Tower of St. John’s Church

Tower of St. John’s Church

The Graphic (17 August 1878): 77.

Source: Hathi Digital Library Trust web version of a copy in the University of Minnesota library of “Bristol Illustrated” in The Graphic of 14 September 1878, p. 77

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“The Church of St. John the Baptist belongs to the fifteenth century. The belfry tower and spire are erected over the northern gateway of the old walled city, and having formed part of the line of the inner wall, the church has no transept, or projecting porch, being a simple oblong, pierced by eight Perpendicular windows on each side. It has also no east nor west window. The roof, of open timber work, is of fifteenth- century construction. The richly-carved communion table is, no doubt, identical with the one charged in the accounts under A.D. 1635. The crypt is of more interest than the church, and is a characteristically good specimen of such a substructure. It is lighted by a range of low windows on the north side, where is also a door from the street. It has a groined vault, the mouldings of which spring from clustered mural columns. The apex of the roof is eleven feet from the floor. The date of the crypt seems architecturally to correspond with the super- structure. It formerly served as a chapel for a religious guild, which was established in 1465 in honour of the Holy Rood, or St. John the Baptist and St. Martin.” [Continued below]

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