| St Mary le Port Church | |
| Location Town: | Bristol |
| Location Country: | England |
| Coordinates: | 51.4547°N -2.5916°W |
| Map Type: | United Kingdom Bristol Central |
| Completion Date: | 15th century |
| Date Demolished: | (partially) 24 November 1940 |
St Mary le Port is a ruined parish church in the centre of Bristol, England, situated in Castle Park on what remains of Mary le Port Street.
St Mary le Port is said to have been founded in Saxon times after Anglo-Saxon foundations were found during archaeological excavations[1] and Saxon pottery was found nearby.[2] The church was rebuilt and enlarged between the 11th and 16th centuries.
During the 19th and early 20th centuries the church was a very popular centre of evangelical, Protestant, and Calvinist teaching within Anglicanism.
The church was bombed in the Second World War on 24 November 1940 during the Bristol Blitz. John Piper painted an evocative picture of the bombed St Mary le Port. This image appears on the 1/6d British commemorative stamp, part of a set of four paintings by British artists issued in 1968. All that remains of the church is the 15th-century tower, a Grade II listed building, and a Scheduled Ancient Monument[3] surrounded during the latter years of the 20th century by the incongruous modernist buildings of Norwich Union and the Bank of England, which by the 2020s were both empty and had become semi-derelict eyesores, with further redevelopment proposed.[4] [5]
After the bombing in 1940 the congregation and their rector, William Dodgson-Sykes, moved to St John on the Wall Church, where the congregation remained, in gradually declining numbers, till this church building was closed for worship by the Church Commissioners in 1984 (after a protracted struggle by the congregation). The remaining congregation then moved to the Chapel of Foster's Almshouses, and joined the Church of England (Continuing) in 1995.[6] The C of E (Continuing) no longer lists a congregation in Bristol; some of the congregation joined with the new Free Presbyterian Church (Ulster) congregation in Horfield, Bristol.
Although many of the parish records of St Mary le Port church were destroyed when the church was bombed, some archive material is held at Bristol Archives (Refs. P. StMP) (online catalogue) and P.St JB/MLP (online catalogue) including copies of baptism, marriage and burial registers. The archive also includes records of the incumbent, churchwardens, parochial church council, charities and schools, plus deeds.
The church's clergy have included:
– son of William Sykes (first President of the Sovereign Grace Union)
– Principal of the Bible Churchmen's Missionary and Theological College, later part of Trinity College, Bristol
(Bible Churchmen's Missionary Society, now Crosslinks[10]
– Head of the Irish Church Missions