BRISTOL. St. STEPHEN'S CHURCH.

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St Stephen's and its amazing tower is in the city centre of Bristol. It is another of more than 100 Heritage listed buildings in the city. The tower is approximately 18 ft by 20 ft at its base, and rises to a total height of 152 ft. It is a bell tower and original had six bells but over the years this number has gradually increased to twelve.

It was built on the site of an 11th century church in the fourteenth century, but was later rebuilt in 1470. The tower is the work of a mason Benedict (or Benet) Crosse. Originally it was built beside the river Frome but around about the same time the river was diverted to create what is now Bristol Harbour.

When I first saw the card I was taken by the size of the tower but also by the proximity of the surrounding buildings. I went looking for reference to the signage at left of the tower: "Sutton carriers". I have not been able to track them down. But I saw that the building there in 1906 at the time of the Millers visit had been replaced with an Art Deco building. Today there is a bar called Bar Excellence tucked up close to the church of St Stephen's.

Maybe a little too close for comfort!

Bar Excellenece is described as:
"This large, city centre bar and cafe has a bit of a split personality - it's relatively quiet at lunchtimes, attracting the city's suited workers, but in the evenings, and especially at weekends, it roars into life and becomes a bit of a pre-club warm-up venue. At these times it draws in the city's youngsters, all dressed up for a night on the town and it's correspondingly boisterous. Commercial dance hits are pumped out of the speakers, there are occasional DJs and the crowds buzz round the bar, taking advantage of the frequent drinks promos."

Enough to wake the dead!

Speaking of 'the dead'!

An interesting fact is that the Church of St Stephen's has an American connection! Within the church is the tomb of a famous Bristolian: Martin Pring (1580–1626).

Bristol was the birthplace of Martin Pring an English explorer who at the age of 23 was captain of an expedition to North America to assess 'commercial potential'.

The expedition was licenced by Sir Walter Raleigh and departed 10 April 1603. In the Speedwell and the Explorer his team explored areas of present-day Maine, New Hampshire, and Cape Cod in Massachusetts. He and his crew were the first known Europeans to ascend the Piscataqua River.

This is a Peacock Brand postcard - a "Platino-Photo" Postcard published by the Pictorial Stationerey Co. Ltd. London England. It is numbered 5042.

"Pictorial Stationary Co., Ltd. 1897-1914
23 Moorfields, London, England

A publisher of postcards and other lithographic printed materials. Once they began printing standard sized cards in 1902 they were issued under a variety of different trade names. Their Autochrom series were of tinted halftones. Other types of cards included Pictorcrom, Black Frame, Stylochrom, Platino Photo, and Platino-Frosted. Most of these cards depicted views with some of them being artist drawn. These cards were printed in Leipzig, Saxony."
http://www.metropostcard.com/publishersp2.html