10.30am Sundays
Family service with creche & Sunday club
6.30pm Sundays
Gospel service with worship and ministry
SS Philip and Jacob Church (Pip n Jay), Tower Hill, Bristol BS2 0ET map
0117 929 3386 email
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Pip n Jay is in the centre of Bristol, an exciting city which has seen massive development and change over the years. The history of Bristol laid some foundations for the city we are today, so we have read up on this history to make sense of what's going on now...
Bristol was not an ancient cathedral city or a county town. It owed its entire existence to trade and manufacture, and this in turn was a direct result of its geographical position.
Originally Bristol was a Saxon settlement, lying at the junction of the River Avon and its major tributary, the River Frome. The meandering course formed an almost complete natural moat making an easily defensible area. Seaward attack was well protected by the narrow and spectacular narrow gorge of the Avon over 300 feet high. From Bristol a network of rivers, the Avon and Severn estuary, meant that goods could be easily transported into the heart of England. Bristol lay at the gateway to three different regions, the South West, the Midlands and South Wales. Areas that were rich in agricultural and mineral products, and proved to be important industrial manufacturing centres,
By the time of the Norman Conquest, Bristol was a small but well-established town, with ships trading extensively with Ireland and because of its strategic importance William the Conqueror built a castle on the south east side.
Early Bristol was tiny and divided into four quarters (wards) by it's four main streets, High Street, Broad Street, Wine Street, and Corn Street. Outside the walls lay the castle, the Benedictine Priory of St James, and the great Bristol bridge across the Avon. This was a smaller version of old London Bridge. By the middle of the twelfth century, Bristol could be described as almost the richest city of all in the country. Trading by ship with lands near and far. It was situated among some of the most fertile parts of the west country and strongly fortified.
The late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries saw great expansion, unparalleled until the eighteenth century. By the mid-thirteenth century the port was overflowing and a major programme to improve the harbour, by diverting the River Frome, had been carried out. A new and deeper channel had been cut through the marsh and joined the Avon lower down. This provided a new quay for the ocean-going ships, and became known as Broad Quay. Some other notable improvements included a piped fresh water supply from wells and springs outside the city (one of which is still flowing). The provision of hospitals for the poor and sick, with the earliest almshouses being founded in 1292. This example being repeated many times over through the centuries.
The fourteenth century saw the cloth industry flourishing and Bristol became the major port for the export of woollen cloths. Its wealth and importance grew, and in 1373 Edward III raised it's status beyond that of any other provincial city. Bristol was created a county in it's own right, with an elective sheriff and his own courts, two burgesses elected to Parliament, and a council of forty citizens to govern with the mayor and sheriff. The boundaries of the new county included all the existing suburbs and extended along the Avon to the Bristol Channel. In 1542 Henry VIII created the diocese of Bristol, with the abbey church of St Augustine as the new cathedral. Many Bristol churches had been renovated or rebuilt during this time, including St Mary Redcliffe, which Queen Elizabeth I, during her visit, described 'the fairest, goodliest and most famous parish church in England'.
During the Civil War Bristol's strategic position made it important to campaigns in the West. The city came under siege on two occasions, in 1643 by the Royalists and in 1645 by parliamentary forces, and was considerably damaged. The castle had been long neglected but could still be defended. However, the old city walls were no longer an adequate protection and a series of defendable earthworks were built, linking several hills around the city, and some remains can still be seen on Brandon Hill. A number of forts supplimented the earthworks, the greatest of which, the Royal Fort, was completed by the Royalists under Prince Rupert. One dramatic result of the war was the demolition of Bristol castle in 1656
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History 
