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Christ Church,
Downend Road / Christchurch Lane, BS16 5UF,
Downend, Mangotsfield, Gloucestershire.

Cemeteries

This Church 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 1831, and we understand it is still open.

Kelly's Directory of 1923 describes Downend (including Staple Hill and Upper Soundwell) as an ecclesiastical parish formed May 15, 1874, out of the parish of Mangotsfield. It is on the road from Bristol to Malmesbury, 1¼ miles north-west from Mangotsfield station, and half a mile from Staple Hill station, both on the Midland railway, and 4 miles north-east from Bristol. Christ Church, erected in 1831, and formerly a chapel of ease of St James's, Mangotsfield is described as "a plain building of stone, consisting of chancel, nave of four bays, aisles, west porch and an eastern turret containing 1 bell".

This must have been a description before a new chancel was added in 1914. The turret is now at the west end, and there are 5 bays, and 2 bays to the chancel. The east end has a rose window, and there is a panelled screen above the chancel arch, with side turrets similar to that at the west end. Consequently, the overall impression is anything but plain, especially viewed from the W.G. Grace Memorial Cricket Ground, as it provides a similar backdrop to Cheltenham College. There are 1,000 sittings.

The parish records date from 1831, and in 1923, the living was then a vicarage, in the gift of the Peache trustees, and had been held since 1915 by the Rev. David Marcus Brown.

The British Listed Buildings website provides the information that Christ Church was designed by Oliver Greenway, a local architect. W.G. Grace, the famous cricketer, was born in the village in 1848.

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 is located at OS grid reference ST6496376497. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Christ Church, Downend, Mangotsfield shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Mangotsfield 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 Downend, Mangotsfield, 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 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.