BEDMINSTER, a parish in the hundred of HARTCLIFFE-with-BEDMINSTER,
county of SOMERSET, l£
mile (S. by W.) from Bristol, containing 7979 inhabitants.
The living is a discharged vicarage, with the
perpetual curacies of St. Thomas' Redcliffe and Abbot's
Leigh annexed, in the archdeaconry of Bath, and dioB
cese of Bath and Wells, rated in the king's books at
£ 10. 3. 4., and in the patronage of the Prebendary of
Bedminster in the Cathedral Church of Salisbury. The
church, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, displays
various portions of ancient architecture, mixed with
modern insertions: a spire on the tower was thrown
down in. 1563. A chapel of ease is in progress of
erection, under the act passed in the 58th of George
III., the first stone having been laid on the 8th of September,
1829. There are places of worship for Baptists,
Independents, and Methodists: that belonging to
the Independents is one of the most handsome and
spacious buildings of the kind in the kingdom; the
principal entrance is adorned with Grecian columns,
and the exterior coated with freestone. Bedminster
anciently consisted only of a few cottages, but, from
its proximity to Bristol (being separated from it by the
new cut, whereby the natural channel of the river Avon
has been converted into a floating harbour for vessels
frequenting the port), and the main road to that city
from the western counties passing through it, it has
become a considerable suburb to Bristol, participating
in its manufactures, trade, &c. Here are tan-yards
and rope-walks; and in the environs are several gardens,
with the produce of which the occupiers supply
the city of Bristol; but many of the inhabitants, the
number of whom now exceeds ten thousand, are employed
in the collieries within the parish. About the
close of the twelfth century, Robert de Berkeley founded
an hospital, dedicated to St. Catherine, for a master and
several poor brethren; it stood on the western side
of a street near the extremity of Brightlow bridge, and
was subsequently used as a glass-manufactory, but has
since been converted into smalt tenements: another
hospital was founded by a member of the same family,
but every vestige of it has disappeared. A court baron
for the prebend is held here.