St Mary Le Port

Mono Monday – Ancient Building:  St Mary Le Port
 
“The senseless drone of the dull machines in the sky
In a chain extending the boundaries
Of a distant invisible will,
Weave a net of sound in the darkness on high
Drawing the senses up in one Eye
From our tunneled entombed bodies,
Where everything stops but the wishes that kill.
Living now becomes withered like flowers
In the boring burned city which has no use
For us but as lives and deaths to fill
With fury the guns blazing back on the powers
That scorch our small plot of blasted hours:
 
Death we cannot refuse
Where everything stops but the wishes that kill.
Driven by intolerance and volted with lies,
We melt down the whirring bodies of boys
And their laughter distil
To plough metal hatred through the skies
And write with their burning eyes over cities
Sure no green summer joys
Where everything stops but the wishes that kill.
Filled with swear words, laughter and fire,
Soothed by the girl hands and clothed in my words
What, my fine feather-head, laughing lad Bill,
Was your life, but a curveting arc of desire
Ricocheting in flames on your own funeral pyre
Instinctive as birds,
Where everything stops but the wishes that kill?”
 
Stephen Spender – “In Memoriam” (from Ironies of War)
 
Although it is right in the middle the centre of Bristol, most people will not have seen the church of St Mary Le Port, or if they have will have seen only the spire as part of the city’s roofscape and will probably not have realised what they are looking at – one of the oldest churches in what was once the original heart of Bristol.
 
The church was founded in Saxon times,  and Anglo-Saxon foundations have been found by archaeological excavation along with Saxon pottery.  The church is understood to have been rebuilt and enlarged between the 11th and 16th centuries.  Historically the church stood in the original walled city of Bristol, near the castle.  This area was very badly bombed in the Second World War and little remains of its medieval (and earlier) buildings.
 
The church itself was bombed on 24 November 1940 during the Bristol Blitz. As a major port Bristol was targeted by the Luftwaffe along with the other British ports.  John Piper (an official war artist during the Second World War) painted an evocative picture of the bombed St Mary le Port. This image later appeared on the 1/6 British commemorative stamp, part of a set of four paintings by British artists issued in 1968.
 
   
All that now remains of the church is the 15th century tower, a Grade II listed building and a Scheduled Ancient Monument which during the latter years of the 20th century was surrounded by the buildings of Norwich Union and the Bank of England.  These buildings (in particular the former Bank of England building) are now very run down, SaruumStroller’s blip of the former Bank of England building for Derelict Thursday can be seen here, with St Mary Le Port peeking out above.  If you saw the BBC3 TV series “Being Human” you will have seen this area before, as it was used for several of the episodes.