St Mary Redcliffe
Grade I listed church in the United Kingdom
The Church of St Mary the Virgin, widely known as St Mary Redcliffe, is the main Church of England parish church for the Redcliffe district of the city of Bristol, England. The first reference to a church on the site appears in 1158, with the present building dating from 1185 to 1872. The church is considered one of the country's finest and largest parish churches as well as an outstanding example of English Gothic architecture. The church is so large it is sometimes mistaken for Bristol Cathedral by tourists. The building has Grade I listed status, the highest possible category, by Historic England.
The church is notable for its many large stained glass windows, decorative stone vaults, flying buttresses, rare hexagonal porch and massive Gothic spire. With a height of 274 feet (84 m) to the top of the weathervane, St Mary Redcliffe is the second-tallest structure in Bristol and the sixth-tallest parish church in the country. The church spire is a major Bristol landmark, visible from across the city and, until the completion of Castle Park View in 2020, it was the tallest structure ever to have been erected in Bristol.
St Mary Redcliffe has received widespread critical acclaim from various architects, historians, poets, writers and monarchs. In 1541 the English topographer and antiquary John Leland, claimed it was "the most beautiful of all churches" he had seen in England.
The public source identifies “St Mary Redcliffe” as grade I listed church in the United Kingdom. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Mary, Redcliffe and Grade.
Why this record matters
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The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7594599. VIAF identifies the subject as 159581566. The Library of Congress control number is n91061579. Authority coordinates are 51.448, -2.590. 2 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1158, 1185, 1872 and 2020.
Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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Three-step research path
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This entry incorporates text from “St Mary Redcliffe” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.