Painswick Congregational Church (latterly Christ Church), Painswick, Gloucestershire, Church History

Gloucestershire Places of Worship

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Painswick Congregational Church (latterly Christ Church), Painswick (1) (94k)

Above Photograph(s)
Copyright of John Williams

Painswick Congregational Church (latterly Christ Church), Painswick

Painswick Congregational Church (latterly Christ Church),
Gloucester Street,
Painswick, Gloucestershire.

Cemeteries

We believe the Church did NOT have 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 1672, but we understand it was closed in 2010.

According to Non-Conformist Chapels and Meeting Houses, Gloucestershire (1986), an active Independent congregation is believed to have been meeting in Painswick from the mid-17th century, supported in 1672 by Francis Harris, ejected curate of Deerhurst. The Town Hall was registered for meetings in 1689 "possibly by this Society", and in 1705 a meeting house was built which was recorded as Presbyterian. "The present chapel was erected in 1803 largely through the efforts of the pastor Rev. Cornelius Winter and drastically altered in 1892 to the designs of J. Fletcher Trew when it was named 'The Cornelius Winter Memorial Chapel'". According to the Victoria County History series: A History of the County of Gloucester, Volume 11: Bisley and Longtree Hundreds (1976), pp.83-85 (Painswick - Protestant Nonconformity), Winter was a disciple of George Whitefield.
There is a long architectural description of the chapel on the British Listed Buildings website, which also records that it was, at the time of listing (1990) the United Reformed Church. More recently, it became part of a Local Ecumenical Partnership between the Baptists and the URC, when it became known as Christ Church. However according an article Painswick Church to close after more than 300 years worship, published by Stroud News and Journal on 9th June 2010, its last service of Thanksgiving was to be held on Sunday, September 26th that year. The article also mentions it was vested in the care of the West Midland Synod of the United Reformed Church.
The War Memorial has been presented to St Mary's Church, Painswick, who have a photograph of it online, and a transcription of the inscriptions, listed under "Memorials in the Church" as the Free Churches War Memorial.
Since then, as can be seen from our photograph, it has been offered for sale.

Denomination

Now or formerly Presbyterian/Congregational.

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 Church was located at OS grid reference SO8672909921. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

Painswick Congregational Church (latterly Christ Church), Painswick shown on a Google Map.
Places of Worship in Painswick 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 Painswick, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

The Victoria County History series: A History of the County of Gloucester, Volume 11: Bisley and Longtree Hundreds (null) (verified 2018-11-06)
Learn more about Buildings of special or historical interest on the British Listed Buildings (null) (verified 2018-09-19)
Previously published articles in Stroud News and Journal (null) (verified 2018-11-12)
Information provided on the St Mary's Church, Painswick website. (verified 2019-01-23)

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.

Information last updated on 12 Nov 2018 at 14:07.

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This Report was created 22 Nov 2024 - 20:46:50 GMT from information held in the Gloucestershire section of the Places of Worship Database. This was last updated on 13 Oct 2021 at 14:13.

URL of this page: https://churchdb.gukutils.org.uk/GLS1122.php

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