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

St Silas's Church (Demolished),
Feeder Road / Arthur Street,
St Philip's Marsh, 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 in 1867, but we understand it was closed in 1959.

Old Maps show that St Silas's Church was on the south-west corner of the junction of Feeder Road with Arthur Street, in the St Philip's Marsh district of Bristol.

John Latimer, in The Annals of Bristol in the Nineteenth Century (1887), records that it was consecrated on 2nd October 1868, but "owing to the spongy nature of the subsoil, the church speedily began to show signs of subsidence, and its condition at length became so perilous that it was closed in March, 1872". It was soon afterwards taken down, and the foundation stone of another building laid later that year. The new church opened in August, 1878.

Kelly's Directory of Bristol of 1902 records that a parish of St Silas was created in 1868, out of Ss Philip & Jacob. "The church, in St. Philip's marsh, was originally built in 1863 and consecrated October 2nd, 1867, but owing to the subsidence of the foundations, was rebuilt in 1872-3 at a cost of £4,500, and is now an edifice of stone in the Early English style, consisting only of nave and aisles". There was seating for 650, and the parish records date from the foundation of the original building - 1867. The living was a vicarage, in the gift of the Bristol trustees, and had been held since 1895 by the Rev. Frederick John Horsefield, of St Aidan's, who was also chaplain of the General Cemetery.

Phil Draper's ChurchCrawler website records that the original building was designed by Pope & Bindon (who also designed Emmanuel, in Midland Road, St Philip's). Its replacement, designed by J.C. Neale, was destroyed by bombing in 1941, and not rebuilt. A temporary church was set up the former Day School (in York Street), but this in turn was closed when the area was depopulated in the 1950s.

Kelly's Directory of Bristol of 1914 lists services taking place in St Silas's Church, in St Silas's School (for Children), and in its Mission Church, in Union Road. The vicar was still Rev. Horsefield; curate was Rev. Frederick Lisle Bullen, and the names of churchwardens, organist, and sexton were also recorded. The parish registers, which are held at Bristol Record Office, also include entries from the Mission Hall, and cover baptisms 1867-1959, and marriages 1868-1955. The street directory portion of Kelly's Directory of 1914 also records another "St Silas Church Mission Hall" in Grafton Road, St Philip's Marsh. One wonders why the congregation didn't move to one of the Mission Halls after the Church was bombed. There were two - one in Grafton Street, and one in Union Road, both recorded by Kelly in 1914, and the one in Union Road still exists.

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 ST6039772418. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• St Silas's Church (Demolished), St Philip's Marsh, 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 Philip's Marsh, 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.