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Friends / Primitive Methodist / Baptist Chapel,
333 Gloucester Road,
Horfield, 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 1902, but we understand it was closed after 1948.

If Directory entries, and Old Maps are to be believed, this was a very well-used building. It came to my attention originally as one of the images in Paul Townsend's Photographic Archive of Horfield & Lockleaze - "1948 Horfield Baptist Mission Hall, Bristol BS7". The building in his photograph is a "tin tabernacle", with two windows at the front, on either side of a central doorway above which is a large sign which reads "Mission Hall / Meetings Held Every / Sunday Evening at 6.30." There are two smaller signs attached below the windows. The right hand one is blank, but the left one is headed "Friends Meeting House", which paints rather a different picture!

As such it may well have been the forerunner of the present Horfield Quaker Meeting House, and indeed, a "Friends Chapel" is listed as in Kelly's Directory of Bristol of 1902, in between #329 and #339 Gloucester Road. The Friends would have vacated the building after a new Meeting House was built for them on the opposite side of the road in 1908; thereafter, apparently, and by the time of publication of Kelly's Directory of Bristol of 1914, it became a Primitive Methodist Chapel. It is also shown as such on Old Maps of 1916-1918.

Paul Townsend's photograph (uploaded in 2007) indicates it remained in existence until at least 1948, by which time it was a Baptist Mission Hall. He adds that its site was later occupied by a Somerfield/Kwik Save Store; but since then, the Somerfield chain have been taken over by the Co-op. Assuming he refers to their branch at 335 Gloucester Road, the attached car park now occupies the site of the chapel, whilst the shop itself may have been built on the site of the former North Bristol Cycle Works, listed at #329 Gloucester Road in Kelly's Directory of 1914. Old Maps indicate this was a much larger building than the Chapel itself, occupying a similar "footprint" to the shop today.

Denomination

Now or formerly Quaker/Methodist/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 ST5929476028. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Friends / Primitive Methodist / Baptist Chapel, Horfield, 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 Horfield, Bristol, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

• What can I say? Paul Townsend's collection of photographs, old and new, of Bristol is spectacular, focussing on his Photographic Archive of Horfield & Lockleaze (null) (verified 2018-11-13)

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.