Part One: The beginnings (1870 - 1925)
The ancient parish of Bedminster, with its church of St. John the Baptist, situated at the rear of Malago Road, was the manor of Bedminster which belonged to the Berkeley family, and extended from Bristol Bridge to Abbotts Leigh and Bishopsworth.
As the houses and factories of Bristol spread further south, so separate parishes were carved out of the original Bedminster Parish: St. Mary Redcliffe, St. Thomas and Temple being the first, to minister to the expanding population.
In the 1870s, houses began to cover the fields of Windmill Hill and, by the early 1880s, there was a large enough population for thought to be given to the provision of special facilities for worship. The use of a room was obtained for this purpose at the far end of Somerset Terrace, which many people will remember as Miss Limerick’s newsagents shop, and a succession of priests attached to St. John’s Church took responsibility for worship on the hill. The first of these priests, the Revd. C. E. Gaussen, was renowned for ringing a hand-bell as he walked up the hill from St. John’s, summoning people to worship at the Somerset Terrace room.
This room soon became inadequate and, under a Building Committee comprising clergy and parishioners of St. Paul’s Clifton, and St. John’s Bedminster, a large room seating two hundred was erected in Vivian Street, on a site given by Mr. Alfred Capper Pass. This parish room, which cost £470 to build and was opened on 2nd August 1884, is now the small hall of the Windmill Hill Community Association building.
The next step was the commencement of a proper church, to he a daughter-church to St. Johns and to this end Mr. A. Capper Pass, who owned the smelting works beyond the railway line, gave a further plot of land opposite the parish room. It was proposed that the church would be dedicated the Church of the Annunciation, but this was subsequently changed to St. Michael and All Angels.
The chancel, lady chapel and organ chamber formed the first phase of the permanent structure, to which was attached a temporary nave, seating 350 worshippers, built of corrugated iron. This work was expeditiously undertaken, for the foundation stone, located at the South East corner of the building, was laid on 10th April 1886, and the church was consecrated on 16th November in the same year. The cost of this building was £2,770.
In 1893, due to the rapidly increasing population, the nave was replaced by a larger, although still temporary structure. This in turn was replaced by a permanent nave seating 640, and the finally completed church was opened on 12th July, 1901.
Up to this time, the church had cost approximately £8,500 to build. Of this total, £3,000 was contributed by the Bishop of Bristol’s Commission, with the bulk of the balance coming from St Paul’s, Clifton, and a number of generous contributors who responded to appeals made by the Building Committee, amongst the largest of which were: – Mrs. Anthony Gibbs of Tyn Tyntesfield, £200; ‘In Memoriam’ £200; Anonymous; per the Revd. A.C.C. Anstey, £150; Bishop Twells, £130; ‘A friend’ £130; the Revd. A.C.C. Anstey, £125; Gloucester and Bristol Diocesan Association £100; Mr. S.G. James, £100, Canon Mather. £100; Sir Greville Smyth, £100; Miss Surragc, £80; Miss Nash, £60; Miss Franklin, £55; Mr. R.B. Ruddock, £52.
In addition there were innumerable small gifts, of both money and articles needed for use or embellishments. An article appearing in the ‘Bristol Times and Mirror’ dated 19th May 1913 observed, ‘These smaller gifts are not to be measured by their actual value so much as for the kindliness, and in a large number of instances self-sacrifice, which characterised them’.
On 25th March 1902, St. Michael’s was created as a separatc parish and some two months later the Revd. G.H.Ford, who since July 1898 had been curate-in-charge, was instituted as the first vicar. The boundaries of the parish were the railway line, St. Lukes Road and St. Johns Lane.
Meanwhile, in view of the rapidly expanding Sunday School, together with the other activities located there, the Parish Room required enlarglng. Mr Capper Pass again came to the church’s aid , and sold the site adjacent to the existing building for the erection of a larger hall, for the low sum of £100. This hall was formally handed over to the parish by Canon Mather of St Paul’s, Clifton, whose congregation had provided the total cost of £650, on 15th October 1890. It was further extended in 1904 at a cost of £627.
At the other end of the parish, a site in Marmaduke Street had been given by Mr. William Vowles for the erection of a Mission Church, towards which Mr. Alfred Capper Pass made a grant of £600. The first part of the building was opened on 29th May 1886, and final completion occured, after a rather lengthy interval in 1910, the completed church being dedicated on 5th November that year. It was known as ‘St. Michael the Less’, but more often than not referred to as the Mission Church or more simply ‘The Less’.
In 1908, although the building was never consecrated, a licence was obtained from the Bishop for Holy Communion to be celebrated at the Less, and originally this sacrament was celebrated there on the second and fourth Sundays in the month.
In January 1913 a good two-manual organ by Messrs. Norman and Beard was provided at a cost of £165, nearly half of which was the gilt of a Mr. Andrew Carnegie and the remainder coming from Canon Haigh and the congregation of St. Paul’s, Clifton, together with donations from the congregation of the Mission Church.
In 1906, on a site adjacent to the Parish Church given by Earl Temple, a vicarage was built at a cost of £2,487. This amount was provided by the Horfield Trust, the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, St. Paul’s, Clifton, Lady Smyth, and house-to-house collections around the parish which raised £58.
In 1903, Mr. Capper Pass made a further donation to St. Michael’s, which was used for the provision of new choir stalls in memory of his parents, and in 1905 Canon Haigh of St. Paul’s, Clifton, offered a three manual organ to replace the original inferior one, which was subsequently sold to Mount Zion Independant Methodist Church for £100. At the Annual Vestry Meeting held on 16th April 1906, Mr Huxtable proposed ‘That the best thanks of the Vestry Be accorded (to) the Vicar and Vestry of St. Paul’s, Clifton, for the gift to our church of the grand organ which we all liked to listen to and so ably manipulated by our esteemed organist, Mr. W. Charmbury’.
The First World War had less of a material effect upon the parish than the 1939-45 conflict, although the list of names on the Panel of Rememberance of the main porch (now moved to the centre of the West end of the nave) bears stark witness to the 132 parishioners who gave their lives fighting the Kaiser’s armies. At the annual Vestry Meeting held on 12th April, 1917 the vicar, Revd. H.R. Morgan, referred ‘to those fighting for us, especially the Revd. W. Herbert (curate-in-charge of the Mission Church) who he was sorry to say would no longer he with us again on this earth, whilst other officers of the church he had hoped would be spared, namely Mr. A. Fear and Mr. R. Boone, to return and help carry on the church work in this parish, and hope the war would soon be over’.
As originally built, the parish church had no stained glass windows, but as early as 1910 thought was being given to replacing the east window with stained glass. These plans had to be postponed for the duration of the Great War, but on 25th February 1921 a Special Vestry Meeting was held to pass a resolution for the application for a faculty for the erection of a stained glass window in the East End of the Parish Church, as a memorial to the men of the parish who were killed during the War.
The faculty application also covered the erection of an oak tablet, to be affixed to the north pillar of the Chancel Arch, containing the inscription:-
‘To the glory of God, and in memory of the men of this parish who gave their lives in the Great War, 1914-1918. The East window ot this church and this tablet were given by a number of parishioners and friends, followed by the list of the dead, with the words ‘May they rest in peace’ at the foot.
The window, designed by F. Bacon and costing £620, was duly installed and dedicated at a special service held on Saturday 28th May 1921. It represented the patron saints of all the Allies and also the heroes of the Old Testament. It portrayed Christ in glory attended by the victorious saints – St. Michael himself, the patron saints of the Allies and heroes of the Old Testament.
Part Two: The Fire to World War 2(1926-1946)
Shortly before five o’clock on the morning of Saturday, 9th January 1926, the Revd. H.B. Salmon was woken from his bed in the vicarage, either by the crash of falling tiles or by an unusual glare, to discover that the church was alight. After quickly dressing, he ran up the hill to the Post Office on Somerset Terrace (closed in the rationalisation of 2003) to summon the Fire Brigade on the telephone, such apparatus not having yet been installed in the vicarage, shouting out as he ran to summon parishioners to fight the flames.
The first-aid tender from the Central Station and the motor turbine engine from Bedminster, under Supt. Cade, rushed to the scene and were quickly at work, but the Brigade were greatly handicapped by an insufficient pressure of water due to the elevated position of the church, and although four hydrants were put on to feed the turbine engine, they could not provide an adequate supply of water for full volume working. In addition, the high wind that was blowing that night ensured that the fire took a firm hold and by the time the inferno was extinguishcd at 9.00 am, approximately four hours after the Fire Brigade arrived, there was little remaining apart from the shell of the building.
The entire roof had collapsed early in the blaze, but the firemen had managed to save one small corner of the church, where the font originally stood – an area of about ten square feet. The organ was completely wrecked; the only part of it that could be seen among the debris being one organ stop. The war memorial tablet was entirely disfigured, and the memorial east window was completely shattered, a fate it shared with all the others. The clergy vestry was, however, largely unscathed and its contents the vestments, church plate and parish records, were undamaged.
Evidence of arson was discovered and several national daily newspapers maintained that it was somebody’s protest against recent moves to make St. Michaels more ‘Anglo-Catholic’ principally the introduction of vestments, an idea strongly refuted by Revd. Salmon
Even before the debris had been fully cleared away and the shell of the building made safe, the decision had been taken to rebuild the church. It had been insured for £10,000, which would be well short of the cost of rebuilding. An appeal was consequently launched, with door-to-door collections throughout the parish, and within two months over £2,000 towards the targeted £5,000 required had been raised. In the meantime services were held in the larger Parish Room.
Coincidentally, St. Paul’s chuch, Clifton, which had played such an important part in establishing St Michael’s, was itself almost totally destroyed by fire in 1867, only the vestry, tower and porch remaining. It was rebuilt by September 1868.
As plans for the new church crystalised, and to boost morale, the monthly parish magazine contained details of the proposed building. The July 1926 issue contained this article:-
‘Let us try to imagine that the church has been built and that we are approaching it from Fraser Street. The West end looks lower (it is lower), and the West porch has disappeared. In the middle is a large graceful window of five lights coming down to just over the West door.
‘Thus as we reach Vivian Street we see that instead of the low lean-to side aisle there are four tall gables reaching up to the clerestory, each having a tall pointed three-light window. The Lady Chapel is the same, but the bell cot is over the chancel arch. As we enter by the S.W. porch, which now has a flat roof, we find ourselves in a screened lobby, through which we walk into the nave of the church. The floor is wood all over and the chairs the actual colour of the wood. We find the font just inside the West door. The aisles look much lighter and so does the nave roof, which is nearly all white with hardly any beams showing. The chancel arch is much the same as before, and on the left hand side is an oak pulpit, and on the right a lectern, both back against the piers of the arch. The clergy stalls are in line with the choir boys, instead of with the men, and there is the same wide sweep up the chancel to the sanctuary where the altar looks a little different, curtained on three sides and a little larger. The East window above it is different. It is narrower which makes it look lighter and more graceful. It is again filled with beautiful glass of the same subject as before. The organ cannot be described yet because its plans are not yet settled. The Lady Chapel is much as before except that a very effective though simple window is above the altar. Radiators set under the aisle windows heat the body ot the church, the remainder being well concealed. There is (or might be) electric light. We have a curious feeling that it is the same church yet not the same. For one thing, it feels so uncannily c1ean: but that new look will tone down in spite of the devoted efforts of the ladies of the parish to preserve it.’
The September 1926 edition noted that building work was being held up due to a shortage of bricks. It was announced, as a point of interest, that the red bricks with which the building is faced were fired with Coalpit Heath coal, and had to be kept hot for nearly six weeks.
The new church was designed by the Diocesan Architect, Mr Hartland Thomas, who also designed St. Cuthbert’s, Brislington, St. Oswald’s, Bedminster Down, and Shirehampton Parish Church, all of which were built at about this time, and was constructed by Messrs. William Cowlin and Sons. The East window was by the same maker as before and, although narrower than the original, was in the same colours and design. Broken fragments of the old one were worked into the design of the first window in the South aisle, near the present war memorial (where the font now stands). Mr Arnold Robinson, a greatly admired Bristol artist, was employed to do the Lady Chapel window and repair the three lights in the old baptistry.
The total cost of the rebuilding was approximately £15,000, with the East window costing £1,000, and the new church was consecrated by the Lord Bishop of Bristol on 16th April 1927, just sixteen months after the fire.
The new organ was built by Messrs. Rushworth and Dreaper of Liverpool, and the October 1926 parish magazine, announcing this contract, noted. ‘This will mean “small but good”, and our decision is warmly endorsed by expert opinion’. The organ was dedicated during a service held on Thursday 24th November 1927, which was followed by a recital given by Mr W. Maynard Rushworth of the organ builders.
In the late 1920s, electricity was supplied throughout the city and in 1933 it was decided to provide electric light to the Mission Church. This work, undertaken by Messers. Gough Bros. cost £36.15s. A Parish Sale of Work was held which, on top of this amount, raised a further £6.12s.2d.
The 1930s were a period of high church attendance. The Sunday School filled the two halls and the kitchen of the Parish Rooms, as well as the choir vestry, whilst the Catechism for older children, taken by Mr.G. Jones and Mr. Turner, filled the church nave.
I am grateful to Mrs. M. Milsom and Miss. D. Ilanks for the following recollection of this period:-
‘We started Sunday School at five years of age and went through the different classes until we reached the age of eleven, when we were ready for Catechism. We then moved over to the Church.
‘At five minutes to 3 o’clock, the church bell rang and Mr. George Jones, the Superintendent, walked down the path and opened the gates. The boys and girls were waiting in the road, there being very little traffic at this time, under the Willow tree, and the we walked into church very quietly.
‘The girls sat in the left middle aisle and the boys in the right. We started in the front row and every year moved back a row or two. Each row had a leader and on the first chair was a satchel containing pads and pencils which the leader passed along the row.
‘The Vicar came out from the vestry and the service began with a hymn played on the organ by Mr. Arthur Webb who deputised in the afternoons for Mr. Charmbury, followed by prayers during which every boy and girl knelt down. The Vicar then gave an address, asking questions as he went along. He would set two or three questions and we would write down a few notes and during the week try to answer what had been set during the afternoon - the next Sunday we would have a short run through what we had remembered. The register was taken by the leader, another hymn was sung during which the collection was taken, then we finished with prayers at about five minutes to 4 o’clock.
‘Baptism was always at 4pm and we were invited, together with the Sunday School children who met at the same time in the Church Hall opposite, to remain for the baptism if we were very quiet. At this time the Church was full of young people who looked forward to coming to Catechism regularly every Sunday afternoon.
‘Those of us who attended will never forget our Catechism days and thank God for the Christian teaching we received. Sadly this service ended during the Second World War after many years.’
Each year a Sunday School Outing was held, invariably the chartering of a train to Weston-Super-Mare. To raise funds for this outing a special event, known as the Forest of Trees, was held and for several years was a highlight of the Church’s year.
Another highlight was the Nativity Play, featuring members of the church, which was very professionally and enthusiastically produced for many years. At the Church Council meeting held on 7th November 1933, a letter from the Bishop of Bristol was read out, which advised that, as several male parts in the play that year were to be performed by ladies, he could not give consent to it being performed in church.
By the late 1930s it became obvious that the world was to be plunged into a further war, which would involve those left at home as well as those who went to fight. Consequently, when war came in 1939, the Sunday School no longer met at the Church Hall, but split into smaller groups, meeting at the homes of the Sunday School teachers, to minimise the risks during air raids. In June 1940 the P.C.C. agreed to take additional fire precaution measures, namely that at least six buckets for water or sand be placed in suitable places around the church, with ladders being sited in accessible positions. Black-out screens were also placed against the windows of the church and the stained glass East and Lady Chapel windows were boarded up.
In addition, camp beds were placed in the church vestry for the clergy and Youth Club members who maintained a fire-watching rota every night. Through their vigilance an incendiary bomb which landed on the church roof one night was quickly extinguished, before any serious damage could he done. (A hole in the panelled ceiling of the North aisle can still be seen, attributed to this event.)
Subsequently, an air-raid shelter was erected on land at the rear of the church hall, to accommodate 80 persons and in 1941, the P.C.C. agreed to the Fire Service building a water dam on the church lawn, for use during air raids. The church hall was designated as an Air Raid Reception Hostel to accommodate persons made homeless by air-raid damage, and the requisite blankets and medical equipment were loaned by the Red Cross.
Whilst several houses in the parish were either damaged or destroyed in the bombing raids which occurred from late 1940 onwards, the parish church and church halls were not damaged. An incendiary bomb fell on the roof of the vicarage during the first air raid, but the resultant fire was quickly put out by the Vicar and several members of the Youth Club, who had taken refuge in the church boilerhouse.
St. Michael the Less was not so fortunate, suffering damage during the raid on 24th November 1940, in which the adjacent house was destroyed. The rear portion of the Less had to be closed off as unsafe, but worship continued in the remainder. It was not until May 1942 that Revd. Rigby (curate-in-charge of the Less) was able to report that the blitz debris had nearly been cleared away, but he also had to report that an attempt had been made to burn down the Mission Church, but the attempt had failed due to the prompt action of neighbours and passers by.
During the war, church activities carried on as best they could, with Holy Communion (8am), Sung Eucharist (11am), Sunday School (2.30pm), Evensong (3.30pm) and Evening Service (6.30pm) being held every Sunday at Parish Church, and at St.Michael the Less, Eucharist at 9am and Evensong at 6.30pm.
At about this time, a tradition of holding revues in the Church Hall had commenced, which were very enthusiastically and amusingly performed by members of the congregation, no doubt doing much to boost the morale of the local community.
After Evensong each Sunday, those serving away from home were remembered in prayers, and during the week the Vicar and Curates held services around the parish, if the weather permitted in the streets or if wet in certain people’s houses. Days of Prayer at various intervals brought large numbers to worship at church.
One day in late 1943, the parish was surprised to welcome several hundred American soldiers, who were billeted in pairs in various houses, with their Mess Halls, etc. being located in Victoria Park and near Mill Lane. A U.S. Army Chaplain preached in the church, and over the Christmas period children from the area were taken to the American Central Headquarters where they were entertained. St. Michael’s Choirboys sang carols, and the event was broadcast across the United States.
With the victory in Europe over Hitler’s armies in 1945, a special service of thanksgiving was held at St. Michael’s, at which all the seats were occupied and many more people forced to stand at the back of Church. A similar service was later held to celebrate V-J day, the final surrender of Japan, although fewer people attended.
With the relief resultant from the end of hostilities, life slowly began to return to normal. Among the first jobs undertaken being the removal of the protective boarding to the stained glass windows and the black-out screens.
Part Three : A Period of Reorganisation (1947-86)
By the early 1950s, the Church of England was beginning to look at church buildings and the deployment of its clergy, in the light of manpower shortages and lack of funds. The Diocesan Pastoral Reorganisation Committee duly considered the Bedminster area in 1954, and submitted the following proposals:-
- that St. Johns Church, which had been destroyed in the blitz, be rebuilt on a new site in the Marksbury Road area, with the bulk of its parish being transfered to St. Aldhelm’s, Bedminster,
- that St. Dunstan’s Parish, in addition to the church at the top of Winterstoke Road, should have a base in the Ashton Drive area, and
- that St. Michael’s take over that part of the parish of Holy Nativity, Knowle, bounded by St. Lukes Road, St. Johns Lane and Wells Road, with the closure of one of the respective daughter churches, St. Katherines, Totterdown (now the Mosque) being preferred for retention as it was in better condition than St. Michael the Less.
These proposals, or certainly those that affected the parish, were not wholeheartedly accepted by St. Michael’s P.C.C. who submitted amended proposals to the Pastoral Reorganisation Committee. These followed the line that the area suggested to be transferred to St. Michael’s parish had a long association with the Wells Road area, both social and religious, and consequently should be retained by Holy Nativity. However, to equate the parishes numerically, only that part known as Lower Knowle, bounded by Redcatch Road and Ravenhill Road, should be transferred from Holy Nativity. It was also argued that St. Michael’s ought to have a curate ,and that with four men between the two parishes, both St. Katherine’s and the Less should be retained, especially as they catered for two different ‘levels’ of churchmanship.
In the event, no change to the parish boundaries occurred, although the decision was taken to close the Less, the last services being held there on Sunday 12th February 1956. At the end of the evening service, the congregation led by their choir, processed up the hill through Victoria Park and formally joined with the congregation of the parish church. As a memorial to the worship and witness from there, an aumbry and lamp were provided in the Lady Chapel sanctuary of the parish church, at a cost of £42.8s, using the balance of the funds held by the Less at its closure.
In 1959, the altar cross and candlesticks from the Less were presented to the parish of Bishop Sutton and in 1961 the processional cross was given to South Marston church whose incumbent, the Revd. C. Cockell, had been Vicar of St. Michael’s from 1945 until 1953. The organ was given for use in the new church being built at Brentry. The Less building was eventually sold in 1958, and St. Michael’s received the sum of £1,608.8s.4d from the proceeds of the sale.
This money was warmly welcomed, as the first quinquennial inspection had recently been undertaken, and the P.C.C. were faced with some very costly items of repair. Some of the money was used to undertake the ‘essential’ items listed by the Architect, which included: - the replacement of the existing wooden-shafted bell with a 16″ bell (same size) with metal self-lubricating shaft; repointing of the bell tower; reducing the height of the boundary wall in Fraser Street, which was leaning badly, together with the removal of the soil it had retained, and the blocking up of the West Door which was rendered inaccessible by these measures. This work was undertaken in 1959.
The parish magazine for April 1955 recorded the death of two long-serving members of St. Michael’s. Miss Nora Cockbaine had served as District Nurse in the parish for over twenty years, from 1927 to 1947. She was employed by the Bristol District Nursing Association and her small salary was raised by weekly contributions paid by the people she tended. 
Mr. George Jones, who passed away on March 19th 1955 at the age of 81 ,had been connected with St. Michael’s since the 1880s, having joined the choir as a boy when the first services were held. He sang in the choir for upwards of 30 years until he became Vicar’s Warden, a post he held for 21 years, from 1922 to 1943, many of them with Mr.J.H. Ray as People’s Warden, serving under four Vicars and through the desperate times of the fire in 1926 and the early years of the Second World War. During all that time his untiring devotion to the many duties of his office and his work with the Catechism on Sunday afternoons won him the respect and affection of all. Even after he relinquished his office as Warden, he continued to serve on the P.C.C. and as Magazine Secretary.
In September 1957, Mr. Charmbury, who had been organist at St. Michael’s for almost sixty years, had to resign due to failing health. He passed away on 13th November 1957. Although blind, he had served the church devotedly, and was mourned by all who knew him. The grand piano in the North Aisle was his, which he left to the church. (This was found to be beyond economic repair and replaced in 2003, the P.C.C. voting to place a plaque on the replacement instrument recording the circumstances.)
Revd. Gwynn, who had been vicar of St. Michael’s since October 1955, resigned in February 1961 upon accepting the living of All Saints’ Church, Lyddington. As Bedminster was again to come under the scrutiny of the Diocesan Pastoral Reorganisation Committee, the benefice of St. Michael’s was suspended, to keep open all options available to the Committee
They subsequently proposed that the parishes of St. John’s, whose church had been blitzed during the war, and St. Michael’s should be united with St. Mary Redcliffe, with the exception of that part of St. John’s parish to the West of Cannon Street/Sheene Road which would pass to St. Aldhelm’s. The ruins of St. Johns would be demolished, with the site preserved as an open space but with some form of memorial to the worship that had existed . A place of worship would he established on a site in Littleton Road, off St. Johns Lane, following which St. Michael’s church would be demolished and the site sold.
An incensed P.C.C. duly made representations against these proposals, and came up with the following counter-recommendations:- that St. Michael and St. John be joined together with St. Michael’s fulfilling the role of parish church, with a mission church to be built on the site at Littleton Road, to serve that area, with the existing mission church of St. John’s, known as St. Hugh and situated in Lynton Road, being demolished when the new building was opened.
in July 1961, the Pastoral Reorganisation Committee amended its proposals, ruling out any union between St. Michaels and St. Mary Redcliffe, but instead dividing the parish of St. John’s between St. Michael’s and St. Aldhelm’s, Bedminster.
By May 1962, the recommendations were further revised, with the parish of St. John’s being divided between St. Michael’s (that area south of the railway line bounded by Parson Street, Glyn Vale and Redcatch Road). St Mary Redcliffe (north of the railway line up to the line of East Street and West Street) and St. Aldhelm (that area between West Street and North Street), with the benefice of St. John’s being divided between St. Michael’s and St. Mary Redchiffe.
When Revd. Bryan Jones was appointed to the parish in October 1962. it was to the position of Priest-in-Charge, the benefice of St. Michael’s still being suspended. However, despite strong objections from the parishioners of St. John’s, who wished their church to be rebuilt, the final proposals outlined above were those which were eventually adopted. and, on 18th September 1965, the Queen issued an Order in Council ratifying the scheme, and changing the name of the parish from Windmill Hill to St. Michael and All Angels, Bedminster, to reflect the larger geographical area now covered. The notice of the making of this Order in Council was duly published in the London Gazette on 21st September 1965.
On 14th October 1965, a Special Vestry Meeting was held to formally close the business of the old parish of St. Michael and All Angels, Windmill Hill, and to elect the officers and P.C.C. for the new parish of St. Michael and All Angels, Bedminster, who, with the exceptionr of Mr. Holland, who had passed away during the intervening period, were exactly those persons who had been elected to office at the Annual General Meeting held on 29th March 1965.
The formal induction on 8th November 1965 of the Revd. Bryan Jones as Vicar of the new parish finally concluded a long period of uncertainty for St. Michael’s.
In December 1962, it was announced that the Windmill Hill Methodist Church, with buildings at the top end of Vivian Street, would close on the last day of that year. The P.C.C. of St. Michaels agreed to take over the sponsorship of the Boys Brigade Company affiliated to the Methodist church, under its leader, Jack House. Jack subsequently became an Anglican priest, and is now part of the Bedminster Team Ministry, attached to the church of St. Francis, Ashton Gate. (Jack has since moved to Holy Nativity, Knowle and now to St. Anne’s, Brislington.)
After approximately two years of regular worship at St. Michael’s, Charles Keeble was elected Churchwarden on 1st April 1963. Later that year, the P.C.C. decided to cash in its holding of Savings Certificates to finance some necessary repairs, and Mr. Keeble reported in July that he had placed the £191.11s.6d this had yielded in the church safe, of which he was a keyholder. At the next P.C.C. meeting, held on 17th September, Revd. Bryan Jones announced that Mr. Keeble had disappeared, and the sum of £191.11s.6d was missing from the church safe. As these two events might have been connected, the police and the Bishop were informed. Mr. Keeble was later found in Preston, Lancashire, and told the police ‘It is all spent now. I did it on the spur of the moment’. At the subsequent trial at Bristol Quarter Sessions, where he was placed on probation for three years, the court was told that he had ten previous convictions, and had only been released from prison in March 1961 , after having served a 30 month sentence. Mr. Keeble was replaced as Churchwarden by Mr. W.E.J. Jones, the Revd. Bryan Jones’ father, who proved himself a much more trustworthy holder of this high office.
In February 1966, Revd. Philip Hughes took up his duties as curate of St. Michael’s, but with special responsibility for the Marksbury Road area, living in a Council House, No. 57 Weymouth Road, just off Littleton Road. Services were held in a private room at the Engineers Arms public house, using vestments borrowed from Holy Nativity, Knowle, until new ones were provided by the parish church, together with a set of candlesticks, late in 1967. This arrangement proved not too satisfactory, and in October 1967 the Anglicans shared the use of the Wedmore Vale Methodist Church. After having built up a small but regular following, Revd. Hughes left the parish in May 1969 to take up an appointment as Vicar of St. Peter’s Church, Chippenham. After several years there, he returned to Bristol as Team Rector to the Bedminster Team.
The early 1970s was a further period of strain for St. Michael’s, for the church hall was in a bad state of repair, and a difficult decision had to be taken as to what to do with the building. In 1971 it was estimated that to renovate the small hall, kitchen and toilet alone would cost £4,000. Demolition would cost £1,000.
The newly formed Windmill Hill Community Association expressed an interest in the building, possibly taking over the large hall for their activities, and being responsible for the renovation of that room. Following a public meeting held at Victoria Park School on 10th January 1972, and the Archdeacon having reached agreement with the City Council over the provision of a grant to the Community Association to assist with the cost of renovation, the P.C.C. agreed to the lease of the whole building, when it passed a resolution at its meeting on 8th February 1972 that, ‘We agree to the proposal to lease the Church hall to the Windmill Hill Community Association on terms to be negotiated by the Archdeacon of Bristol’. The building was formally leased to the W.H.C.A. for a period of twenty five years from December 1973.
At about this time, Revd. Bryan Jones, who had served the parish for ten years, announced that he would be leaving to take up an appointment at St. Matthew, Moorfields, and would be inducted there on 11th April 1972.
This gave the Pastoral Reorganisation Committee the opportunity to look again at the future of the parish, and consideration was given, in the light of clergy shortages, to the inclusion of St. Michael’s in the Bedminster Team Ministry, or linking it in some way with either St. Mary Redcliffe or parishes of St. Barnabas and Holy Nativity at Knowle.
In the meantime a retired clergyman, Canon E.M. Hall, took up residence in the Vicarage whilst waiting for a flat to become available at Redcliffe, and kindly looked after the parish until October 1972, when ill health forced him to take life more slowly.
In November 1972, the P.C.C. welcomed the Rural Dean, the Revd. John Wilson, who explained the Archdeacon’s proposals for the immediate future of St. Michael’s. This was that the parish would be ‘associated’ with St. Mary Redcliffe with the Vicar designate, Canon Kenneth Clark, also becoming Priest-in-Charge, of St. Michael’s. A Priest would reside in St. Michael’s vicarage holding the position of Curate-in-Charge, and a further curate would be appointed as soon as possible to look after the Marksbury Road area, which had received little pastoral care since the departure of Revd. Philip Hughes. The Revds. Clifford Fane and Graham Mitchell were appointed, respectively, in due course.
In October 1973, Miss Gertrude Rudman joined the staff of St. Michael’s as a Parish Worker, working closely with Graham Mitchell in the Marksbury Road area, but also being actively involved at the parish church, not least of which being the chairman of the very busy Social Committee. Although of retirement age, her warmth and extensive visiting brought many new faces into the Church.
The site in Littleton Road, quoted in so many Pastoral Reorganisation proposals, was duly acquired by the Diocese of Bristol and plans made for the re-erection on it of a multi-purpose Terrapin church centre, with living accommodation for a single clergyman. While this was being built, Revd. Mitchell lived in a caravan on the site, which soon became known as the ‘Nettlebed’ for obvious reasons.
At first, services were held at the Quakers’ Meeting Room in Wedmnore Vale but, at a Communion service held at the centre on 27th November 1974, the Bishop of Bristol dedicated the building as the Nicholas Ferrar Church Centre. Nicholas Ferrar (1592-1637) had a varied and distinguished career, being involved in the colonial exploits of the Virginia Company in America,and was, for a short time, an M.P. In 1625 he withdrew from public life and lived the rest of his days at Little Gidding, a village near Huntingdon. He gathered about him a small community: his mother, brother and brother-in-law and their families, which lived essentially a simple life of worship, prayer and service to the local neighbourhood. Nicholas Ferrar was chosen as patron saint of the centre because this way of life so mirrored the role it was intended to play.
At about this time, the P.C.C. agreed to incorporate within the parish boundaries that part of St. Dunstan’s parish not included when St. Dunstan’s joined the Bedminster Team Ministry, i.e. the area bounded by the railway line, Bedminster Road and Parson Street.
August 1975 witnessed the first issue of the ‘Windmill’, a community magazine administered by St.Michaels P.C.C., but with contribution from the Community Association, City Farm and the local Baptist and Methodist churches. This magazine, which was the brainchild of the Revd. Clifford Fane, was still being produced at the Church’s centenary in 1986 with 600 copies being printed each month. However, publication ceased around that year and its niche was filled by a new independent community paper (Hill Views) delivered to all local residents. Local churches usually contribute articles to this, but have no other connection with it.
In September 1976, Revd. Mitchell left the parish to become Vicar at Bishop Auckland, to be followed by Revd. Fane in September 1977 when he took up a post at Kings Lynn. Canon Clark ceased to have responsibility for St. Michael’s in May 1978, and in October of that year Gertrude Rudman finally retired.
In June 1978, Revd. Peter Chambers was inducted as Vicar of St. Michael’s, after the retirement of Gertrude Rudman serving the Parish single-handed until a year later being joined by a curate, Roger Salter. Peter Chambers had previously been Youth Chaplain to the Bishop of Bristol, and worked well with young people. During his incumbency, annual Youth Weekends were held, at first at Legge House, the Diocesan centre at Wroughton, near Swindon, and later at Coleford in the Forest of Dean. From these weekends,a regular Youth Fellowship developed, meeting fortnightly in the Boys’ Brigade Hall. With the appointment of Peter Chambers, the Vicarage adjacent to the parish church was sold by the Diocese, and No. 153 St. Johns Lane, formerly Dr. Hadyn-Evans’ surgery, was acquired as replacement.
In August 1969 the heating at the parish church had been converted from coal to oil but, due to the rapidly escalating cost of oil, the Vicar and Churchwardens appealed to parishioners in July 1979 for interest-free loans, repayable over four years, to cover the cost of converting the heating system from oil to gas. The appeal raised £2,086 and the conversion, which was undertaken during October 1979, cost £2,489.
With no clergy being specifically responsible for the Marksbury Road area, following the departure of Graham Mitchell, the Nicholas Ferrar Church Centre was closed, and in September 1980 it was announced that the terrapin building had been sold by the Diocese to the Barrow Gurney Cricket Club for £1,000, for use as a changing room. Various activities, including a Dinner Club, continued to be run using the Methodist Church in Wedmore Vale, but these ceased after a few years.
In June 1982, Roger Salter left the parish to take up an appointment at Christ Church, Swindon, only to return to Bristol in 1984 as Vicar of St. Oswald’s, Bedminster Down. In August 1982 the parish welcomed Revd. Dr. John Polkinghorne as its new curate. Before training for the ministry, John had been professor of mathematical physics at Cambridge University, and was an acknowledged expert in his field. In view of this, on 15th January 1984 the BBC televised two services from St. Michael’s as part of their series entitled ‘Jesus - His Life and Teaching!’ Unfortunately John had to be rushed to hospital shortly before the recording sessions and his talk was given instead by Raymond Short, the BBC’s Director of Religious Programmes.
After nearly six years as Vicar, Peter Chambers left the parish in February 1984 to take up an appointment as adviser to the General Synod on Marriage Education. He was replaced in June 1984 by Revd. Terry Baillie who had previously been vicar of Bickenhill with Elmdon in the Diocese of Birmingham.
John Polkinghorne resigned in August l984 to become Vicar at St. Cosmus and St. Damian in the village of Blean, near Canterbury, and the parish was once again under the care of only one clergyman until September 1985, when Harry Wardale was appointed as curate to St. Michael’s. Harry also had a university background, before training for the ministry having been a lecturer at Salford University.
Following a nine months trial, the P.C.C. at their meeting on 8th October 1984, decided that the 10.00am Family Eucharist should take the form of Rite A of the Alternative Service Book 1980, to replace the Rite B from which it had been celebrated at St. Michael’s for several years. However, in an attempt to satisfy all preferences, the Rite B form was retained for the Sunday 8.00am and Wednesday 9.30am Communion services. (These services were replaced by Common Worship in 2001.)
Another change to the form of worship occured in the early 1980s, with the introduction of a Nave Altar using a table previously used at the Less, standing on a platform adjacent’ to the Chancel steps, to enable the celebration of Westward Communion, i.e. with the priest facing the people as he prepares the Sacramental Bread and Wine.
In 1984 the P.C.C. applied for a faculty to make the nave altar platform permanent, and to cover it with a blue carpet to match that between the choir stalls; for the use of the nave altar and to cover it with a cloth, edged with English Lace, kindly made and donated to St. Michaels by Mr. Graeme Dunlop of Almorah Road; and the installation of new lighting to the Nave, following several years of experiments, using eight Halogen Quartz spotlights. The faculty was duly granted, with the lighting being installed by Messrs. Tapp - Electric, and the altar cloth being dedicated for use during 1985.
In preparation for the centenary, during the latter half of 1985 the interior of the Church was redecorated by George Brown’s Building Committee, enlisting the valiant efforts of many church members and very good friends of St. Michael’s enabling the whole job to be undertaken for approximately £300, being the cost of materials used.
| Curates-in-Charge | |
|---|---|
| Aug 1884 - Jan 1891 | Revd. C.E. Gaussen |
| Apr 1891 - Mar 1892 | Revd. N.K. Torr |
| Apr 1892 - Jul 1894 | Revd. R.E. Coles |
| Jul 1894 - Aug 1895 | Revd. I. Williams |
| Sep 1895 - Nov 1896 | Revd. H.J.B. Walters |
| Jan 1897 - Jul 1898 | Revd. A.E. Ross |
| Jul 1898 - Jun 1902 | Revd. George H. Ford |
| Vicars | |
|---|---|
| Jun 1902 - Jan 1910 | Revd. George H. Ford |
| Feb 1910 - 1925 | Revd. H.R. Morgan |
| 1925 - 1930 | Revd. Harold Bryant Salmon |
| Jul 1930 - May 1940 | Revd. Samuel B. Bennett |
| Jul 1940 - Dec 1943 | Revd. Ronald T. Murray |
| Mar 1944 - Apr 1955 | Revd. Clement Cockell |
| Oct 1955 - Feb 1961 | Revd. W.J.G. Gwynn |
| Priest-in-Charge | |
|---|---|
| Oct 1962 - Nov 1965 | Revd. Bryan W. Jones |
| Vicar | |
|---|---|
| Nov 1965 - Apr 1972 | Revd. Bryan W. Jones |
| Priests-in-Charge | |
|---|---|
| May 1972 - Dec 1972 | Canon E.M. Hall (Temporary) |
| Mar 1973 - May 1978 | Canon Kenneth J. Clark (Vicar of St Mary Redcliffe) |
| Vicars | |
|---|---|
| Jun 1978 - Feb 1984 | Revd. Peter L. Chambers |
| Jun 1984 - Jun 1996 | Revd. Terence Baillie |
| Mar 1997 - | Revd. David Sefton Moss |
(The above account is slightly adapted from the booklet St. Michael and all Angels: The First Hundred Years compiled by John Tooze for the church’s centenary in 1986.)
