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St Mary's Church,
Church Close / Rectory Gardens, BS10 7QF,
Henbury, Gloucestershire.

Cemeteries

This Church has (or had) a graveyard.

Note: any church within an urban environment may have had its graveyard closed after the Burial Act of 1853. Any new church built after that is unlikely to have had a graveyard at all.

Church History

This Place of Worship was founded before 1093, and we understand it is still open.

According to the Victoria County History series: A History of the County of Gloucester, Volume 2: Religious houses, including Early History of Gloucester Cathedral (1907), pp.106-108 (College: Westbury-on-Trym), the earliest documented evidence of a church in Henbury is 1093, when Henbury and Stoke Churches were amongst lands and property granted by the Bishop of Worcester to the Monastery of Westbury on Trym. The Monastery had been founded about 716,and had been acquired by one of the Bishop's predecessors in 824. Under Bishop Oswald (961-992), Westbury was to become the centre of the Benedictine revival in Mercia.

The present building does however date from the 12th century. Kelly's Directory of 1923 describes it as "an ancient building of stone chiefly in the Early English style, with Decorated and Perpendicular insertions, [consisting] of chancel, nave of eight bays, aisles, north porch and a low western tower containing a clock and 8 bells". The nave dates from the reign of King Stephen (1135-54). On the south side is a small chapel built in the reign of Henry III. (1216-72). There are 13 memorial windows, various mural tablets to the Southwell and Sampson families, and one to Edward Capell, d.1681. The pulpit is of stone richly carved, and was presented by the family of a former vicar. The church was repaired and enlarged in 1833, and completely restored in 1878, at a cost of £6,000, and has 600 sittings.

At that time (1923) Henbury included the tithings of Stowick, Compton, Charlton, King's Weston and Lawrence Weston. The living was a vicarage, with the chapelries of Aust, Northwick, Hallen and Sea Mills annexed; however it has been subjected over the years to numerous boundary changes. In 1901, part of the civil parish was added to Bristol civil parish and county borough, and on January 1st 1902, the same part was transferred to Bristol registration district. Further changes during the 1920s and 1930s resulted in the civil parish being abolished, part of it absorbed into Bristol, and part serving to enlarge the civil parishes of Almondsbury, Pilning and Severn Beach. For more details see Henbury on the Vision of Britain Through Time website.

Denomination

Now or formerly Church of England.

If more than one congregation has worshipped here, or its congregation has united with others, in most cases this will record its original dedication.

Maps

This Church is located at OS grid reference ST5632878790. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• St Mary's Church, Henbury shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Henbury shown on a Google Map.
• Streetmap.co.uk (arrow on map shows the Place of Worship's location) (verified 2018-10-15)
• Bing (Ordnance Survey option) (verified 2018-10-13)
• Bing Maps ('Bird's Eye' View) (verified 2018-10-15)
• Ordnance Survey "getamap" (NB some of the 'Change Map' options may require a subscription) (verified 2018-10-15)
• OpenStreetMap (Maps © OpenStreetMap contributors, CC-BY-SA) (verified 2018-10-15)
• A Vision of Britain Through Time - useful for Boundary Changes (verified 2018-10-15)
• www.magic.gov.uk (Modern Maps with various overlays) (verified 2018-10-15)

Resources

I have found many websites of use whilst compiling the information for this database. Here are some which deserve mention as being of special interest for Henbury, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

• The Victoria County History series: A History of the County of Gloucester, Volume 2: Religious houses, including Early History of Gloucester Cathedral (null) (verified 2018-11-06)
• Particularly useful as a reference source for Boundary Changes - the Vision of Britain Through Time (null) (verified 2018-10-15)

The above links were selected and reviewed at the time I prepared the information, but please be aware their content may vary, or disappear entirely. These factors are outside my control.