The 17 'ancient' parishes of the city of Bristol were:

All Saints

Christ Church

St Augustine the Less

St Ewen

St James

St John the Baptist

St Leonard

St Mary le Port (registers destroyed or damaged in the 1940 blitz)

St Mary Redcliffe

St Michael

St Nicholas

St Peter (registers destroyed or damaged in the 1940 blitz)

St Philip and Jacob

St Stephen

St Thomas

St Werburgh

Temple (registers destroyed or damaged in the 1940 blitz)

The parish of St Leonard, was united with St Nicholas in 1768 and St Ewen was

united with Christ Church in 1788. Both these churches were demolished. St Paul opened in 1794, created out of the parish of St James.. St Werburgh in Corn Street was closed in 1877 and rebuilt in Mina Road, reopening 2 years later..

These parishes were used as divisions or wards in censuses but there was also a non-ecclesiatical parish or ward called Castle Precincts, around the area of the old castle which had no parish church of its own. The very central parishes were inside the old town wall and were small but full of houses. . The outer parishes were much larger and originally sparsely populated. The population grew in those outer parishes during the 19th century and some were divided into an In parish and an Out Parish, that part inside the actual city boundary and that outside.

Over the years new churches were built and the old large parishes subdivided.

NB St Mark's (Lord Mayor's Chapel) and the Cathedral did not have parishes of their own. There were also the parishes of Bedminster and Clifton and others which were ancient foundations, very close to Bristol but not actually incorporated into the city until much later.

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