As a young boy, Thomas Chatterton spent much time in St Mary Redcliffe church where his uncle, Richard Phillips, was church sexton.
Chatterton’s fascination with the antiquated past, so the story goes, began at the age of 7 when his mother showed him some fragments of a medieval script. From this point on, the boy spent hours in the muniment room above the North Porch of the church. It was here, in two old wooden coffers, that Chatterton 'discovered' medieval documents which revealed the history and literature of medievalised Bristol via, in part, a series of poems by a monk named Thomas Rowley. In fact, the documents were written by Chatterton himself. Alongside Rowley and Canynge (based on the real-life Bristol mayor and merchant Canynges), came a rollcall of other characters: Ladgate, Turgot, Dunhelmus Bristoliensis, to name a few.
