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

Wesleyan Methodist Mission Hall (Demolished),
Earl Street,
St James, 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 1892, but we understand it was closed in 1936.

This place of worship first came to my attention on Phil Draper's ChurchCrawler website, in his list of Wesleyan Methodist Churches - "Earl Street Mission", which he says was founded from Old King Street, but closed around 1932. As such, it is recorded both in Kelly's Directory of Bristol of 1902, and 1914. At the time, Earl Street extended from Whitson Street to Montague Street - but today, it only goes as far as Marborough Street (B4051), one of the new network of roads surrounding the City Centre. I have not been able to pinpoint the location of the Mission Hall on any Old Maps, but the street directory portion of Kelly's edition of 1914 lists it as being on the east side of Earl Street, north of its junction with (Great) James Street, another "lost" street name.

It was, nevertheless important enough to be registered for marriages, as the following notice of cancellation in The London Gazette of 24th April 1936 (p.2636) indicates:

NOTICE is hereby given that the Place of Meeting for religious worship described as MISSION HALL, situated at Earl Street, in the civil parish of Bristol, in the registration district of Bristol, in the county borough of Bristol, which was duly certified for worship on the 11th day of May, 1892, has wholly ceased to be used as a Place of Meeting for religious worship by the congregation on whose behalf it was so certified, and that the Registrar General has caused the record of the certification thereof to be cancelled pursuant to the Act, 18 and 19 Vict. cap.81 from the 23rd day of April, 1936. Dated 23rd April 1936.

Denomination

Now or formerly Wesleyan 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 Church was located at OS grid reference ST5887673571. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Wesleyan Methodist Mission Hall (Demolished), St James, 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 James, 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.