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St Simon the Apostle's Church (now Peter & Paul Greek Orthodox),
Lower Ashley Road / Claremont Road, BS5 0YL,
Baptist Mills, Bristol, Gloucestershire.

Cemeteries

This Church 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 1848, but we understand it was closed in 1960.

St Simon's was built in 1847 to a design by S.J. Hicks and S.B. Gabriel, and consecrated 22nd December that year. Its present appearance is certainly distinctive, with its stub of a broach spire; this however was a consequence of lopping in 1996, and topping with a cross. This was a safety measure, as the spire, originally 121ft high, had become unsafe.

The church has a nave, chancel, a north aisle, with a chapel, and a small south vestry. Unusually, the tower supporting the spire is attached at the north-east corner of the north aisle.

Probably as a result of dwindling congregations in the post-War years, and the proximity of St Agnes's Church in Newfoundland Road, St Simon's became redundant, and was closed on 18th March 1960. Its parish was absorbed with that of St Agnes, which now has the joint dedication of "St Agnes and St Simon". It was sold subsequently to the Greek Community, so remains open as the Greek Orthodox Church of St Peter & St Paul. "They have preserved most of the original features of the church and enhanced it greatly through new fittings and icons" - so says Phil Draper, on his ChurchCrawler website.

Available parish registers cover the periods 1845-1957 (baptisms), 1848-1956 (marriages), and 1848-1884 (burials). A small graveyard can be seen on Bristol Town Plan of 1883 on the south side of the church.

Denomination

Now or formerly Church of England.

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 ST6029974212. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• St Simon the Apostle's Church (now Peter & Paul Greek Orthodox), Baptist Mills, 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 Baptist Mills, Bristol, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

• See Greek Orthodox Church of St Peter & St Paul elsewhere in this database.
• The Church officiando's “Bible” - Phil Draper's ChurchCrawler (null) (verified 2018-10-16)

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.