St Mary le Port Church, Bristol

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St Mary le Port church, an old photo from ChurchCrawler with permission

St Mary le Port is a ruined parish church in the centre of Bristol, England. It is said to have been founded in Saxon times, and rebuilt and enlarged between the 11th and 16th centuries.

During the 19th and early 20th centuries the church was a very popular centre of evangelical, Protestant, and Calvinist teaching within Anglicanism.

The church was bombed in the Second World War on 24 November 1940. All that remains is the 15th century tower, which during the latter years of the 20th century was surrounded by the buildings of Norwich Union and the Bank of England. A new building development is now proposed.

After the bombing in 1940 the congregation and their rector, William Dodgson-Sykes, moved to St John on the Wall Church, where the congregation remained, in gradually declining numbers, till this church building was closed for worship by the Church Commissioners in 1984 (after a protracted struggle by the congregation). The remaining congregation then moved to the Chapel of Foster's Almshouses, and joined the Church of England (Continuing) in 1995 [1]. The C of E (Continuing) no longer lists a congregation in Bristol - some of the congregation joined with the new Free Presbyterian Church (Ulster) congregation in Horfield, Bristol.

[edit] Clergy of St Mary-le-Port church

Include (very incomplete list):

William Waite, rector, born 1764, died 1842, dates at St Mary le Port unknown [2]
William Tandey, curate 1784 - 1799 (lived 1750-1832) [3]
James Marshall, rector 1842 - (born 23 February 1796, died 29 August 1855)

[4]

Mr Thomas, rector, resigned 1857
Samuel Abraham Walker, rector 1857 - 1879 (born Dublin, 1809, died 30 November 1879) (source, The Gospel Magazine, January, 1880)
James Ormiston, rector 1880 (and as at the 1901 census) (previously at Old Hill, West Midlands; editor of The Gospel Magazine from 1895-1916)
William Dodgson Sykes, rector (as at 1940) (editor of The Gospel Magazine from 1964-1975)