[2][3] Whilst no longer an act of High treason punishable by hanging, drawing and quartering, being a Catholic priest was then liable to life imprisonment.

[3] General prejudice ran deep: in the anti-Catholic Gordon Riots of 1780, an estimated 1,000 people died.

[3] They had used a third party to discretely buy a plot, known as Stoney Fields, on Honeypen Hill[2][3] (now Park Place, Clifton).

The Georgian Palladian design was by Henry E. Goodridge, a Bath architect employed by Bishop Baines at Prior Park.

[2] With the Protestant Reformation the Catholic hierarchy had been abolished, and the Church in Rome regulated religious life in England and Wales.

It consisted of…the present church standing without any side windows up to within two feet of their present height, and a colonnade of six huge columns raised to half their height in front… It was the opinion of architects and builders that the ruin could not have been roofed, the span being so large, and the walls so thin for carrying the requisite beams… As it stood, except for two windows at the entrance end, it was altogether blind and dark.

[3] Bishop Ullathorne continues:'I sent for Mr. Hansom; told him he must put his architectural reputation into his pocket, and simply follow my directions… I directed him to raise the walls round to a level for about two feet above their actual height, and then to put in two rows of columns, not of stone, for they would have to come on the crown of the crypt vaultings, but of wood, to be made stouter to the eye by casings.

As for their foundation, I said, here is none, and we must run two beams the whole length upon the crown of the vaulting, like the keels of two ships, joint the separate pieces together upon the supporting sub-walls, mortice them into the end walls, and then step the wooden pillars upon them.

[3] In the ProCathedral Church there were twelve larger-than-life statues of the Apostles standing atop the plinths covering and disguising the original stone columns of the failed building.

By the rear door, there was a statue of the Apostle St Peter, his extended foot rubbed smooth by the repeated touching of the faithful as they entered and left the building.

[2] The whole entrance and exterior, including the school, atrium and porch, and pinnacled façade, were remodelled, by Charles Hansom (who still lived locally) in a North Italian Romanesque style[2] in Pennant rubble stone.

[2] During the Second World War, part of the crypt was remodelled with Blast walls to form an air raid shelter.

[3] This caused a serious problem for then Bishop of Clifton, Dr Joseph Rudderham and Monsignor Thomas Hughes, the parish priest: whether to restore the old building or rebuild elsewhere.

[3] An anonymous group of business people contributed £450,000 (1967) on the strict condition that a new site was found and a new building was constructed.

The donors had 'a vision of a place of worship and a monument to Almighty God'[5] The new Cathedral was begun at a site on Clifton Park, in March 1970 and was consecrated on the Patronal feast of Saints Peter and Paul, 29 June 1973.