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Bethel Chapel (St George Methodist Church),
Clouds Hill Road, BS5 7LH,
St George, Bristol, Gloucestershire.

Cemeteries

We believe the Chapel 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 1858, but we understand it was closed in 1989.

In the present day (2014) this is the home of the Lifestyle Fitness Centre. The exterior does however retain its chapel-like appearance, having a group of 3 tall round-arched windows, above a wide entrance. From above, Google Satellite View, it can be seen to be a long building, stretching all the way back from Clouds Hill Road to Hudds Vale Road. Possibly however it has been extended, as Phil Draper, on his ChurchCrawler website refers to it as a "small box of a building with pediment and sash windows". He also notes that it was painted in very bright colours in the 1960s, and became St George Methodist Church when the congregation from Victoria & Salem Chapels, both in St George, joined with Bethel.

The following notice in The London Gazette of 25th October 1989 (p.12261) recorded its registration for marriages:

A Separate Building, duly certified for religious worship, named BETHEL CHAPEL, situated at Clouds Hill-road, St. George, in the civil parish of Bristol, in the county borough of Bristol, in Bristol registration district, was, on the fourth March, 1920, registered for solemnizing marriages therein, pursuant to 6th and 7th Wm. IV, c.85. Dated 6th March 1920.

A corresponding notice published in the Gazette of 25th October 1989 (p.12261) recorded its closure. Its congregation then joined with that of Crews Hole Methodist and Clowes Chapel, in Summerhill Road, in a new building on the Clowes site, now known as "Summerhill Methodist Church".

Denomination

Now or formerly Free/United Methodist.

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 Chapel was located at OS grid reference ST6280373773. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Bethel Chapel (St George Methodist 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.