Church Of St Mary

A parish church of cruciform plan with central tower, located on Church Road in Almondsbury. The building dates primarily to the late 12th and 13th centuries, with the tower rebuilt in 1834 and later 19th-century alterations. It is constructed of rubble, ashlar, and brick, with slate and lead roofs featuring stone ridges, and incorporates Purbeck marble details. The church exemplifies the Early English style.

The central tower is a two-stage structure with stone quoins and string course. At the upper stage, it features two-light pointed arched windows on each side with hood moulds, relieving arches, and bell louvres. A clock is mounted on the north face. The tower is crowned by a fine lead broach spire with cross finial.

The west front presents a formal composition with plinth, weathered buttresses, cornice and parapet over three gables, each with a central cross finial. Three large 19th-century windows dominate the facade: a central four-light window and two outer three-light windows, all with cusped Decorated tracery under hood moulds with stops. The central studded door stands beneath a pointed arch with moulded architrave and hood mould, dated ICD TWB/1713.

The nave extends four bays with north and south aisles, both rebuilt in 1834. These aisles feature two-light windows under flat hood moulds and three-light windows with pointed arches and hood moulds. Mask stops ornament the windows on the north side.

A two-storey north porch has raised coped verges with kneelers and a gable stack bearing a statuette in a niche. The entrance doorway comprises three plain orders with jamb shafts displaying scalloped capitals. The upper chamber is carried on a quadripartite rib vault springing from 14th-century corbel heads. A round arched light opens to the front, with slit windows to the sides and a stair turret to the left.

The transepts have shallow gable ends. Three-light windows in stone surrounds with hood moulds and mask stops appear in both transepts, with similar windows to the east sides. The south gable features a sundial and wrought iron cross finial dated 1816. An octagonal ashlar stair turret stands to the east of the south transept, ornamented with corbels, cornice, parapet, and slit windows. Its door has a chamfered surround with Tudor arched head. The north transept displays a rainwater head dated 1814.

The two-storey vestry on the north side features a ground floor three-light window with hood mould and splayed cill, and a four-light mullion and transom window with segmental head and drip mould. A two-light window with drip mould occupies the first floor. A single-storey flat-roofed wing links the vestry to the porch, featuring a Tudor-arched door and two-light casement, both in moulded surrounds, with cornice, parapet and coping.

The chancel comprises three bays with single lancets in chamfered surrounds flanking the vestry, three similar windows to the south beneath a string course (the eastern one larger), and a triple lancet at the east end with the central light taller. A relieving arch spans above, with a two-light window beneath a hood mould. Angle buttresses and two further buttresses to the south support the walls, which are topped with coping. A low coursed rubble retaining wall with coping surrounds the chancel and south aisle.

The interior displays a nave with plain arcade piers on high pedestals, featuring stiff-leaf capitals and pointed arches. Hammer-beam roofs with moulded pendant stops extend across the nave and aisles. A north door with segmental head is accompanied by a slit window serving the upper porch chamber. A pointed arched door to the stair turret features a hood mould with foliate stops. Windows sit in deep splayed reveals. The east window of the north aisle displays slender jamb shafts with moulded capitals.

The west door is sheltered by a wooden portico dated 1785, erected by Richard Griffith, Churchwarden. This structure features fluted columns, a dentilled pediment with oval in its tympanum, and an upper block with corner pilasters. The door itself bears strap hinges.

The west arch of the crossing contains a 19th-century Early English stone screen with clustered shafts and stiff-leaf capitals. Half-arches with plain architraves buttress the tower on either side. Pointed arches open to the crossing, with hood moulds decorated with foliate and mask stops. The transept arches display pendant mask and stiff-leaf stops to their inner mouldings. The chancel arch is supported by triple jamb shafts of Purbeck marble on moulded bases with foliate capitals and imposts.

The south transept contains an Early English piscina with trefoil head. All transept windows sit in deep splayed reveals. The chancel features a rib vault supporting an upper chamber, with moulded ribs springing from half-shafts of Purbeck marble bearing foliate capitals and corbel heads. Lancet windows display moulded inner arches and Purbeck shafts with foliate capitals and hood moulds decorated with mask or foliate stops. The south wall features an Early English double piscina with trefoil head, a blocked door with four-centred arch and chamfered surround, and two plain aumbries in the east wall.

The fittings include a Norman square bowl font with scalloped edge on a cylindrical pedestal and rectangular plinth. A carved oak reredos by C.E. Ponting dates to 1891. A brass chandelier in the chancel was made in 1905. Two hatchments in the crossing record parochial gifts, dated 1717 and 1683. Royal arms hang above the screen across the west arch. 19th-century carved wooden pews and a pulpit complete the furnishings. The east windows contain stained glass by O'Connor, 1849.

Notable monuments and memorials include the monument to Edward Veele and family in the south transept, dated 1577, featuring recumbent stone effigies on a tomb chest with portraits of their children in a Renaissance setting of fluted Ionic pilasters and a canopy carried by fluted Corinthian columns, surmounted by heraldry and a skull and cross finial. A white marble tomb chest to Margaret Lippincott dates to 1845 and was made by Tyley. The monument to Thomas Chester, 1763, depicts a mourning female and gadrooned sarcophagus. A pointed stone with rosettes and shield commemorates Hugh Ivy, 1630. A slate tablet to Catherine Parrott, 1781, sits in a decorative stone surround. A pointed stone classical tablet honours John and Elizabeth Maronne, 1711.