Default Image We do not have a
Photograph at present.
Image by courtesy of
openclipart.org

Henleaze and Westbury Community Church,
Albert Place / Eastfield Road, BS9 4AD,
Westbury on Trym, 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 1993, and we understand it is still open.

The Westbury Centre, home to meetings of Henleaze and Westbury Community Church, occupies what Old Maps show to have been the Village School. There is a date on the front of the building of 1901, but Old Maps of 1881-1885 show there was an earlier school building on the site.

It is an impressive building, especially when seen from Albert Place. It has a castellated gabled roof line on the main body of the building, and the gable has an arched window opening with four lights, above which is a glazed cinquefoil; and there appears to be a square open bell turret.

The following notice in The London Gazette of 30th March 1994 (p.4880) indicates its registration for marriages:

A Building certified for worship named HENLEAZE AND WESTBURY COMMUNITY CHURCH, Eastfield Road, Westbury-on-Trym, in the registration district of Bristol in the Non-Metropolitan County of Avon, was on 21st March 1994, registered for solemnising marriages therein pursuant to section 41 of the Marriage Act 1949 as amended by section 1(1) of the Marriage Acts Amendment Act 1958. Dated 25th March 1994.

According to the Community Church website, Henleaze and Westbury was founded in 1993, "to accommodate the growth of Highgrove Church" [Sea Mills]. Woodlands Church, in Tyndalls Park, was opened two years later in the former St Mary the Virgin's church building.

Places recorded by the Registrar General under the provisions of the Places of Worship Registration Act 1855 (2010) lists "Henleaze and Westbury Community Church" as having a congregation of "Evangelical Free". However the Church's website suggests it is better known as the "Westbury Centre" of "The Community Church", and is used for mid-week activities only, Sunday services being held at the Greenway Centre in Southmead, which opened in 2008.

It is almost directly opposite Westbury Village Hall, an interesting building in its own right. It is described in Kelly's Directory of 1897 as occupying an elevated site in the village, and "a building in the Early Decorated style, erected from designs by Messrs. Foster and Wood, of Bristol, at the expense of Henry St Vincent Ames esq. of Cote House [which] consists of one chamber, 71 feet by 26 feet, with an open timber roof and an apsidal end containing a good organ". Attached are reading and choir rooms, a library of 200 volumes, rooms for the organist of the parish church, and a dwelling house for the hall keeper. The great chamber will hold 400 people.

This does not sound like the description of "Westbury Village Hall" on the British Listed Buildings website! However the latter ends with the comment that: "the original drawings are in the RIBA collection, and show the building to have been altered from the original design".

Denomination

Now or formerly Evangelical Free.

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 ST5741977231. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Henleaze and Westbury Community Church, Westbury on Trym shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Westbury on Trym 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 Westbury on Trym, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

• Information provided on the Community Church website. (verified 2019-02-01)
• Learn more about Buildings of special or historical interest on the British Listed Buildings (null) (verified 2018-09-19)
• Places recorded by the Registrar General under the provisions of the Places of Worship Registration Act 1855 (2010) is available as a "Freedom of Information" document on the website What Do They Know. (verified 2018-10-14)
• 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.