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All Saints Church,
56 Corn Street,
Bristol, Gloucestershire.

Cemeteries

This Church 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 1066, but we understand it was closed in 1984.

"All Saints' Church, in Corn-street, is an ancient structure, with steeple, though not so large, resembling that of St Mary-le-Bow, Cheapside, London. Within its walls that noble benefactor of the city, Edward Colston, Esq., lies interred, and a marble monument, by Rysbrach, is erected to his memory. The living is a vicarage, in the gift of the Dean and Chapter of Bristol; annual value, £160." [Extract from Webster & Co.'s Postal and Commercial Directory of the City of Bristol, and County of Glamorgan, 1865]

The British Listed Buildings website dates the Church of All Saints from early 12th century, with a tower of 1716 by William Paul, completed by George Townesend, and "its lantern rebuilt by Luke Henwood in 1807". Of this event, John Latimer, in The Annals of Bristol in the Nineteenth Century (1887) records that "the small dome surmounting the tower of All Saints' Church, - a grotesque whim of churchwardendom in the previous century - having become dilapidated, was replaced in January, 1808, by the existing structure, which is not less incongruous with a Norman fabric than was its predecessor". His account also casts doubt on All Saints being the resting place of Colston.

Available parish registers cover the periods 1560-1983 (baptisms), 1556-1981 (marriages), and 1561-1853 (burials), so evidently it had a graveyard. The Bristol Town Plan of 1884 shows none in the immediate area surrounding the church, but there was an area marked as a graveyard in the block bordered by All Saints Street, Pithay, Duck Lane (now Fairfax Street), and Nelson Street, which could have belonged to All Saints Church. Information about Local Burials on the Bristol & Avon FHS website describes "All Saints church and passage" as one of the locations to be closed by the Burial Act of 1853, so perhaps not, but see also Christ Church.

The parish was united with that of Christchurch in 1973, but the Church remained open at least until 1983. The Church Commissioners Report on Pastoral and Closed Churches, on the Church of England website recorded its formal closure on 1st April 1984, and it is still in use by Church Authorities as an Education and Resource Centre for the Diocese; but it is no longer open to the public.

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 was located at OS grid reference ST5888473028. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• All Saints Church, Bristol shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Bristol 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 Bristol, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

• Learn more about Buildings of special or historical interest on the British Listed Buildings (null) (verified 2018-09-19)
• Parish Histories, Burial data, &c. on the Bristol & Avon FHS (null) (verified 2018-11-04)
• The Church Commissioners Report on Pastoral and Closed Churches, found on the Church of England (null) (verified 2018-10-04)

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.