St Mary Redcliffe Church Parish Magazine - July/August 2018

• A fundraising and partnership study to look at potential funding from the
arts sector as well as how the church might collaborate with arts, cultural,
charitable and educational organisations to develop activities relating to
the altarpiece, as well as the church’s wider heritage.
• A community and impact study, which will look at how the altarpiece might
be used to engage new audiences.
• A built options and interpretation study to look at what kind of space
would be needed to house the work and how it might best be interpreted
for different audiences.
This bid will be submitted by the end of July, with a decision lily to be
received by the beginning of September. It is worth pointing out that this
work will in no way delay wider project work. On the contrary, it will act
as the catalyst for an important conversation with the city about how the
church can benefit from the use of its collections (Bristol Museums holds
many documents, artefacts and images of the church that could be shown
in exhibition spaces at St Mary Redcliffe) and work in partnership with
museum engagement teams to develop strategies for broadening engagement
from local communities with the church’s heritage.
As well as this, the church’s architects at Purcell are working on a brief
development and options appraisal, based on the information that was
gathered from the questionnaire that many of you filled out and returned
earlier this year. Ideas were also generated from an options development
workshop — involving the staff team and project consultants — that took
place in April. One of the interesting things that this work has highlighted is
the possibility of a phased approach to the building work that would allow
things to start happening on the ground sooner. In the short term, Purcell’s
team is looking at options for a high quality temporary structure that could
be built on the north side of the church to answer immediate needs, such
as increased space for the Sunday school and revenue generating departments,
while planning for the project as a whole continues. A draft report
on the various options will be presented in late July / early August.
Lastly, Imagemakers, our interpretation consultants, will continue working
on an interpretation strategy during the summer, before presenting a final
report in time for Dan’s return in September.
Rhys Williams
Research Assistant
soundbites music at smr
MUSIC AT REDCLIFFE 1914–1918
— ANDREW KIRK, DIRECTOR OF MUSIC
IN THE CHURCH ARCHIVES are a number of interesting items relating
to the choir, including two beautifully leather-bound volumes; one of
which is a record of the Choir AGM Minutes and the other a Precentor’s
book, listing the music sung at the church each week in the early twentieth
century.
As we approach the Centenary of the end of the First World War, I thought
it might be interesting to turn back the clock one hundred years, whilst
remembering the 16 choirmen, including three pairs of brothers, who
lost their lives between 1914 and 1918.
1914
Music at Easter Day at 6.30pm
Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis — Stanford in A
Anthem — Handel: Hallelujah Chorus
Organ Voluntary — Widor’s Toccata (from Symphony 5)
Evensong 16th August at 6.30pm
Anthem —Stainer: Lead kindly light amidst the encircling gloom.
The National Anthem was sung at the end of the service.
13th November; Colston Day — “No Colston Dinner today owing to
continuance of the war, nor was there the customary distribution of buns
and shillings to the children. The choirboys received 1/– as usual but not
a bun”.
1915
Friday 26th March at 8pm — Performance of The Crucifixion by John Stainer
17th June — No choir outing but choir funds used to send parcels to Flanders.
1st August — The organist (Ralph Morgan) purchased some old pieces
of carved wood (at St George’s curiosity shop on Park Street) stated to