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not been able to fix the date at which this user commenced, for 

 there was, of course, always a gaol for the city, and there is no 

 record of the change from an older building to this one. 

 Wood writes : — 



" The City Prison so nearly appertaining to her Court of 



Justice that structure is the very tower of St. Mary's 



Church . . . but no sooner had Queen Elizabeth 



consolidated the Churches of the City into one cure 



. . . than they looking upon this house of God no 



more as a house of Prayer turned the tower of it into 



a den for thieves." 



The gaol in the tower of the Church must not be confused 



with the Bridewell or house of correction in the lane of that 



name. This was built in 1632, partly by subscriptions, partly 



out of the proceeds of a special rate. The entry concerning 



this latter is : — 



"Whereas Mr. Chambers hath possession of a barn, 



stable and backride, which is agreed shall be converted 



to a house of correction, what he think fit to give him 



freely to quit the possession without any rule £5 to 



give him." 



The Church was used for the purposes of the Grammar School 



until about 1760, when the present building in Broad Street was 



erected. A map of 1750 shows St. Mary's Church, and refers to 



it as St. Mary's Church now the free school, and another similar 



map, published in 1760, contains the same reference to the 



Church but shows also the building in Broad Street. 



Wood tells us that he completed the design for the Broad 

 Street schoolhouse in 1742. 



The destruction of St. Mary's Church, was, however, to be 

 thorough. In 1773 Mr. William Pulteney framed the design of 

 opening up the Bathwick estate by building what is now 

 Pulteney Bridge. St. Mary's Church stood in the way of this 

 improvement, and he purchased it from the Corporation. No 



