There’s been a place of worship on the spot for many hundreds of years, and the Preaching Cross outside the church is very old indeed.

It 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.

The church was a simple stone structure consisting of a nave, a chancel, a south aisle with a porch, and a handsome tower that is still a striking part of Brislington’s landscape (one of a small group of Somerset towers known as the “Brislington Group” being small in size but second to none in the county for beauty and detail).

The North Aisle was added to the church in 1819, and in 1874 the church was extensively altered internally.

The 18th century gallery was demolished, the chancel was extended and the floor tiled.

Old “horse box” pews were removed and replaced by new seating, and the original Jacobean pulpit lost its upper deck and was given a new stone base.
The first of the six bells is dated 1669 and the sixth, treble, bell was added in 1874 “to make the peal complete”.

The first reference to a church clock was in 1714.

The present clock was given by Dr C H Fox in 1883 in memory of his father Francis Ker Fox of Brislington House.

It has been designated by English Heritage as a grade II* listed building.

However, they are not simply a historical building.

St Luke’s is a living, breathing presence in the neighbourhood and they are excited to be able to be there, right now, in this place, worshipping God and finding ways to build the Kingdom today.

Their building is certainly beautiful, and the history matters, but only if they continue to make St Luke’s an active and relevant church today.

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