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St Mary's Church,
Church Road / Sundays Hill,
Almondsbury, 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 in the 12th century, and we understand it is still open.

Kelly's Directory of 1923 describes St Mary's Church as "an ancient cruciform building of stone, principally in the Early English style, consisting of chancel, clerestoried nave of four bays, aisles, north and west porches, and a central tower with spire, containing a clock and 8 bells, rehung in 1902 at a cost of £270, to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of the late Queen Victoria". The east window is a memorial to Dr. Robert Gray, bishop of Bristol 1827-1834. The porch is Norman, and has a priest's chamber over it containing a fine chest in good preservation. The whole of the chancel is Early English. The original Norman nave was removed in 1834, when the present nave was substituted. In 1891, three memorial windows were put in to the memory of Sholton Vere Hare esq.

In the present day, St Mary's is a Grade I Listed Building - the British Listed Buildings website account dates it late 12th century, with 13th century tower, constructed of Purbeck marble, with a cruciform plan, the central tower having a "fine lead broach spire and cross finial". Besides other monuments it also mentions one to Hugh Ivy - 1630, pointed stone with rosettes and shield, and a slate tablet to Catherine Parrott, 1781.

The parish of Almondsbury formerly included the tithings of Hempton and Patchway, Over and Lower Tockington, Gaunt's Earthcott and Lea, but these divisions were abolished in March 1895. Kelly's Directory of 1923 also mentions "East Compton" (Easter Compton) then being within the parish, which might explain why, at the same time, Compton Greenfield parish had only 7 houses, with 19 occupants in the 1911 census!

There may be more information available by by selecting one or more of the accompanying images on the right.

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 ST6034684081. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• St Mary's Church, Almondsbury shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Almondsbury 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 Almondsbury, 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)

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.