England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Bristol St Ewen

The Parish

The city of Bristol lies in the extreme south of Gloucestershire forming part of the border with neighbouring Somerset. At the start of this transcript period Bristol was divided into no fewer than 18 parishes of which St Ewen was just one. Bristol is located roughly 120 miles west of London and sits on the River Avon at the point where it ceases to be navigable and is served by numerous major roads of which the A4 leads to London and the A38 to Birmingham. Bristol has a long and distinguished history, the pre-Roman Britons named in Caer Brito and the Romans adopted it as Abona. It is as one of England's most significant ports that Bristol rose to become the major city of southwestern England, trade growing the port into a city of well over 100,000 population. Sadly much of that growth was fueled by Bristol's involvement in the slave trade, a trade now subject to revaluation by today's society. Besides the trade and commerce occasioned by the port, Bristol is also a major manufacturing centre and home for numerous service industries; it remains the major place of employment in its area and a major market for produce from a broad hinterland. Bristol has also benefited from modern developments, the Kennet & Avon canal being followed by Brunel's railway line to London and others to both north and south. In more recent times the modern M4 & M5 motorways pass by the city with its own dedicated motorway, the M32 connecting it to the former. St Mary Redcliffe parish sat originally outside the walls of the inner city on its southern side (indeed in two places it spread across the Avon into Somerset) but is now engulfed within the metropolis that is Greater Bristol. Bristol is drained the short distance to the nearby Bristol Channel by the Avon through its famous gorge. St Ewen parish is sited at just 10 metres above the sea with most of the city at that height or indeed lower, land rises to the height of 80 metres in the suburb of Cotham. St Ewen parish covered a relatively small area either side of the city's Corn Street, just a few city blocks in acreage and with a population estimated at fewer than 500 parishioners. Bristol, being already a substantial settlement, is not specifically detailed as to its assets in Domesday Book.

The Church

St Ewen's church stood on the corner of Corn Street and Broad Street, a junction which also saw All Saints and Christ Church too, it has been described as Bristol's equivalent of Edinburgh's Holy Corner. St Ewen was always the smaller of the 3 parishes and by the late 18th century attendances were contracting such that the parish was merged with Christ Church and eventually demolished in 1820. There is scant evidence of its nature but its foundation in the 15th century would dictate that it followed the Perpendicular style prevalent at that time, although archaeological evidence found Norman burials indicating a much earlier date than this, the church also apparently was graced by a large eastern window, overlooking Broad Street, and a western tower of 1631. The site is now that of Bristol's Registry Office.