Lenten Reflections

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Restoration of the Altars

We are delighted to have Vanessa Webb back with us to restore the three altars in the church. Vanessa designed and stencil-painted (with a previous colleague) the back drop to the main altar back in the late 80’s at the request of Fr Maher SJ. She will now be restoring it to its former glory following damage by damp, using the same design of celestial blue and gold bunches of grapes.

Vanessa, who is based in Bristol, has extensive experience of restoring antique paintwork and gilding. Among other projects, she has worked on the Manor House, Uphill Manor, at Weston-super-Mare, restoring stencilling from the 1860’s. This work has been done previously by Crace and Son, decorators to royalty for three generations.

She said: “I do not like to paint over antique painting that is good. I like to work with the old decoration, enhancing its beauty and picking out significant features, reinstating only what is damaged.”

She has highlighted all the gold paintwork in our Italianate main back altar, and redefined the edges and the shape where the stonework was chipped. She has been right up to the top of the dome, even restoring the gold within the cupola. The ‘piece de resistance’ is the pelican over the tabernacle, which she rightly regards as the main feature of the altar. This has been completely re-gilded so it reflects the light.
She has also redone the gold at the base of the pillars. Moving on to the Lady Chapel, she will once again restore the paintwork and highlight the gold, as well as clean the statue itself. She has repainted the gold panels at the base of the altar originally done by Kevin Boyle , and restore the blue edging. Finally, she will re-gild and paint the Sacred Heart altar and clean up the statue.


She said: “St Mary’s is my favourite Bristol church and has been since I worked here in the 1980’s. Someone came up to me then and said ‘Thank you for making our church the prettiest in Bristol’ and I really appreciated that remark. It is really my pleasure to work here: I love the church and I love the work.” She hopes to finish in the early part of 2010. For further details of Vanessa Webb’s work, see her website: www.stunningfx.co.uk (Marion Morgan)

Three Months in Exile

As the main Church building closed for the redecoration, we moved to the Hall for all Masses. We soon got used to going in by the side door and through the Crypt corridor, finding the Hall looking remarkably like a church. The altar had been put on the platform, with the St Damiano crucifix above it; a tabernacle was in the corner one side and the hymn board on the other. There was even the small font there.


The musicians took their place at the back, with an electronic keyboard which played either as an organ or a piano, according to the preference of the organist.

There were pluses and minuses to this arrangement. On the positive side, there was a good feeling of warmth and companionship as we pushed together on the chairs to make room for everyone. On the more negative side, we missed the statues and the candles (too much of a fire hazard in the squash) and there was a certain confusion getting everyone seated, especially as the back chairs always seemed to fill up first! Embarrassed members of the congregation arriving half way through the Mass were escorted to seats right at the front. Kneeling down was out of the question.

The organist could not see the celebrant when the congregation were standing, and sometimes had to guess when to come in.

On top of all this, we were still going through the swine flu restrictions: no chalice and just a nod at the Sign of Peace.

All in all, although we were grateful to have had such a good place in which to worship as a temporary measure, it felt like a real return from exile when we at last returned to the main Church on the second Sunday of Advent. Phew!

(Marion Morgan)

SVP Sponsored Walk - Bristol to Bath

In the fund raising spirit the SVP at St. Mary-on-the-Quay decided to embark on their little sponsored walk on 10th October along the Bristol and Bath Railway Path, which was constructed on the bed of the former Midland Railway by cycling charity Sustrans between 1979 and 1986. The Path is a three metre wide tarmaced surface from end to end.

To the veteran walkers 15 miles may sound an easy task but to some of us this was a first time challenge! Armed with our water bottles and jolly spirit, Adrian and I were supported by Fr. Nico and Geraldine.

For a Saturday in October gleaming with sunshine throughout our journey from St. Mary’s to Bath, we heartily sang to iron out the miles. Adrian generously adjusted his walk to our snail pace, enjoying the abundance of myriad coloured autumn leaves on the trees and the symphony of birdsong.

We eventually stopped at ‘The Jolly Sailor’ pub in Saltford for our afternoon tea, more appropriately our lunch and a much needed two-hour rest, especially for Fr. Nico who had bravely soldiered on despite having been in agony with his knee playing up. Thankfully Geraldine put on her ‘nurse’ hat and kindly brought the ice to the rescue at the pub!

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SVP Sponsored Walk

Well, we made it and achieved a creditable contribution to the Redecoration fund at St. Mary’s. The SVP would like to say a big thank you to all our friends at St. Mary’s who encouraged and supported us so generously. (Guay Tan)

The St Mary's Paintings (History 1)

With building work nearing completion the decoration well under way, it seemed the appropriate time to do something about three large paintings in the gallery. As the large central painting had been damaged by the building workers during repairs to the gallery, Bill Mercer decided to arrange for its restoration and it was taken down and sent to Alexander Galleries, in Whiteladies Road.

The other two were later removed by decorators and brought into the sacristy. The picture of Our Lady is a late 19th century copy of a painting by Murillo, a late 17th century Spanish artist- the original was on display in London recently. The painting of the Infant Christ with St. Joseph is a work of the late 19th century and although not a copy of an earlier painting is of very poor quality.

With the central picture away, I started on the other two. After cleaning off much dirt and old varnish, I was able to see their general condition. Both paintings have been badly treated in the past – much of the foreground of St. Joseph had been erased and had been touched in with black household paint. This I removed and retouched the missing grass and rocks in more suitable colours.

The painting of our Lady was in a similar state, but in addition the copyist had painted only the main figure and attending cherubs. He had not put in the sky background that is in the original. Had the background been a lighter shade of grey, and not partly erased, I would have been content, but the figure of our Lady was lost in this messy background so I decided to paint in the missing sky. I had to work fast as the decorators were ready to re-hang them and had already painted the frames for them. It is not the usual thing to add to another artist’s work, but as this one was only a poor quality studio copy, and the original having a sky, I decided that it would be a visual improvement.

Of the three paintings, the large central one has responded best to cleaning. The lighter colours are purer and it is of better quality than the other two. All three pictures are probably the work of an Italian studio, where artists of varying skills would produce pictures for 19th century tourists to send home to their churches. Due to their size and subject, this kind of painting has little commercial value.

(Charles Knott, Parish Magazine, “A.M.D.G. ST. MARY-ON-THE-QUAY BRISTOL”, Vol. 32 No. 9, September 1983, pp. 1 & 15).