Description

BRISTOL

ST5873NW COTHAM ROAD, Cotham
901-1/4/1195 (South side)
01/11/66 Cotham Church
(Formerly Listed as:
COTHAM ROAD
(South side)
Highbury Chapel)

GV II*

Congregational chapel, now an Anglican church. 1842-3. By W
Butterfield. Apse, tower, S transept and school 1863 by EW
Godwin, the apse was moved out one bay in c1890. Pennant
rubble with limestone ashlar dressings and a tiled roof.
Aisled nave, N porch, S transept, apse and tower.
Perpendicular Gothic Revival style.
The church is linked to the school by a 5-bay passage of
2-light trefoil-headed windows, the second from the E forming
a tall entrance with a iron gate; single-storey school rooms
have 2- and 3-light square-headed windows.
Apsidal E end with 2-light windows. NE vestry gable has a
marble wall memorial within an ogee panel to the 5 Bristol
martyrs. 4-bay N aisle of wide 4-centred arched windows, with
4 lights and panel tracery, separated by buttresses with a
deep roll moulding to the plinth; W porch has an arched
doorway with hollow moulding, diagonal buttresses and coped
parapet; the clerestory has triple quatrefoils, unaligned with
the aisle windows.
The S transept has a gable to the transept gallery stairs and
a parapeted wall to the school rooms, with 1-, 2- and 3-light
trefoil-headed windows with flat lintels; the stair block has
diagonal buttresses, with chamfered corners above them,
2-light Perpendicular windows to the S and W, and a W door
reached by a flight of steps.
The 3-stage tower in the angle between the transept and the
aisle has an octagonal ashlar SW turret which rises above the
tower to a crenellated top; the tower incorporated
Butterfield's reset aisle window into the ground stage to the
W; above it is a 3-light flat-headed window, an arrow slit to
the second stage and paired single lights with Perpendicular
panel tracery and ashlar bands to the belfry; a drip course
with gargoyles and a crenellated parapet to the top.
The W end has a 4-light window above a central door, a 2-light
window to the N aisle and a stair tower for the W gallery with
a parapet to the S.
INTERIOR: a panelled timber reredos in the 1-bay apse, with
stilted arches on hexagonal corbel responds to the sides, and
an arch-braced vault. Nave arcade of hexagonal piers to
4-centred arches and responds, splayed clerestory windows with
shoulders and an arch-braced collar-beam roof. 2-bay S
transept and door leading to the tower, with a ramped stone
stair with smooth soffit and foliate wrought-iron balustrade;
1863 galleries to the W end and transept with pierced
quatrefoils and billet mould, and similar wainscotting.
Memorials: wall monument to Arnold Thomas by Eric Gill, 1924,
shepherd and sheep carved into the NE nave respond.
HISTORICAL NOTE: originally built as Highbury Congregational
Chapel and purchased by the Church of England in c1975.
Butterfield's first commission, obtained through his family
connection with WD Wills the tobacco industrialist.
An exceptionally early and unusual example of the application
of the Gothic Revival style to nonconformist chapel
architecture, including the early work of two major C19
architects.
(Gomme A, Jenner M and Little B: Bristol, An Architectural
History: Bristol: 1979-: 312).

Listing NGR: ST5821973854

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Cotham Church at Wikipedia
• Cotham Church official website
• Wikidata Q5175346

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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