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Grenville Methodist Chapel,
Oldfield Place,
Hotwells, 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 1839, but we understand it was closed before 1954.

Here is an early 19th century Wesleyan Methodist "plant", recorded on the Religious Census of 1851 (HO 129/330/1/1/8) as "Grenville Place Chapel", in the parish of Clifton. It was erected in 1839 as a separate building used exclusively as a place of worship, and had free sittings for 458, 257 "other" sittings, and standing room for 100. The estimated congregation on March 30th was 130 at morning service, and 150 in the evening, in comparison with an average congregation of 200 in the morning and 250 in the evening, with 60 Sunday Scholars. The return was completed by John C. Pengelly, who described himself as "Minister of King St. Chapel in Bristol & of the above-named Place of Worship". His address was stated to be "4 Polygon, Clifton". He remarked that "the Anniversary Services of some popular Institutions were held on Sunday Mar 30th in the neighbourhood and the number attending divine service was less than usual".

The building is situated on the north-east corner of the junction of what was then known as Grenville Place with Little Caroline Place. It appeared that one side of the road was known as "Grenville Place", and the other as "Oldfield Place" - now both are known as Oldfield Place.

Phil Draper's ChurchCrawler website notes that it was funded by Thomas Whippie, "a member of the Church of England, who had sympathies with all evangelical groups".

Seemingly it was closed by 1954, as Old Maps of that year label the building as "Warehouse". Since then, it has been converted into flats, according to Phil, without too much exterior alteration, whilst retaining 3 tall arches at the east end.

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 Chapel was located at OS grid reference ST5696772454. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Grenville Methodist Chapel, Hotwells, 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 Hotwells, 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.