Ancient Parish of Westbury-on-Trym

HOW OLD IS WESTBURY CHURCH

MONASTERY OR COLLEGE

THE SOUTH AISLE

FOURTEENTH CENTURY PERSONALITIES

THE GOLDEN AGE OF WESTBURY

MEMORIALS TO CARPENTER AND CANYNGE

THE END OF THE COLLEGE

INTO THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

THE VICTORIAN ERA

TERRITORIAL CHANGES

THE CHURCH’S ANCIENT BOOKS

THE CHURCH PLATE

THE CHURCH BELLS

TWENTIETH CENTURY RESTORATION

BRIEF HISTORICAL OUTLINE

HOW OLD IS WESTBURY CHURCH?

Like so many other questions, this is easier to ask than to answer. The history of the place goes back further than any part of the building as it stands today, though outwardly it has stood practically unchanged for five hundred years. Westbury first appears in history as a religious settlement on ground rising from the south bank of the river Trym. From the earliest days until the sixteenth century its history is tightly bound up with that of Worcester, for that plot of Westbury land was the property of the See of Worcester

There was some sort of Christian settlement here on the banks of the Trym by the year 715 AD. The little church, possibly built of mud and wattle, was dedicated to the Apostles Peter and Paul and was in the Diocese of Worcester. It may have been succeeded by a stone-built church, but whatever was here disappeared by the end of the ninth century probably as a result of a visit from the plundering Danes.

In 961 AD. Saint Oswald, Bishop of Worcester, brought over twelve Bededictine monks from Fleury under Eadnoth and Germanus, to make a fresh start at Westbury. A new church was built, dedicated to the Mother of our Lord and it is interesting to speculate whether it was all like the Saxon church at Bradford-on-Avon. Here then was the first settlement of the renewed Benedictine life in this country, but it did not last for very long, for in 974 A.D. the monks moved off to the newly founded Abbey of Ramsey. Westbury was on the decline after that, for by the Norman Conquest only one priest remained here and he seldom said mass.

Top

MONASTERY OR COLLEGE

At the time of the Norman Conquest, Wulfstan was Bishop and he must have been an exceptionally capable man to be among the few Saxons who were retained in positions of importance. He revived the monastery at Westbury in 109S A.D., but his successor replaced the monks by secular priests. Monks are members of a religious community and live by a particular rule of life, bound by the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. Their home is called a monastery, and their church, a monastic church. In the case of Westbury they were Benedictine monks owing obedience to the Prior of Worcester. The secular priests had not taken the threefold vow; they were appointed by the Bishop and owed no allegiance to the Prior; their dwelling was called a college. So, when there were monks at Westbury, the Prior was virtually in command, and when there were secular priests installed, the Bishop ruled. The century from Wulfstan onwards is marked by a struggle for possession of authority over Westbury.

Sometimes there were monks here, sometimes seculars, and so the living quarters on the north side of the Church were sometimes a monastery, sometimes a college. There are two stoned-up doorways in the north wall of the Church, which gave access to the monastery or college, and the deep north wall of the churchyard no doubt contains stones from those ancient buildings. However, by 1194 A.D. Westbury was definitely established as a collegiate church with a dean and five canons. The Dean held the cure of souls in the Parish, that is, he was responsible for the spiritual care of the parishioners, and the parish tithes were divided between the canons for their support.

It is from this period that the pillars of the nave date, and the capital of one in the north arcade is decanted with nail-head work. One wonders if the bulging thick walls at the west end of the present nave behind the font are the stump of an Early English tower. No doubt the early thirteenth century saw the rise of a collegiate church with nave and aisles and a chancel entered by the present chancel arch, all in the Early English style.

THE SOUTH AISLE

For thirty-four years in the latter part of the thirteenth century, Godfrey Giffard was Bishop of Worcester. He was one of the great prince-prelates of the Middle Ages, an imperious, querulous and stubbornly persistent man. He has left his mark on Westbury Church, which he rebuilt and enlarged with a view to increasing its importance considerably. It was a collegiate church with a dean and five canons; he purposed to increase the number of canons to fourteen, providing for them by annexing the incomes of livings in his gift else where. This involved him in litigation and quarrels, mainly with the Prior and monks at Worcester until the day of his death, and he was finally unsuccessful.

Two factors lie behind this lifelong struggle. The Cathedral Church at Worcester was the Church of a Benedictine monastery, of which the Bishop was titular Abbot, but the Prior was in control. The Church at Westbury was entirely under the Bishop and if it could be increased in dignity an episcopal seat could be placed there as well. This fitted in with the other pressing need. A few miles from Westbury-on-Trym there had arisen an important town of growing prosperity on die banks of the Avon, called Bristol. It had by now many parish churches and not a few religious houses, calling for a good deal of episcopal supervision and intervention. Worcester was a long way away and travel was neither easy nor speedy. Westbury on the contrary was a very convenient place as a centre for diocesan administration in this southernmost corner of Gloucestershire

The South aisle of Westbury Church dates from Bishop Giffard’s time and has at least three noteworthy features, its width, the sedilia and the south porch. Its purpose was to provide a lace of worship for the parishioners apart from the Collegiate Cturch itself. The sediia is adjacent to the site of the parish altar; an aisle of unusual width saved erecting a separate building; the south porch provided access without going through the main church. The sedilia are the three stone seats in the south wall for the three ministers at the Holy Communion, the celebrant the deacon and the subdeacon. Next to the sedilia is a piscina. a stone sink at which the sacred vessels were cleansed; both sedilia and piscina are in excellent condition after six and a half centufles

Look up at the corbel stones, that support the trusses of the roof. The carved ones that remain are interesting; a few may date from Giffard’s lime and the rest a century later Some are self-evident and one or two are problem pictures. The one opposite as you enter by the south door, is of a headless man, kneeling and stooping well forward. Notice on the capitals of the pillars the beginnings of natural foliage as a subject for decoration in stone and the sweet little human heads.

FOURTEENTH CENTURY PERSONALITIES

The growing importance of the Collegiate Church of Westbury-on-Trym is reflected in the promotions accorded to some of its deans and canons in the fourteenth century. William de Mellon appointed Canon of Westbury in 1308 later became Chancellor of England and Archbishop of York. John de Stretford, who was Dean of Westbury for a short time in 1316, became Archbishop of Canterbury. John de Trillek., Canon in 1329, became Bishop of Hereford. Richard de Bury, Canon in 1331, became Bishop of Durham and Chancellor of England.

William de Edington, Dean in 1335, became Bishop of Winchester and only a little while before his death in 1366 declined the Primacy of Canterbury. He also was Lord Chancellor and the traditional patron of the famous William of Wykeham. He founded at his native Edington, near Trowbridge, a College for dean and clerks, later changed to Bonhommes or Austin Friars, and the church there still remains one of the finest examples of a parish church once collegiate. Reginald de Briane, Canon in 1347, became Bishop of Worcester.

In 1362, the famous reformer, John Wycliffe, was appointed Canon of Westbury and held that office until his death in 1384. He was inducted in person by the Dean, but that seems to have been his sole visit to Westbury for many years, for William Wittlesay, Bishop of Worcester, on a visit here in 1366 found the Church miserably neglected by the Canons and instituted an inquiry. Wycliffe in company with the other Canons had failed to reside here for a month in each year and had further neglected to provide a chaplain to act for him. It must, however, be remembered that this was the time of the Black Death, the appalling plague that swept across Europe. It raged in Bristol to such a degree that the living were scarcely able to bury the dead and the grass grew several inches high in Broad Street and High Street. Chaplains were so scarce as to be unobtainable. It is almost certain that Wycliffe spent some time at Westbury in after years and so gathered around him many followers in Bristol and the West

Violence as well as plague is recorded before the century was out. In 1387 the Vicar of Berkeley; who in his Oxford days had taken part in a pillaging raid on Queen’s, joined in a discreditable attack on Westbury. With a great number of men armed and arrayed with habergeons, swords, bucklers, daggers, sticks, bows and arrows, he riotously assembled in manner of war and came to Westbury the morrow of the Feast of Holy Trinity by night and besieged there the Dean, broke open the doors and entered by force into his chamber and took him lying in his bed and dragged him out of his house into the street and there assaulted, beat, wounded and maltreated him. This infamous conduct was repeated in the following year. No wonder the Dean exchanged benefices with the Rector of Staplebrugge by 1390 when this war-like scholar, John de Trevisa, gained a Canonry at Westbury. Trevisa’s literary translations from Latin into English have earned for him the tide of "a Father of English Prose

THE GOLDEN AGE OF WESTBURY

The golden age of Westbury Collegiate Church lies in the second half of the fifteenth century. In 1444 A.D. John Carpenter, who had been born at Westbury, and had become a distinguished Provost of Oriel College, Oxford, and Chancellor of the University, was appointed Bishop of Worcester. In an age of lawlessness and slackness John Carpenter was an energetic and diligent ruler of his diocese, a wise and capable administrator; an earnest sponsor of true religion, who became a saintly father-in-God. He was a man of deep friendships, and it was in partnership with Sampson and Canynge, successive Deans of Westbury, that he accomplished so much for Church and College.

Carpenter built the present chancel of three bays with its three-sided apse (there are only a few examples of this feature in England), the north chapel (now occupied by the organ), the extension westwards of the north aisle (now the choir vestry) and the fine, lofty, Perpendicular tower The church was rededicated in honour of the Most Holy and Undivided Trinity together with the ancient dedication to the Apostles Peter and Paul and raised to the status of a cathedral, while the bishop styled himself "Bishop of Worcester and Westbury". This was not due merely to pride of birthplace nor because it rolled well off the tongue in emulation of "Bath and Wells". It gives an insight into Carpenter’s strategy to meet a pressing administrative need. By this time there had grown up on the banks of the Avon a city that ranked fourth in the kingdom, named Bristol, and it was on the southernmost edge of the Diocese of Worcester It was a city of many churches and religious houses and needed a bishop of its own. Carpenter did the next best thing; he established Westbury-on-Trym as a centre for episcopal administration. Hence the title "Worcester and Westbury" and the cathedral status for the church.

Meanwhile the College was reorganised and its foundation increased to a dean, a subdean, a treasurer, five canons, six chantry priests, a schoolmaster, twelve boy choristers and twelve almspeople. a magnificent new set of buildings was erected on the bank of the Trym, a hundred yards from the church, with gatehouse and turrets around a quadrangle (only the gatehouse and half of one side now remain in what is called College Road). When this was completed Dean Sampson (his brass can be seen in Tredington Church of which he became Rector) retired to make way for Carpenter’s other great friend, William Canynge. Canynge was a great merchant prince of Bristol, the rebuilder of Saint Mary Redcliffe, five times Mayor of Bristol and twice Member of Parliament, who at an advanced age was ordained to the priesthood in 1468 as a Canon of Westbury, and in the following year succeeded Sampson as Dean. He died in 1474 and was buried in Redcliffe Church. Bishop Carpenter lived for another two years and was laid to rest in the chapel he had made under the sanctuary of Westbury Church.

THE END OF THE COLLEGE

The Act for the surrender of the religious houses was passed by Parliament in 1539 and Westbury College was surrendered to King Henry VIII on February 8th, 1544. Meanwhile in 1542 the Diocese of Bristol had been founded. The Abbey of Saint Augustine, the present Cathedral, had been dissolved in 1539, and Priory of Saint James, the last of the religious houses in Bristol, early in the next year. How was it then that Westbury was allowed to survive so long? Tradition asserts that it was because Westbury was under consideration as a possible cathedral for the new Diocese, for it had, nearby in the College buildings, places of residence for a bishop and dean and canons. The lead had already been stripped from the roof of the nave of Saint Augustine’s, which was becoming ruinous, and it was only when the King ordered it to become the Cathedral of Bristol that the rest of it was saved. That being settled, Westbury College was granted to Sir Ralph Sadlier as a private residence and Westbury Church became simply a parish church with a vicar at a stipend of £10 a year. Giffard and Carpenter’s dream of a diocese for Bristol has been realised, but the glory of Westbury was departed for a season.

The magnificent College with its strong walls, tower, turrets and battlements survived but another century, for in 1643 Prince Rupert caused it to be burned down rather than it should fall into the hands of the Roundheads. All that remains of it today is the tower and the south-west corner with its turret and the walls on the bank of the Trym with another turret. About 1769 a fine Georgian house was built alongside the remaining wing of the mediaeval College set in a spacious garden stretching from the present Church Road to Trym Road, the residence of the Hobhouse family. In 1871 the two acres of garden were sold for building and College Road came Into being. The Georgian house became a Boys’ School for a time and an upholstery works before being destroyed by fire. The property is now owned by the National Trust.

<Top

INTO THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

In "the King’s books", 1711 A.D., the value of the living of Westbury-on-Trym is given as £13. 16s. Od. Nine years later Edward Colston, the great philanthropist, gave £100 towards a "perpetual augmentation of a maintenance for the Vicar of Westbury, which, with £120 given by several of the parish and others, and £200 from Queen Anne’s Bounty, made £420, and was laid out in lands to the value of £20 a year, and settled for ever."

The outstanding historical event of the century was the building of the Redland Chapel from 1740 by John Cousins of Redland Court (the present Redland High School) within the parish of Westbury-on-Trym and a House for the Minister was erected at Redland Green in 1751. For forty years the successive Vicars of Westbury were Ministers of the Redland Chapel, but in 1781, Jeremy Baker, the representative of the now departed John Cousins, refused to appoint the new Vicar of Westbury to the Redland Chapel. The new Vicar, in turn, refused to allow the nominee of Jeremy Baker to officiate at. the Chapel, as it stood in Westbury Parish. As a result, the Chapel was closed for nine years, and the yearly income transferred to the Bristol Royal Infirmary in accordance with the founder’s deed. When this Vicar departed to become Dean of Lismore, in 1790, an arrangement was made by which patronage was exercised alternately as between Westbury and Redland, and one priest. appointed to both jobs, who had to live in the Minister’s house at Redland Green. It was at. this time that any vicarage house there may have been at Westbury (and two or three cottages to the east of the Parish Church are popularly known as "The Old Vicarage") ceased to be. This arrangement continued until the death of the Reverend Dr. Wilkins in 1941, when Redland was made a separate parish and the Minister’s house became Redland Vicarage, leaving the ancient parish of Westbury without any vicarage at all. This situation was remedied in 1952, when Sandown house in Eastfield Road was acquired as a Vicarage. Two pieces of furniture in oak come down from the eighteenth century, a chest given by Jeremy Innys in 1759 and a handsome cupboard by John Innys in 1764, both of Redland Court.

Top

THE VICTORIAN ERA

In 1848 came a new young vicar, the Reverend William Cartwright, at the time when the restoration of churches was becoming the order of the day. It is a safe assumption that he set about rousing interest in the restoration of Westbury Parish Church. The sum of £300 was left by a Mr. Harford Battersby, to which was added a grant of £130 from the Incorporated Church Building Society and a church-rate produced £250. Mr. John Norton of London was appointed architect and the estimate for restoration (excluding the tower and south porch) and refurnishing was £2,000. However, most of this was soon raised and work began in 1851.

When the building itself had been put in a sound state of repair the old box-pews were removed and the present solid oak seats, with their forest of poppy-heads (and who can find two exactly alike?), took their place, considerably increasing the seating capacity of the church. There were also introduced, both of Painswick stone, a new font, given by Robert Phippen, of Bedminster, and a new pulpit, the marble pillars of which were the gift of the architect; but where is the little stone and marble font that previously stood in the north chapel? The two heads that terminate the dripstone over the west doorway were presented by the sculptor, who had carved other ornamental work inside the church, but were almost immediately after their completion wantonly defaced. The ruined mortuary, which at some time had been erected in the angle between the tower and the south aisle, was pulled down and the three lancet windows in the west wall of the south aisle were re-opened and restored. This considerable work seemed to have been accomplished within a couple of years.

In 1854 the perimeter path was made for public use inside the south wall of the churchyard, and the railings put up at a cost of £200, so that the churchyard could be closed at night in an attempt to keep the churchyard in decent order and to protect the external ornaments of the church from mutilation! The materials of the old mortuary were now used to build the Vestry Hall on the north side of the churchyard for the modest sum of £100. This site was available, because the ardent restorers had unfortunately demolished the almshouses, relics of the mediaeval monastery and college, on account of the alleged bad behaviour of the old people.

The turn of the south porch came in 1858 and for some reason or other the work was unfortunately supervised not by the architect but by the Bristol Architectural Society, and none of the original work on the inner doorway seems to have survived. In 1860, however, Mr. Norton’s designs were followed, when Farmer of London erected the elaborately constructed reredos, with the central panel of "The Last Supper" in high relief, again in Painswick stone adapted from Raphael’s fresco in the Convent of Saint Onofrio at Florence, the cost being £210. Two years later, the whiteness of the stone being felt to be cold, at a further charge of £137 it was lavishly decorated in colour and gold by Castell of London. In the same year, one of the bells, having accidentally fallen through, two were recast and the belfry repaired for £106.

The year 1865 saw the restoration of the tower, to which was added the dignity of the spiret to crown the spiral stairway, the total expenditure being £217, Mr. Lucas of The Priory presented the weather cock and the three gold vanes on the pinnacles, as well as an ancient iron chest for the sacristy. It was at this time that several well-intentioned donors joined forces to commission O’Connor to fill the windows of the chancel with coloured glass at a cost of £500. The subject-matter is interesting, being the theme of the obsecrations of the Litany, but the design and execution are those of a very poor period of craftmanship. Many visitors, however, extol them! Rather better is the memorial to Mr. Buchanan of North Cote, who died in 1865, the great east window of Saint Oswald’s Chapel, illustrating six of our Lord’s miracles.

The fifteen years of restoration work were crowned in 1866 by the dismantling of the old organ in the west gallery, and the building of a new organ in the north chapel by Hedgeland of Gower Street, London, at a cost of £810, the old organ being sold for £85. It must have been at this time that the monument to Sir Richard Hill, who died in 1627, together with his coat of arms and Sir Richard Elsworth’s helmet, was moved from the north wall of the north chapel to the east wall of Saint Oswald’s Chapel, where it now lies behind the curtain. The whole cost of the restoration work had amounted to £4,297. In commemoration of Queen Victoria’s Jubilee a new chiming clock was placed in the tower and the north and south faces were added at the Diamond Jubilee.

TERRITORIAL CHANGES

Until the middle of the nineteenth century the Parish of Westbury-on-Trym had extended from Avonmouth to Horfield and from the top of Henbury Hill to the top of Park Street. In 1844 Shirehampton was separated as an independent parish, being itself sub-divided by the creation of Avonmouth Parish in 1917. The separation of Stoke Bishop followed when its church was built in 1860. Bristol was now extending its population considerably, and much building going on beyond the top of Park Street, so part of the parish of Westbury-on-Trym was included in the new Parish of Saint John, Clifton, in 1861. Nine years later part of Westbury went into the new Parish of Saint Matthew, Kingsdown. In 1874 the Parish of Saint Mary’s Tyndalls Park, was created wholly out of Westbury, and was divided eight years later when Saint Saviour, Woolcot Park, was built and made a parish. A further slice of Westbury provided the new Parish of Saint Nathanael, Cotham, in 1876.

At the opening of the twentieth century we see in the Parish of Westbury-on-Trym, the ancient Parish Church, the eighteenth century Redland Chapel, a mission chapel at the hamlet of Southmead and another in the growing district of Westbury Park. The Vicar lived at Redland Green, while two assistant curates looked after Westbury with Southmead and another operated around Westbury Park. In 1914 the Parish of Saint Alban, Westbury Park, was established with its very fine and commodious church. Saint Peter, Henleaze, followed in 1926, and ten years after that, there came into being the Conventional District of S. Stephen, Southmead. This last became an established parish with the building and consecration of its permanent church in 1959. Redland remained an island part of Westbury Parish until on the death of the Revd. Dr. Wilkins in 1941 an arrangement concluded in 1923 came into operation, by which Redland attained independence.

The twentieth century has brought great changes to Westbury itself. Gone are the days of a cluster of cottages and shops around the Church and College, encircled by the "big" houses, their grounds enclosed behind high stone walls. Scores of new roads have been cut and thousands of new houses built from Coombe Dingle to Henleaze Lake and from the top of Henbury Hill to the Downs. The "big" houses that have survived are now Schools or Homes of various kinds and Falcondale Road has superseded Chock Lane as the main thoroughfare. The one-time Gloucestershire village has since 1904 been incorporated into the City and County of Bristol.

Throughout this time the Church has maintained a substantial programme of restoration and improvement to its fabric in addition to its pastoral work in the parish.

Top

 

 

THE CHURCH’S ANCIENT BOOKS

1548 A.D. Erasmus’ Paraphrase of the Gospels, translated by Nicholas Udall and printed by Edward Whitchurch in London. In 1551 these books were ordered by royal authority to be placed in every church. They were removed in Mary’s time and not generally replaced in the next reign. Ours is doubtless the original copy placed in Westbury Church.

1633 A.D. A black-letter Book of Common Prayer of Charles I.

1683 A.D. A Book of the Homilies or sermons to be read in church.

<Top

THE CHURCH PLATE

Two silver patens, two chalices and two flagons dated 1636-7 A.D. from a bequest by Humphrey Brown in 1630 of £20 to buy Communion Plate for the Church.

A beautifully engraved silver almsdish of 1649 given by Dame Abigail Yeamans in memory of her husband, Sir Robert Yeamans of Redland, in 1716 A.D.

A silver chalice of 1812, donated about 1900 A.D.

A modern silver chalice and paten, a copy of that of Goathland, Yorkshire, dated circa 1450 A.D. and now in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

An elaborately embossed silver-gilt French chalice and paten of the late eighteenth century given in 1954 in memory of Miss Mary Lovell Lennard.

Two other modern silver chalices have been given to meet our present needs.

THE CHURCH BELLS

They are a fine sounding heavy ring of six. The details (with the weights in cwts, quarters and pounds) are:

Treble
1   Rudhall 33"   7:1: 11   C   "Peace and Good Neighbourhood"
2   Rudhall 34½"   7:2:5   B flat   "Fear God, Honour the King"
3   Rudhall 37½"   9:1:7   A flat   "Prosperity to this Parish"
4   Warner 40"   11:1:15   G   "When us you ring we sweetly sing"
5   Warner 45"   15 : 2:12   F   "When us you ring we sweetly sing"
6   Rudhall 50" 21: 0: 27   E flat   "I to the Church the living call and to the grave do summon all"
Tenor

The Rudhall bells were cast in 1774 and two recast by Warners in 1859. In 1991 they were retuned at Whitechapel, provided with new headstocks and rehung with modern fittings.

There is also a pre-reformation bell of about 1450 in the pinnacle of the tower. It is at present unringable but bears the inscription

Top

TWENTIETH CENTURY RESTORATION

1951

St. Francis window installed in north aisle.

1953

Restoration of the Tower, regilding of weathercock and vanes and the three faces of the clock, erection of flagpole, repairs to parapets and pinacles, and to roof timbers of the parvise. The Historic Churches Preservation Trust made a grant towards these repairs.

1954

Relaying and repair of roof reusing existing lead. Repairs to mullions of clerestory and parapets of roof, the whole of the south parapet being taken down and rebuilt. Repair of Vestry Hall roof.

1956

Interior of St Oswald’s Chapel: roof timbers treated, stone cleaned walls limewashed. Kneeling figure of Rose Large repaired and repainted and the roundel and coat-of-arms of Sir Richard Hill repainted.

1957

Similar treatment of Chancel and North Chapel (the ‘Large’ Chapel)

1958

Reguilding and painting of the Reredos. Dismantling, cleaning, repair and reassembling of tower clock.

1959

Timbers treated, stone cleaned and walls limewashed in South Aisle, South Porch and Parvise

1960

Similar treatment to Sacristry, North Aisle, Choir Vestry and West Porch. Restoration of Miles Wilson Memorial in North Aisle.

1965

Organ removed from its cramped position in North Chapel to a new a the West End, and its pipework extended. Reordering of the Chancel to house the organ consol and of the North Chapel as a Lady Chapel. Work completed in time for the Christmas Midnight service. The carved figure of Our Lady was bequeathed in 1987.

1983

The two rooms, dedicated to St Peter and St Paul, with their facilities constructed at the rear of the North Aisle as vestries and meeting rooms.

1984

Re-roofing of the whole Church using new lead in smaller sheets.

1987

Sound reinforcement and loop system installed

1991

Electrical rewiring and more accessible lighting fixtures installed.

1991

Restoration of Bells: frame securely bonded to tower, bells retuned at Whitechapel and rehung with modem fixtures.

1993

Repointing of the tower and of the north and east retaining walls of the churchyard and attention to the heating system

Top

BRIEF HISTORICAL OUTLINE

629/697

See of Worcester known to have held land at Westbury.

716/717

Accepted date of foundation of the Church.

804

First written reference to "Westminster and Stoce".

822

Dispute between the Bishop of Worcester and the "community at Berkeley" over possession of the monastery … tried by Beowulf, King of Mercia in the presence of the Archbishop of Canterbury and many Bishops and Abbots. Worcester was upheld...confirmed by a solemn oath... "at that oath were at Westminster even fifty mass priests and ten deacons and also other priests sixty and a hundred and ten." (This is the largest gathering of clergy on record in Anglo-Saxon times and shows the importance of the occasion.)

877

The district plundered by the Danes on their way from Exeter to Gloucester.

961

Oswald (Bishop of Worcester) brought 12 monks to Westbury from Fleury in France. This was the first settlement of the renewed Benedictine Rule in England. It was so successful that King Edgar ordered more than forty monasteries to be established on the same lines.

974

The monks moved to a more extensive site offered to them at Ramsey (Hunts).

1066

There was only one mass priest and he seldom said mass". Wulfstan, Bishop of Worcester, "whose character and competence no one could criticise" was the only pre-conquest bishop to retain his See.

1093

Bishop Wulfstan restored the monks to Westbury.

1096

Bishop Sampson (a Norman) replaced the monks by secular priests.

1125

Bishop Simon re-installed the monks.

1140

Bishop Simon re-introduced the secular priests

1194

Bishop Celestine made Westbury a College with a Dean and five canons. (Probably much rebuilding at this time, and the church transferred to its present site).

1286

Bishop Gifford attempted to enlarge Westbury at the expense of Worcester by adding nine extra canons...litigation. ..Gifford died (1302) before he was successful.

1316

John de Stretford was Dean; later became Archbishop of Canterbury.

1362

John Wycliffe, canon of Westbury, held the prebend of Aust (died 1384).

1390

John de Trevisa (a literary scholar) held a canonry at Westbury.

1444

Bishop Carpenter.. .probably trained at Westbury...became Bishop of Worcester and took a keen interest in Westbury. He rebuilt the College on the same site and rebuilt the Chancel and Choir of the Church as they now stand (1455). He raised Westbury to Cathedral rank to meet the growing needs of Bristol Died in 1476, and was buried at Westbury.

1467

William Canynge... (five times Mayor, twice M.P. for Bristol) started training for the priesthood at Westbury, 1467. Became a priest and canon, 1468, and Dean from 1469 until his death in 1474.

1534

The College accepts the Royal Supremacy.

1544

Westbury’s income was over £200 and as a college it escaped the first round of suppression, but had to surrender in 1544. The College and all its lands passed to Sir Ralph Sadleir.

1643

During the Civil War Prince Rupert stayed the night at the College on his way to Bristol and destroyed it when he left to prevent it becoming an enemy strongpoint.

1769

The College belonged to the Hobhouse family, who by 1779 had built a large residential house adjoining the ruins.

1894

The College, tower, turrets and mansion house, was purchased by local subscription and vested in local trustees.

1907

The care of the property was given to the National Trust.

1964

The mediaeval buildings were leased to the Church for use as parish rooms. The house had been accidentally destroyed by fire a little earlier. Subsequently, Westminstere Court was built as sheltered accommodation for the elderly in such a way as to restore as much of the original college quadrangle as possible.

1991

No. 38 Church Road, the Collegiate House built about 1350 (and important enough to have a stone roof), opened as an ecumenical house of contemplative prayer under a trust set up by Dr. Elsie Briggs.

Top