CLIFTON, Diocese of. — In the south of the Bristol Channel (England); it comprises the County Borough of Bristol and the counties of Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire.
The present territory in the Middle Ages formed part of the dioceses of Bath, Salisbury and Worcester; from 1623 it belonged to the Apostolic Vicariate of England, and in 1688 the Apostolic Vicariate of the West was erected with its seat in Clifton. This vicariate, larger than the present diocese of Clifton, lost Wales in 1840, and then the southern territory (Plymouth) when in 1850 it became a diocese, a suffragan first of Westminster and then (from 1911) of Birmingham. The bishop resides in Bristol. There are 57 parishes, 130 diocesan priests, and 136 regular priests. Catholics number 49,600 out of a total population of 1,500,000 (1948). The pro-cathedral is dedicated to the Holy Apostles. The patrons of the diocese are the Immaculate Conception and the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul.