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Wesley Chapel,
29 Wesley Place, BS8 2YD,
Clifton, 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 1835, but we understand it was closed before 1882.

This place of worship was probably that recorded on the return to the Religious Census of 1851 (HO 129/330/1/1/14) as "Wesley Chapel", situated at Durdham Down, Clifton - a separate building, founded in 1835, used exclusively as a place of worship by a Wesleyan Methodist congregation. It had free seating for 72, and 156 "other" sittings, and its average congregation over the previous 12 months had been 80 to morning services, with 50 Sunday Scholars, and 120 in the evenings. The return was completed by Wm. Hy. Bould, Chapel Steward, whose address was "Durdham Cottage". On March 30th the number of worshippers had dropped to 37 in the morning, and 34 in the afternoon - which prompted Rev. Bould to comment that "a succession [sic] of several persons from this congregation took place about 6 months since they have assembled in a nother place of worship".

The other place of worship may have been the forerunner of the Chapel which was later known as "Mount Olive United Methodist Free Church", for which there is a separate entry in this database. According to the book Bristol and Its Environs (1875), published by the British Association, it opened in 1855. Possibly the Chapel in Wesley Place was closed soon after, or at least by the time the Bristol Town Plans of 1882 were drawn up, as the Chapel in Wesley Place had apparently become "Moravian", with seating for 210.

Nevertheless, Kelly's Directory of Bristol of 1902 does record a "Wesleyan Chapel" in Wesley Place, one of two addresses, the other being Alfred John Ball, shopkeeper. There was no corresponding entry in 1914 - in fact no entries at all for Wesley Place; however Old Maps of 1916-1918 show it still labelled as "Chap". In contrast, the "Mount Olive" building was listed by Kelly (under Whiteladies Road) as "Wesley Hall, Wesleyan Mission", and on the Maps as "Hall", so one possibility is that he Methodists re-acquired the Wesley Place building from the Moravians, and had the use of both.

The Wesley Place building is now (2014) the home of "Bristol Subud", and in good repair; whereas the Mount Olive Chapel is now a fitness centre.

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 ST5730374759. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Wesley Chapel, 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)