St Mary the Virgin's Church, Bathwick


The Church of St Mary the Virgin is located on Church Street in Bathwick section of Bath, Somerset, England. The church is Anglican and located near Pinch's Sydney Place and Bath's famed Sydney Pleasure Gardens.
The church was constructed by the Pulteney family, who used it to replace the medieval parish church of St Mary's, Bathwick, known even in Georgian times as Bathwick Old Church. The churchyard is now part of Smallcombe Cemetery.
The Church of St Mary the Virgin was where the band Muse recorded the organ parts on their second studio album Origin of Symmetry.

Pevsner's description

"St Mary , Raby Place, Bathwick. 1814–20 by Pinch. The chancel by G.E. Street, 1873–5. Meant to be in the Somerset Gothic style, though of course the result is typical of early C19. W tower with pierced parapet and polygonal pinnacles. Nave, aisles, clerestory, high and a little pinched. Perp tracery in the tall aisle windows and the lower clerestory windows with thin four-centered heads. Very tall thin piers of standard Somerset section. Three galleries. No arcade arches, but a flat timber lintel running through. This was originally plastered. Ribbed coved ceiling. The chancel not of particular interest. – PAINTING. On the altar early C16 polyptych, four winds, Netherlandish. – The original altar painting, an Adoration of the Child by Benjamin Barker, hangs high up against the W wall. – PLATE. Chalice and Cover 1572; Paten by Fawdery 1723; Chalice and Paten 1837."

Music

The organ in St. Mary's is the only example in the city of the work of Father Henry Willis. The musical tradition of the church dates back to the late 1800s when the Oxford Movement's influence caused the establishment of a robed choir. For many years the reputation of the church choir rode high but during the 1970s and 1980s it proved difficult to maintain the numbers of boy trebles, prompting the formation of an all-adult choir. In the 1990s and into the new millennium the standards once again rose, and the choir of St. Mary's came to be held in high regard, making several recital tours within the UK and abroad, and broadcasting on radio and television.