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St Alban's Mission Church (now Sanctuary Carr-Gomm),
Kensington 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 before 1914, but we understand it was closed by 1945.

Kensington Road is lined with rowan trees, and at the time of the September 2012 Google StreetView drive-past, they were covered in red berries - it is a delightful setting for this former Mission Church. The building is of stone, having a large tri-partite window with pointed arches in front, above a central porch, approached by 3 steps. The sides are of 3 bays containing rectangular windows, with the front bay having an extra tier above of dormers.

There is a listing in Places recorded by the Registrar General under the provisions of the Places of Worship Registration Act 1855 (2010) of "Whiteway Pentecostal Church", with an address of "Stoney Hill, Kensington Road"; and a corresponding notice in The London Gazette of 20th March 1945 (p.1514):

A Separate Building, duly certified for religious worship, named WHITEWAY PENTECOSTAL CHURCH situated at Stoney Hill, Kensington Road, St. George, in Bristol registration district in the county borough of Bristol was on the 13th March 1945, registered for solemnizing marriages therein, pursuant to 6 & 7 Will. IV., c.85. Dated 16th March 1945.

I suspect this congregation, recorded as "Undenominational" in the aforesaid list, met in the building when it was no longer required by the Church of England, as there appears to have been nowhere else in Kensington Road which would qualify, and it was still labelled as "Church" on Old Maps of 1951. The question then arises as to where "Stoney Hill" was, as there is no longer a street of that name off Kensington Road. Perhaps it was planned, but never laid out, or a reference to a presently unmade driveway adjacent to the building.

Evidently the Whiteway Pentecostal Church closed, as in the present day (2014), the same building is in use by a secular organisation - Sanctuary Carr-Gomm, listed in Bristol City Council Housing Support Register and Guidance Directory for 2011 under "Mental Health Floating Support Services".

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 was located at OS grid reference ST6314673773. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• St Alban's Mission Church (now Sanctuary Carr-Gomm), 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.

• 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.