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Clouds Hill Baptist Church,
Clouds Hill Road,
St George, Bristol, 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 1831, but we understand it was closed in 1932.

Old Maps of 1888 label this Chapel as Particular Baptist. Its congregation was founded in 1829, and was served by ministers from Broadmead and Hanham Baptist. The Chapel was erected in 1830/1 close to the north-east corner of the junction of Clouds Hill Road and Plummer's Hill, on land purchased from a Mr. Plummer of Newchurch, Clouds Hill.

The return to the Religious Census of 1851 (HO 129/330/3/1/5) for "Baptist Chapel, Newchurch", describes a separate building, erected in 1831, exclusively as a place of worship, with free seating for 160, and 85 "other" sittings. The estimated congregation on March 30th was 35 to morning service, and 125 in the evening, with 71 Sunday Scholars to morning class, and 166 attending an afternoon class. The return was completed by Charles Waring Wood, the Pastor, of "Redfield House Lodge, Redfield, St Georges". He gave additional figures for average attendance, mentioning also that there was additional preaching on Wednesday evenings, attended by 25 people, "also on Sabbath Mornings before Breakfast" and there is a Library well appreciated by the Scholars". [Note: "Newchurch" was a reference to the (relatively) newly built St George's Church - the name can be seen on Tithe Maps of 1840s on what is now Summerhill Road].

After the building was closed for repairs around 1871, the congregation sought new premises. A building in Air Balloon Road was hired, laying the foundation for Mount Pleasant Chapel, which opened in 1872. It is not clear when some members of the congregation moved back to the Clouds Hill Road premises, but certainly by 1905, as the following notice in The London Gazette of 6th June 1905 (p.4050) indicates:

A Separate Building, duly certified for religious worship, named BAPTIST CHAPEL, situated at Cloudshill-road, St. George, in the civil parish of Bristol, in the county borough of Bristol, in Bristol registration district, was, on the 31st May, 1905, registered for solemnizing marriages therein, pursuant to 6th and 7th Wm. IV, c.85. Dated 1st June 1905.

It was ultimately superseded by a new building, built on the opposite side of Clouds Hill Road, facing Summerhill Road, which opened in 1932. The old premises were acquired by the Bristol Education Authority, and are now part of Summerhill School.

The above, excluding details from the Gazette, and Religious Census, summarises a more comprehensive account on Phil Draper's ChurchCrawler website.

Denomination

Now or formerly Particular 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 ST6247473703. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Clouds Hill Baptist Church, St George, 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 St George, 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.