St Barnabas
Knowle West, City of Bristol
An attractive 1930's brick built church, overlooking the woods and parkland of the Northern Slopes in South Bristol, and offering a place of welcome and hope for the local community of Knowle West.
This parish church has stood for almost 600 years as a witness to the beauty and welcome of God, and the care and faithfulness of generations of Christians.
The Preaching Cross outside the church is thought to pre-date the church, and it is from this that the Augustinian Canons from Keynsham Abbey would have preached. The present church is believed to have been founded by the 5th Baron Thomas La Warr about 1420.
Originally it was a simple stone structure that has been added to over the years, with a tower that later became known as one of the "Brislington Group" of towers. The building contains many interesting features, including a Norman font and a Jacobean pulpit. The North Aisle was added to the church in 1819, and in 1874 the church was extensively altered internally. The church still has its Victorian pews, and some very fine examples of stained-glass windows. The tower contains six bells, the first is dated 1669 and the sixth, treble, bell was added in 1874 “to make the peal complete”.
The church graveyard contains many final resting places of the Lords and Ladies of the Manor; one of the most interesting of these is Thomas Newman who was reputed to have died in 1542 aged 153 years old! The churchyard was closed for burials in the 1930s, but it is still is used for the burial of ashes.