St Peter
Lawrence Weston, City of Bristol
There has been a church on this site since the 1950's, being built post war which is one of the few churches of that era left in Bristol.
Some of the items in the church,including the font and pulpit, came from the bomb damaged church of St Ralphaels in Bedminister Bristol. The Memorial Corner contains the WWI Avonmouth memorial tablet and also WWII memorials from the BOCM mill and National Smelting Corporation which were previously at the plants. A unique bronze plaque which survived the fire is dedicated to those who passed through the port of Avonmouth and gave their lives in the first world war. The bosses on this are of the tanks which were first shipped overseas from the port.
The maritime theme shows in some of the other church artefacts, for it is the nearest large church to Avonmouth docks. The church now has a simple wide span nave with an aisle on one side almost the same size. The west end was rebuilt after bomb damage and so although the outside rough pennant stone has been reproduced the inside is more modern. The walls inside are mostly smooth ashlar, and there is a flat suspended very high ceiling throughout. Rebuilding can be seen where post war repairs completed the rebuilding, for example the outside stonework changes in style especially near the tower. The largest change was that there is now mostly flat roofing, when the original church had arched roofs. As a result of this work to save the church you can 'read the history' in the structure.
