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

Symonds Yat Baptist Chapel,
Symonds Yat,
English Bicknor, Gloucestershire.

Cemeteries

We believe the Chapel 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 1818, but we understand it was closed after 1988.

There are several references to an early Baptist Chapel in English Bicknor parish in the Victoria County History series: A History of the County of Gloucester, Volume 5: Bledisloe Hundred, St Briavels Hundred, The Forest of Dean (1996), both in the chapter relating to English Bicknor, and to the Forest of Dean; however the only physical presence I've been able to locate on Old Maps is OS 1960-1977 1:2,500, on the "peninsula" of land captured by meanders of the Wye between Symonds Yat (on the Welsh side) and Symonds Yat Rock (on the English site).

Evidence cited by the VCH in the entry for English Bicknor is that a house was registered at Symonds Yat (or New Weir), in 1818. The Coleford Baptists held services in the early 1850s, and they built a small chapel on the Goodrich road, at the county boundary, in 1881. This meeting had 7 members in 1993.

The road past the building is a northern continuation of the B4432 from Coleford, which crosses the Wye to join the B4229 into Goodrich, so this may indeed be what is referred to as the "Goodrich" Road.

I have not been able to locate a corresponding entry in the Religious Census of 1851, but a Baptist Chapel at Symonds Yat is listed in Places recorded by the Registrar General under the provisions of the Places of Worship Registration Act 1855 (2010); and the Gloucestershire Archives hold a register of marriages for the period 1931-1988 (D6627/1), so there seems to be no doubt of its existence, albeit a little off the beaten track.

Denomination

Now or formerly Baptist.

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 SO5623716230. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Symonds Yat Baptist Chapel, English Bicknor shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in English Bicknor 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 English Bicknor, 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)
• Places recorded by the Registrar General under the provisions of the Places of Worship Registration Act 1855 (2010) is available as a "Freedom of Information" document on the website What Do They Know. (verified 2018-10-14)

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.