News / St Peter's Church
Bristol’s oldest church to reopen to public
Bristol’s oldest church will reopen to visitors soon, mayor Marvin Rees has announced.
Despite being closed to the public for over a century, St Peter’s Church plays a significant role in the city’s history.
The church, which sits in the centre of Castle Park, dates back to 1109, and was “almost certainly” built on the site of an earlier Anglo-Saxon place of worship.
Today the church is surrounded by a peaceful leafy garden and park, but its modern appearance belies its true origins. Castle Park was once a densely built-up commercial district in the oldest part of Bristol.
The surrounding quiet leafy garden is currently in a far better state than the church that sits within it – photo: Mia Vines Booth
A few hundred years later, in November 1940, Bristol was heavily bombed, leaving most of the central area in ruins. St Peter’s Church suffered a huge amount of damage. Only its hollow carcass remained.
The church has since stood as a memorial to the 1,300 Bristolians killed in the blitz.
A memorial to those killed during the blitz – photo: Mia Vines Booth
But over the years, fire and water ingress have caused significant damage to the structure and in 2019, the church was placed on Historic England’s Heritage at Risk register, which announces which historical sites are at risk and which will be saved.
The register gives an annual snapshot of the critical health of England’s most valued historic places and those most at risk of being lost as a result of neglect, decay or inappropriate development.
Historic England announced in this year’s register that St Peter’s Church had been saved.
With the help of Wessex Archaeology and Friends of Castle Park, repairs to the high level stonework were completed earlier this year, and the barricaded church will be opened to the public imminently.
According to Historic England, over the past year, 175 historic buildings and sites have been added to the Register because of their deteriorating condition and 233 sites have been saved and their futures secured.
Nave and chancel of St Peter’s, by J. Johnson, 1828, Bristol Museum and Art Gallery (ref. M2670) – photo: Wessex Archaeology
The Heritage works are also partly funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. The group’s chief executive, Eilish McGuinness, responded to this year’s announcement in a tweet: “It is so heartening to see so many significant heritage sites removed from the Heritage At Risk Register, and given a new lease of life as part of their local communities and places.”
Other local heritage sites that have been saved from the Heritage At Risk register include Cleveland Pools in Bath and the Roman Catholic Church of St Bernadette on Wells Road.
Main photo: Mia Vines Booth
Read next:
- Development of Castle Park ‘should not be to the detriment of historic features’
- How a man who wants a bright future for Castle Park has been targeted by trolls
- Archaeologists to excavate ruined city centre church
- South Bristol church closing its doors after 150 years
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