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

Park House Convent Chapel (St Catherine of Sienna) (Demolished),
Pro-Cathedral Lane / Park Place,
Clifton, 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 1840, but we understand it was closed in 1898.

John Latimer, in The Annals of Bristol in the Nineteenth Century (1887), following on from his description of the foundation of the Catholic Church of the Holy Apostles (later pro-cathedral), notes that a convent and chapel, dedicated to St Catherine of Sienna, were added to the site in 1849. This was for the use of nuns of the order of St Dominic. The Convent and Chapel (separate buildings) are marked on Bristol Town Maps of 1884, to the east of the Cathedral, together with a small burial ground, on the south side of the Convent.

This is probably identical with the former "St Augustine of Canterbury", described on Phil Draper's ChurchCrawler website. He says it was begun earlier, in 1842, when the Holy Apostles had run into construction difficulties, so evidently, it was the small chapel mentioned by Latimer as built within its precincts, where Mass was performed in 1842. It was enlarged, and became conventual in 1850, after which it was rededicated to St Catherine of Sienna, but closed in 1898, and became a store.

The return to the Religious Census of 1851 (HO 129/330/1/1/11) refers to it as "St Catherine's Chapel", founded in 1840. It had free seating for 120, and 20 "other" sittings, described by Frederick Neal, who as Chaplain completed the return, as "a gallery for the inmates of the house". He estimated congregation on March 30th as 40 attending morning service and 120 in the afternoon. Revd. Neal lived at the Bishop's House, Clifton, as did W.J. Vaughan, who completed the return for the Church of the Holy Apostles (pro-cathedral).

So far as I am able to tell in the present day, the Convent building survives, but its Chapel has been demolished.

Denomination

Now or formerly Roman Catholic (Convent).

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 ST5779273196. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Park House Convent Chapel (St Catherine of Sienna) (Demolished), Clifton, 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 Clifton, 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)

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.