St Mary of the Angels Church (RC), Brownshill, Chalford, Gloucestershire, Church History

Gloucestershire Places of Worship

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St Mary of the Angels Church (RC), Brownshill, Chalford (1) (70k)

St Mary of the Angels Church (RC), Brownshill, Chalford (2) (94k)

Above Photograph(s)
Copyright of John Williams

St Mary of the Angels Church (RC), Brownshill, Chalford

St Mary of the Angels Church (RC),
The Pitch, GL6 8AW,
Brownshill, Chalford, 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 1937, but we understand it was closed in 2011.

St Mary of the Angels is now closed, and in the care of the Friends of Friendless Churches Society.
The 'Friends' site provides a heartwarming story of its foundation by "two strong minded spinster ladies", Bertha Kessler and Katherine Hudson, who had been members of the First Aid Nursing Auxiliary in the First World War. They bought a large Victorian house called Templewood, and built the church in the grounds after their conversion to Catholicism, and a decision to devote the remainder of their lives to the ministry of spiritual healing.
It was designed by architect W.D. Caroe "then in the Indian Summer of a long career", and is "idyllically sited overlooking the Toadmoor Valley, the site made more poignant by the run of identically sized memorial crosses which mark the graves of Bertha and Katherine and a number of local Catholic priests, monks and laymen and women".
The British Listed Buildings website provides the information that Bertha and Katherine died within a few weeks of one another in 1963. In 1972, according to the Victoria County History series: A History of the County of Gloucester, Volume 11: Bisley and Longtree Hundreds (1976), p.36 (Bisley - Roman Catholicism) the chapel was served by a community called the Servants of the Paraclete.
Our most recent information (2013) is that the church is being given a new lease of life as an Art Gallery. [Other Sources: Rosemary Lockie/John Williams]

Denomination

Now or formerly Roman Catholic.

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 SO8830102584. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

St Mary of the Angels Church (RC), Brownshill, Chalford shown on a Google Map.
Places of Worship in Chalford 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 Brownshill, Chalford, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

“We rescue, repair and campaign for historic churches…” the Friends of Friendless Churches (null) (verified 2018-11-02)
Learn more about Buildings of special or historical interest on the British Listed Buildings (null) (verified 2018-09-19)
The Victoria County History series: A History of the County of Gloucester, Volume 11: Bisley and Longtree Hundreds (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.

Information last updated on 29 Jan 2019 at 10:58.

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This Report was created 22 Dec 2024 - 11:11:41 GMT from information held in the Gloucestershire section of the Places of Worship Database. This was last updated on 13 Oct 2021 at 14:13.

URL of this page: https://churchdb.gukutils.org.uk/GLS1397.php

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