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

Salem Chapel (Demolished),
Lower Ashley Road,
Baptist Mills, Bristol, Gloucestershire.

Cemeteries

This Chapel had 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 1853, but we understand it was closed in 1950.

Kelly's Directory of Bristol of 1914 records this place of worship as "Salem United Methodist Chapel", situated between #141 and #143 in "Ashley Road, Lower". Phil Draper, on his ChurchCrawler website, records it as "a nice gothic chapel from 1853".

The return to the Religious Census of 1851 (HO 129/330/4/1/5) may relate to the building's predecessor, named "Baptist Mills Chapel". It was a separate building erected in 1850 used exclusively as a place of worship for a congregation of Reformed Wesleyan Methodists. It had free seating for 140, and 60 "other" sittings, and the estimated congregation on March 30th was 159 in the morning, 60 in the afternoon, and 180 in the evening. The return was completed by Edward Millard, Chapel Steward, who lived at "6 [St James] Parade St James Church Yard, Bristol". He also completed the form for the Methodist Mission Room, in Freeland Buildings, Fishponds, also a meeting place for the Reformers.

Their later building is shown on Old Maps of 1883-1884 occupying a plot near to, but not on the north-east corner of the junction of Lower Ashley Road with Millpond Street, with "seats for 240". The plot included a small burial ground.

The following notice in The London Gazette of 24th March 1950 (p.1487) recorded its closure:

NOTICE is hereby given that the Building formerly known as SALEM CHAPEL, situated at Lower Ashley Road, Baptist Mills in the registration district of Bristol in the county borough of Bristol which was duly registered for marriages, under the provisions of the Marriage Act, 1836, is now no longer used as a Place of Meeting for religious worship by the congregation on whose behalf it was so registered, and that the registry thereof was therefore on the 16th day of March, 1950 formally cancelled by the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages for England and Wales. Dated 20th March 1950.

The original registration of "Salem Chapel, situated at Cornwallis-place, Baptist Mills, in the parish of St. Philip and Jacob", as recorded in the Gazette of 12th December 1865 (p.6615), took place on 8th December 1865. The Bristol Town Plan of 1883 shows Cornwallis Place was the name of the terrace of houses in this section of Lower Ashley Road at that time. The houses on the opposite side of the road were named Oxford Place.

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 ST6035874277. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Salem Chapel (Demolished), Baptist Mills, 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 Baptist Mills, 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.