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Bishopston Methodist Church,
245 Gloucester Road / Wesley Road,
Bishopston, Bristol, Gloucestershire.

Cemeteries

We believe the Church does 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 1890, and we understand it is still open.

Gloucester Road has its share of spectacular Victorian Churches, yet not one of them (to the best of my knowledge) is Listed; yet the Bishopston Methodist Church complex surely deserves it. Phil Draper, on his ChurchCrawler website says the first Chapel was opened in 1890 - "a very ornate lancet style with double transepts and large west window" which was superseded by a larger building next to it in 1893, designed by a local architect Pilton Jones. The West front (facing Gloucester Road) has 2 outer bays, each having their own entrance, with a wide inner bay having a central doorway flanked by two narrow lancet windows, over which are pointed-arched canopies, somewhat reminiscent of the west front of a French Gothic Cathedral. Above them are a pair of round-arched windows of three lights, between them a rose window.

Evidently, however, the building was too costly to maintain, as in 1988 services were transferred to the building next door (on its left, not the original chapel), which already had a hall attached to it. And they have remained there to this day (2013), at which time the 1893 building has become a gymnasium, and the original chapel (on its right) now the home of a theatre group, the Kelvin Players.

This change of premises is reflected in the records - Kelly's Directory of Bristol of 1902 lists a "Wesleyan Chapel" between #245 and #253 Gloucester Road, giving a street address of [247-251]. However, a notice in The London Gazette of 5th September 1989 (p.10230), reflects the change of venue, in the registration for marriages of "BISHOPSTON METHODIST CHURCH" at "245 Gloucester Road, Bishopston". Then just over a week later, a complementary notice, of 14th September 1989 (p.10573) recorded that "METHODIST CHURCH, Gloucester Road, Bishopston" was no longer used as a place of worship by the congregation on whose behalf it was on 13th March 1895 registered.

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 Church is located at OS grid reference ST5916775646. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Bishopston Methodist Church, Bishopston, 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 Bishopston, Bristol, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

• The Church officiando's “Bible” - Phil Draper's ChurchCrawler (null) (verified 2018-10-16)
• 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.