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Marshfield Congregational Church,
High Street / St Martin's Lane,
Marshfield, 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 before 1983.

This former Congregational Church, and the School next door are now Grade II Listed Building - for details see the British Listed Buildings website.

It stands on the south-west corner of the High Street and St Martin's Lane. The east end has a porch, and above it a round window with trefoil glazing, and the sides are of 4 bays with lancet windows. The date on the building itself is "1848", but according to the return to the Religious Census of 1851 (HO 129/331/2/5/11) it was erected the year before, in 1847. The return describes a separate building used exclusively as a place of worship in Marshfield High Street, for a congregation of Independents. There were free sittings for 200, 200 "other" sittings, and "not any" standing room. The average congregation was said to be 150 at morning services and 350 in the evenings, with 105 Sunday Scholars to morning and afternoon classes - so clearly it was well attended.

The return was completed by James Bond, its Deacon, whose address was Marshfield, Gloucestershire. He remarked that "We are Supplied by the Bristol Itinerant Society", which, incidentally, was still the case at the time of publication of Kelly's Directory of 1923.

It is labelled as "Independent" on Old Maps of 1882, but by 1902 as "Congregational". At the time of listing (10th November 1983) the interior had been sub-divided for industrial premises, and was being used as a printing works, but it may have since been converted into residential use.

There are further details in a Document Avon Extensive Urban Survey 1996 - Marshfield (PTE070180.pdf) available (in 2014) on South Gloucestershire Council website. The document records that there is evidence for an earlier building on the site, and an associated burial ground; with a church book containing records of deaths 1849-1940, and burials 1916-1940.

Denomination

Now or formerly Independent/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 was located at OS grid reference ST7755073720. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

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

• Learn more about Buildings of special or historical interest on the British Listed Buildings (null) (verified 2018-09-19)
• The Local Government website of South Gloucestershire Council (null) (verified 2018-11-09)

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.