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

Kingswood Congregational Church,
14 The Walk, GL12 8RP,
Kingswood, Wotton under Edge, Gloucestershire.

Cemeteries

This Church has (or 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 1668, and we understand it is still open.

Non-Conformist Chapels and Meeting Houses, Gloucestershire (1986) provides the information that a property which was newly built in Kingswood (then a detached part of Wiltshire) was registered as a meeting-house in 1702. They suggest it served as the chapel for what appears to have been a Presbyterian society, formed in the late 17th century - Kelly's Directory of 1923 reports this to have been in 1668.

The present chapel evidently replaced this building, as NCC dates it from the early 19th century. It has walls of coursed stone rubble, and a hipped roof, now covered in patent tiles. The south front is of alternating deep and narrow stone courses. Two round-arched windows at the north end flank the pulpit. There is a wooden bell-cote at the apex of the roof, with one bell, a clock-face to the west, and a weather cock above. It is of two stories, and almost square. There is a large central round-headed doorway on the south side, with radial fanlight. Internally, it has an early 19th century gallery with fielded panelled front around three sides, otherwise it has been refitted.

There are monuments in the burial ground to Rev. Charles Daniell, 26 years pastor [1832], Rev. James Griffiths [1868], Rev. William Davies, 49 years minister [18?7], Rev. William Coleman Woon [1854], and his son William Harris [1855]

The return to the Religious Census of 1851 (HO 129/333/1/1/2) describes "Kingswood Chapel" with an "Independent or Congregational" congregation, erected as a separate building, exclusively as a place of worship "before 1800". There was free seating for 250, and 200 "other" sittings. The average congregation was 230 to morning services, 121 in the afternoons, and 350 worshippers in the evenings. There were an average of 120 Sunday Scholars to morning and afternoon classes, regarding which the returning officer remarked "the Afternoon Service is held in the Schoolroom after the teaching is closed to save time & trouble in removing Children to the Chapel" He signed himself B. Osne[?] Bendall, Minister, of "Kingswood nr Wottonunderedge".

Evidently in 1973, its congregation opted not to join the newly formed United Reformed Church, as it remains, in 2018, one of the nation-wide "independent free churches" recorded on the Congregational Federation website.

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 is located at OS grid reference ST7477192009. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Kingswood Congregational Church, Kingswood, Wotton under Edge shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Wotton under Edge 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 Kingswood, Wotton under Edge, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

• A network of Independent Free Churches following the Congregational tradition - the Congregational Federation (null) (verified 2018-11-02)

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.