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Trinity Almshouses Chapel,
Midland Road / Old Market Street / Jacob Street,
St Philip, Bristol, Gloucestershire.

Cemeteries

This Chapel had a graveyard.

Note: any church within an urban environment may have had its graveyard closed after the Burial Act of 1853. Any new church built after that is unlikely to have had a graveyard at all.

Church History

This Place of Worship was founded in 1402, but we understand it was closed in 2010.

The Hospital and Almshouses are situated on two sides of Old Market Street - the larger one on the south-west corner of the junction of Old Market Street and Midland Road, bordered on the west by the cobbled Jacob Street. The buildings are arranged around a court, of which the Chapel is situated at the north-west corner, and were sited next to the original "Lawford's Gate", between Old Market Street and West Street.

They have been known at various times as Barstaple House, Trinity Hospital, and Holy Trinity Almshouses. Kelly's Directory of Bristol of 1902 records as Trinity Hospital - "founded in 1402, by John Barstaple, a former mayor, in the reign of Henry V... two blocks of buildings, situated on opposite sides of Old Market street; the more ancient portion, on the north side, contains 24 women; and that on the south side, rebuilt in 1856-8, 3 men and 33 women; each inmate receives seven shillings weekly". The chapel, it says, was erected in 1881-2 on the site of the former structure, "in which the founder and his wife were buried; over the place of their interment are brasses with effigies and inscriptions to John Barstaple, ob. 1411 and Isabella (Gayner), his wife, ob. 1400". The chaplain at that time was the Rev. John O. West, rector of St. Philip's and St. Jacob's.

The Bristol Town Plans of 1885 label both sets of buildings as "Trinity Hospital (Barstaple Charity)". In Kelly's Directory of Bristol of 1914 they are listed as "Trinity Almshouses North", and "Trinity Almshouses South". According to the book Bristol and Its Environs (1875), published by the British Association the block on the north side of Old Market Street was founded by Isabella, and that on the south side by John Barstaple.

In 2010 the buildings were put up for sale "for the very first time in the site's history... Many of the rooms have since been redeveloped, and [are now] let as flats". [Source: the entry for Trinity Hospital in the Historic England database PastScape]

Denomination

Now or formerly Hospital Chapel.

If more than one congregation has worshipped here, or its congregation has united with others, in most cases this will record its original dedication.

Maps

This Chapel was located at OS grid reference ST5977073185. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Trinity Almshouses Chapel, St Philip, Bristol shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Bristol shown on a Google Map.
• Streetmap.co.uk (arrow on map shows the Place of Worship's location) (verified 2018-10-15)
• Bing (Ordnance Survey option) (verified 2018-10-13)
• Bing Maps ('Bird's Eye' View) (verified 2018-10-15)
• Ordnance Survey "getamap" (NB some of the 'Change Map' options may require a subscription) (verified 2018-10-15)
• OpenStreetMap (Maps © OpenStreetMap contributors, CC-BY-SA) (verified 2018-10-15)
• A Vision of Britain Through Time - useful for Boundary Changes (verified 2018-10-15)
• www.magic.gov.uk (Modern Maps with various overlays) (verified 2018-10-15)

Resources

I have found many websites of use whilst compiling the information for this database. Here are some which deserve mention as being of special interest for St Philip, Bristol, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

• “A quick and easy way to search over 420,000 records held in the National Record of the Historic Environment (NRHE)” - PastScape (null) (verified 2018-11-15)

The above links were selected and reviewed at the time I prepared the information, but please be aware their content may vary, or disappear entirely. These factors are outside my control.