Default Image We do not have a
Photograph at present.
Image by courtesy of
openclipart.org

Congregational Church,
Stowe Road, Mork,
St Briavels, 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 before 1902, but we understand it was closed before 1972.

The area surrounding St Briavels appears to have been quite well served with places of worship, both in antiquity and throughout the industrialisation of the 19th century. Old Maps show Chapel Ruins and Holy Wells; and Kelly's Directory of 1923 records a Wesleyan chapel, and 2 Congregational chapels.

The Victoria County History series: A History of the County of Gloucester, Volume 5: Bledisloe Hundred, St Briavels Hundred, The Forest of Dean (1996), pp.247-271 (St Briavels) records that Independents and Congregationalists met in houses in St Briavels in 1824, and in 1861, a chapel was built on the east side of the High Street. In 1908, it had 25 members and had outlying mission stations at Mork, and 'the Common'.

The first known appearance on Old Maps of the mission at Mork is on OS 1902 1:2,500, when it is marked as a Congregational Church. It was built between Stowe Road and Mork Brook, in a well-wooded area, and has the appearance of being quite delightfully situated. Evidently it closed in the mid 20th century, as it is no longer shown as a place of worship on OS 1972 1:2,500.

Nearby is "Lindors". At the time I prepared this account originally (2013), it was a Christian Conference Centre, and their website included a synopsis of its history. Amongst other interesting facts was an assertion that the name derives from an area known as 'Lindhurst':

"For hundreds of years a farm has stood on the Lindors site. In the valley below St Briavels village a place called Lindhurst, meaning 'a wood of linden (or lime) trees' was settled by 1310. Later there was only a single farmstead, which by the 19th Century was usually known, in a corrupt form of the name, as Lindors Farm."

Denomination

Now or formerly Independent/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 SO5511705366. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Congregational Church, St Briavels shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in St Briavels 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 Briavels, 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 5: Bledisloe Hundred, St Briavels Hundred, The Forest of Dean (null) (verified 2018-11-06)

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.