St Mary Redcliffe Project 450 Planning Pre-App

2.0 SITE CONTEXT
2.4 SIGNIFICANCE
Fabric Significance
St Mary Redcliffe is a Grade I Listed Building (List Entry Number: 1218848)
of international architectural significance.
The earliest extant element is the Late C12 Early English Gothic inner
North Porch, with the remainder of the church a celebrated example of
the C14 and C15 Perpendicular Gothic that is characterised by a soaring
verticality, emphasised by extended mullions, crenellated transoms, and
crocketed pinnacles.
Of particular note is the C14 outer North Porch that displays an extremely
unusual hexagonal plan, with an axial north door, and diagonally-placed
subsidiary doors to the south-east and north-west. The resolution of
these is unclear since, whilst the principal north entrance has always
been approached by steps - first from the west front, and more recently
from the north - both Lyon’s plan of 1717, and Wild’s plan of 1812 indicate
significantly lower ground to the exterior of these openings, as is also
evidenced by Shepherd’s north-west view from 1812 (fig 1, on previous
page).
Undercroft and podium to the North Porch, the further reconfiguration
of the associated steps, and excavation below the Lady Chapel to form a
Strong-room adjacent to the C15 Processional Way.
All of these matters are considered in significantly more detail within the
Conservation Management Plan (Drury 2003), to which attention is drawn.
Urban Significance
As noted within Section 2.3, the setting of St Mary Redcliffe, and
particularly its north side display considerable change over time.
Nevertheless, in addition to the church’s significance, with the adjacent
and largely intact Colston Parade, it has collective evidential value in its
representation of the substantially lost historic character of Redcliffe.
This is reflected by the site’s inclusion at the south-eastern corner of the
Redcliffe Conservation Area (BCC CA 19).
Additionally, almost the entire exterior is given over to intricate statue
niches such that, roundels aside, what might otherwise have been tracery
windows are instead blind. Combined with the decorated and hooded
cinquefoil north door, the composition is highly unusual and, whilst there
is certainly not consensus on this point (see Cannon, 2015), some have
suggested that these elements may reflect Moorish influence, perhaps
arising from Bristol’s already extensive trade links at this time.
Also of note is the Tower and Spire that, perhaps unusually, are located in
the north-west angle, abutting the North Porch, rather than axially at the
west end of the Nave, as might be expected. For this, there are multiple
hypotheses - including the possibility of a monumental west entrance,
and the proximity of the previously-mentioned C13 chantry chapel -
but, as Rodwell (2003) has noted, the Tower’s north-south dimension
exactly matches the width of the Nave, affording the possibility that it
was designed to abut the Nave’s west end but, for reasons unknown,
constructed instead in its current position.
Either way, the Tower is largely Late C13, with some C14 work associated
with its original Spire that, destroyed by a lightning strike in 1446,
remained truncated to only a single stage, until 1872 when it was
reinstated to its current height during Godfrey’s restoration.
These works were followed by Oatley’s restoration of 1927-33 and 1941
that accounts for, amongst other interventions, the creation of the
The Curtilage of St Mary Redcliffe
The Redcliffe Conservation Area
The North Porch
The Redcliffe Conservation Area
19