Gloucestershire Places of Worship

Default Image Sorry, we do not have an Image of this Place of Worship We do not have a
Photograph at present.

Image by courtesy of
openclipart.org
Muller Orphanage Chapel, Montpelier, Bristol
Muller Orphanage Chapel,
Ashley Hill,
Montpelier, 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 1849, though it is now closed, but we don't yet know when.

The Rev. George Müller was born at Kroppenstaedt in Prussia in 1805, and educated at the university of Halle. He came to Britain originally to work as a missionary, but after meeting Henry Craik in Devonshire, where he'd been convalescing after a serious illness, he joined Craik in Bristol, "where Mr. Craik had already been favourably received as a preacher". Their joint ministry of Gideon Independent Chapel, in Newfoundland Road, is described elsewhere in this database, but they also established the Bethesda chapel, in Great George Street, Brandon Hill.

The story is taken up by John Latimer, in The Annals of Bristol in the Nineteenth Century (1887) - "in 1834 Mr. Müller established a Scriptural Knowledge Institution, the objects of which were to circulate the Scriptures, to promote education amongst the poor, to aid in missionary enterprise, and - most remarkable and successful of its ends - to feed, clothe, and educate destitute orphan children".

The first orphanage, for thirty girls, was opened in 1836 at 6, Wilson Street, St. Paul's, near to where he lived. Three weeks later, a similar building, at 1, Wilson Street, was hired for boys; and in 1837, a third building in the same street. However, "the inhabitants of Wilson Street remonstrated against the inconveniences to which the institutions exposed them", and in 1846, Müller "resolved on building an orphanage large enough to accommodate 300 children". The building, on Ashley Hill, received the children from Wilson Street in June 1849, and the Wilson Street premises were abandoned.

Kelly's Directory of Bristol of 1902 describes the Orphanage then as "five well-designed and lofty buildings, erected at different periods, at a cost of £115,000, raised by voluntary contributions, in which 2,050 orphan children are cared for and educated until they are capable of taking situations as servants, or of being apprenticed to a trade. This vast establishment, formerly under the direction of the founder, the late Rev. George Müller, a native of Germany (who established the first home in 1836 for 30 children, is now conducted by his son-in-law, Mr. James Wright".

In Kelly's Directory of Bristol of 1914, Orphan Houses at 1, 3, 4 & 5 Ashley Down Road, were said to be erected for the maintenance and education of 2,000 of both sexes. Children bereaved of BOTH parents by death had priority; but applications could be made for children bereft of ONE parent, and accepted at the discretion of the Directors. The girls were trained for domestic service, the boys apprenticed to various trades, with the exception of a few who were trained as Pupil Teachers and Nurses. The houses were open for the inspection of visitors weekly.

The buildings, covering plots on both sides of the road, were disbanded in the 1950s, are now in use by the Ashley Down Centre of the City of Bristol College. It is not known where the Chapel was in the complex, but evidently one did exist.

Denomination

Now or formerly School/Orphanage Chapel.

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 ST5963275421. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

Information last updated on 1 May 2014 at 08:39.

Search for other Places of Worship in Gloucestershire, or in another County in this Database

Please choose a County by selecting one of the Tabs below.
Note: you MUST choose a County - searching all four at once is not an option!

Search Tips:

You can specify either a Place, or OS Grid Reference to search for. When you specify a Place, only entries for that place will be returned, with Places of Worship listed in alphabetical order. If you specify a Grid Reference, Places of Worship in the immediate vicinity will be listed, in order of distance from the Grid Reference supplied. The default is to list 10, but you can specify How Many you want to see, up to a maximum of 100.

You can further refine your search by supplying other search terms.

Please note the above provides a search of selected fields in the Gloucestershire section of the Places of Worship Database on this site (churchdb.gukutils.org.uk) only. For other counties, or for a full search of the Database, you might like to try the site's Google Custom Search, which includes full webpage content.

Further Information

This site provides historical information about churches, other places of worship and cemeteries. It has no affiliation with the churches or congregations themselves, nor is it intended to provide a means to find places of worship in the present day.

Do not copy any part of this page or website other than for personal use or as given in our Terms and Conditions of Use.

You may wish to take a look at our About the Places of Worship Database page for an overview of the information provided, and any limitations which may be present.

This Report was created 6 Dec 2024 - 21:09:10 GMT from information held in the Gloucestershire section of the Places of Worship Database. This was last updated on 13 Oct 2021 at 14:13.

URL of this page: https://churchdb.gukutils.org.uk/GLS1780.php
Logo by courtesy of the Open Clip Art Library