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

The Parish

The parish of St George in Bristol was created from the broad expanse of the parish of St Philip & St Jacob as a result of an Act of 1751, the parish was created as a true suburb, being the first such parish created outside the medieval core of the city. The city of Bristol lies in the extreme south of Gloucestershire forming part of the border with neighbouring Somerset. 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 it Caer Briton 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. St George parish became necessary as a result of development of coal mining to the east of the city and the influx of workers needed for that business. 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 George parish sat outside the walls of the inner city to its east at is centred upon the junction of A420 (Bristol to Chippenham) and A431 (Bristol to Bath north of the Avon) it is now an integral part of 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 George parish is sited at around 17 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.The area carved out for the parish was equivalent to that of a regular rural parish in southern Britain, covering close to 1,800 acres it would have supported a growing population that rose during the period of this transcript from a few hundred to well over 6,000. Bristol, being already a substantial settlement, is not specifically detailed as to its assets in Domesday Book.

The Church

St George's church was destroyed by a devastating fire of 1878, the church was completed to serve its new parish in 1756 and received a major restoration in 1846. Situated on Summerhill Road the area has been redeveloped for housing and nothing substantial remains of the church. Archive images remain the only means to document what had once been a prominent landmark in the eastern suburbs of the city.