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Bedminster Methodist Church (formerly Ebenezer Chapel),
British Road / Clyde Terrace, BS3 3BW,
Bedminster, Bristol, Gloucestershire.

Cemeteries

This Chapel 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 1836, and we understand it is still open.

Bedminster Methodist Church is a modern building, and a refitting/replacement for a late 19th century building. The latter is labelled "Wesleyan, British Road" in Non-Conformist Chapels and Meeting Houses, Gloucestershire (1986, p.70), and described as having "four giant columns supporting a pediment between staircase wings, now entirely transformed by partial demolition and refitting". This in turn was a replacement for an earlier "Ebenezer Chapel" of 1836, which had rendered walls and a slate roof, hipped to the front. The front wall is of three bays with a pedimented central bay and a simplified Venetian window above the central round-arched entrance". This was still standing in 1977, though derelict, alongside its replacement.

The return to the Religious Census of 1851 (HO 129/328/1/1/14) which most nearly corresponds to "Ebenezer Chapel", describes a separate building erected in 1836, used exclusively by a congregation of Wesleyan Methodists. It had free seating for 300, and 400 "other" sittings, and the estimated congregation on March 30th was 100 in the morning, with 80 Sunday Scholars. There was no service in the afternoon, but a Sunday School was attended by 80 Scholars, and in the evening 140 attended a service. The return was completed by William Hessel, its Minister, of 19 Somerset Square, Bristol. He remarked that "the Congregation has recently been greatly reduced by division".

It was to be another 20 years before the building was registered for marriages, a notice appeared in The London Gazette of 13th January 1871 (p.117) as follows:

NOTICE is hereby given, that a separate building, named Ebenezer Chapel, situate at Victoria-road, Back-lane, in the parish of Bedminster, in the city and county of Bristol, in the district of Bedminster, being a building certified according to law as a place of religious worship, was, on the 1st day of December, 1870, duly registered, for solemnizing marriages therein, pursuant to the Act of 6th and 7th Wm. IV., cap. 85. Dated 7th January 1871.

A further notice was published in the Gazette for the registration of "New Wesleyan Chapel, Victoria-road, Back-lane" on 5th August 1887 (p.4251) being substituted for the building known as Ebenezer Chapel, now disused.

Since then, Victoria Road, one of the many in the City of that name, has been renamed (to avoid confusion?) as British Road.

Old Maps show a small burial ground in front of the Chapel, with a Sunday School to the rear, behind which was a larger burial ground, extending backwards, but not as far as, North Street. This appears to be still in existence in the present day, partly as a car park and partly as a "green space", so evidently the remains have been cleared.

The South Bristol Methodist Church website has a photograph showing today's elegant "new" building.

Denomination

Now or formerly Wesleyan Methodist.

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 is located at OS grid reference ST5821771428. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Bedminster Methodist Church (formerly Ebenezer Chapel), Bedminster, 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 Bedminster, Bristol, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

• You may want to visit South Bristol Methodist Church website for present-day information.
• Notices of Civil Registration of Places of Worship for marriages are published in the London edition of The Gazette. Hint: search for registrations from 1998 by choosing 'Church' notices, and the option 'Registration for solemnising marriage'. (verified 2018-12-11)

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.