More information : (ST 58497138) Church (NAT). (1)
The Church of St John the Baptist at Bedminster, rebuilt in
1854 on the site of an earlier church, allegedly Saxon, was
gutted in the Second World War. Among the remains are lancets
and Decorated tracery. The west tower has set-back buttresses
and battlements. (2-3)
Bedminster - "Preserved in the Pigot collection is a sketch ...
of a fine 15th cent. cross that formerly stood opposite the
south porch of the church. It has since been demolished, and
when I last visited the spot the fragments were lying in the
grass about the churchyard". (4)
(ST 58507139) Grave Yard (NAT)
The churchyard of the former St John's Church is almost
certainly the site of the Saxon minster of Bedminster, though
the earliest portions of the exposed foundations probably date
only to the late medieval period. In the Middle Ages the church
was the centre of a very large and very rich parish, which
included Redcliffe, St. Mary Redcliffe (see ST 57 SE 1)
remaining a chapel of ease to St John's until the 1830s. A
comprehensive survey and record is being made of the exposed
foundations and tomb slabs before it is secularised. (5)
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