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

St Stephen's Church (1930s) (Demolished),
Shetland Road,
Southmead, 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 1934, but we understand it was closed in 1959.

Here is a building which is shown for the first time on Maps of 1935-1938 as a Mission Church, then later, in 1952-1954 as "St Stephen's Church". It was a rectangular building, with what may have been a south porch, and (perhaps) a side chapel or vestry at the north east corner. A church hall, north of, and at right angles to the church, is also shown on the later Map, though by that time, a second Church Hall was also in existence - today known as "The White Hall". The latter is north of the present church, on the south-west corner of the junction of Embleton Road and Glencoyne Square. Seemingly it would have stood in splendid isolation at the time it was built, as only two other buildings were shown south of Wigton Crescent at the time - the New Brunswick Congregational Church, on the opposite side of the Crescent, and a small Community Hall, north of the Church Hall.

The District of St Stephen, Southmead was created from the parish of Westbury on Trym in 1936, and the following year, the Ecclesiastical Commissioners allocated a stipend to the Incumbent and his successors of £200 pa. [Source: The London Gazette of 14th July 1936 pp.4503-4), and 29th October 1937, p.6713]

The present St Stephen's Church, which replaced the Shetland Road premises, was opened in 1959. It is not known whether the Church of England disposed of its previous home immediately, as evidently it retained its status as a place of worship for some years after, if a labelling as "Ch" on Maps of 1974-1981 is to be relied upon. In the present day, however, it is most certainly demolished, and the site is occupied by a group of town houses.

The Bristol Record Office hold records of baptisms at St Stephen's, Southmead for the period 1932-1980, and of marriages for the period 1939-1982, the registers (presumably) being transferred to the new building in 1959. St Stephen's in Shetland Road was preceded by a Mission Church on Southmead Road - details are available in a Timeline on the St Stephen's Church website.

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 ST5873078254. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• St Stephen's Church (1930s) (Demolished), Southmead, 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 Southmead, Bristol, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

• See St Stephen's Church elsewhere in this database.
• Information provided on the St Stephen's Church website. (verified 2019-02-01)
• 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.