These gates , crafted by William Edney in 1710 to separate the west end of the church from the box pews of the nave, are some of the finest ironwork in the west of England
By the 18th century the effects of the civil war and the lack of money for repairs had taken its toll on the building. Little of the stained glass remained and some of the pinnacles on the flying buttresses had been removed. The latter are not merely decorative as they help to hold the building together by transferring the outward thrust of the walls to the ground. Their removal threatened the collapse of the vaulting and cracks appeared at the east end of the church. To control this movement some of the graceful flying buttresses were bricked up, as was the east window.
Queen Anne, disturbed by the condition of the Church of England, gave some of her wealth for the upkeep of the churches. St Mary Redcliffe received some of this money enabling the congregation to decorate the interior of the building in the flamboyant Baroque style. A great three-piece painting by William Hogarth was commissioned to fill the east end of the chancel and wrought iron gates were made for the west end of the church. The finest organ builders of the time, Harris and Byfield, were employed to replace the organ lost in the civil war. The church, filled with marble, with white washed walls and bathed in bright light from the clear glass of the windows became a far cry from the mysterious gloom of the once Gothic interior.
The Churchwardens paid Hogarth £525 for his paintings of the 'Ascension' flanked by 'The Sealing of the Sepulchre' and the 'Three Marys at the Tomb'. They then had to pay £300 to have them framed and hung.