low parapeted, windowless aisle, which includes a left-hand 2-centred arched doorway. The nave is adorned with flat-headed 5-light mullion and transom windows that stretch between the buttresses, and the south elevation mirrors this design. The western end features low 3-light mullion windows in the aisles and on the sides of the gable, along with a deep porch that has a semicircular-arched doorway with deep splayed reveals, divided by three inscribed arches, leading to a two-leaf door. Above the porch is a 5-light, 2-centred arched mullion and transom window.

Inside, the church has plain, unmoulded divisions, with a 2-centre chancel arch and square piers supporting flat-headed aisle arches, while the aisles are divided by semicircular cross arches. The Gothic fenestration has been stripped and incorporated into a Modernist shell, reflecting a significant departure from traditional church design.