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

Prewett Street Baptist Chapel (Demolished),
Prewett Street,
Redcliffe, 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 before 1885, and it has since been demolished, but we don't know when.

In Kelly's Directory of Bristol of 1902, Prewett Street is listed in the district of "Cathay", but by 1914, as "Redcliff". The Baptist Chapel was at the end of the north side of the street, Prewett Street extending from #36 Cathay to Redcliff Mead Lane - Cathay now being a "lost" street name.

The Bristol Town Plans of 1885 show a Baptist Mission Hall with seats for 100 at this location - on the north side of the divide between Prewett Road and Redcliff Mead Lane. Maps of 1903-1904 show a "Chapel", again on the north side of Prewett Street, but halfway between its junction with Cathay and Redcliff Mead Lane, and no Mission Hall. The Chapel was on the same site as a Malthouse on earlier Maps and Plans, from which I conclude the later meeting place was a refurbishment, or a replacement for the Malthouse. In 1914 it shared the street with 2 public houses - the Red Horse, proprietor Tom Bond, and the Bell Inn, proprietor Alfred John Garland - a haulier, a shopkeeper, a builders' merchants, and (probably the largest of the premises), a chemical manure works - H. & T. Proctor, Ltd.

The Chapel is not mentioned by Phil Draper, on his ChurchCrawler website, but a list of Places of Worship on the Bristol & Avon Family History Society website records "Prewett Street" as founded in 1871, opened in 1882.

The following notice in The London Gazette of 10th July 1885 (p.3194) recorded its registration for marriages:

NOTICE is hereby given, that a separate building, named Baptist Chapel, situate at Prewett-street, in the parish of St. Mary, Redcliff, in the city and county of Bristol, in the district of Bristol, being a building certified according to law as a place of religious worship, was, on the 11th day of June, 1885, duly registered for solemnizing marriages therein, pursuant to the Act of 6th and 7th Wm. 4, cap. 85. Dated 12th June 1885.

I have been unable to locate similar documentary evidence to suggest when it closed, but there is no sign of it on Maps of 1969, by which time Redcliffe Methodist Church, likewise in Prewett Street, had been built.

Denomination

Now or formerly Baptist.

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 ST5925472244. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Prewett Street Baptist Chapel (Demolished), Redcliffe, 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 Redcliffe, 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)
• Parish Histories, Burial data, &c. on the Bristol & Avon Family History Society (null) (verified 2018-11-04)
• 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.