Default Image Place of Worship has been
Demolished.
Image by courtesy of
openclipart.org

Soundwell Baptist Church (Demolished),
Soundwell Road,
Soundwell, Mangotsfield, Gloucestershire.

Cemeteries

We believe the Church did 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 1912, but we understand it was closed by 1999.

This place of worship was first noted on Old Maps of 1916. In 1951-1952, it is labelled as "Baptist Church", and is still marked (as "PW") on Maps of 1988-1992. In the present day, however it has been demolished, and its site, close to the junction of Soundwell Road with Portland Street, is occupied by a block of apartments, called St Martin's Court. Next door, at 72-74 Soundwell Road, and on the junction itself, was, in 2012, a furniture store known as "Fleur de Lys". This building retains a single lancet window, with fragments of stained glass, in the side facing Portland Street, so perhaps it was once a Sunday School.

The following notice in The London Gazette of 25th September 1931 (p.6183 indicates its registration for marriages:

A Separate Building, duly certified for religious worship, named SOUNDWELL BAPTIST CHURCH, situated at Soundwell Road, Staple-hill, in the civil parish of Mangotsfield, in Keynsham registration district, in the county of Gloucester, was, on the 18th September, 1931, registered for solemnizing marriages therein, pursuant to 6 & 7 Will. IV, c.85. Dated 19th September 1931.

The Church was erected in 1912, according to an account of the Kingswood Whit Walk, in a book Religion in English Everyday Life: An Ethnographic Approach, by Timothy Jenkins, published in 1999. His account also records that it had been taken over by Soundwell Christian Fellowship by then, for which see elsewhere in this database.

Denomination

Now or formerly Baptist.

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 ST6479675378. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Soundwell Baptist Church (Demolished), Soundwell, 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 Soundwell, Mangotsfield, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

• 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.