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West Street Baptist Church,
West Street / Churchlands Road,
Bedminster, Bristol, Gloucestershire.

Cemeteries

We believe the Church does 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 the 17th century, and we understand it is still open.

Ah, the lost West Street Baptist Church! Phil Draper, on his ChurchCrawler website, says the congregation was founded in the 17th century. Certainly, according to a return to the Religious Census of 1851 (HO 129/328/1/1/5), a place of worship, called "Bedminster Baptist Chapel" existed in West Street at that time, founded "before 1800", in a separate building used exclusively as a place of worship. It had free seating for 160, 40 "other" sittings, and standing room for 50, and had an average attendance of 40 to morning services, and 70 in the evenings, with 30, and 20 Sunday Scholars respectively. The return was completed by Henry Bennett, its Manager, whose address was "Rock Cottage, Nr. Turnpike, West Street, Bedminster, Bristol".

The following notice in The London Gazette of 26th April 1927 (p.2709) recorded the registration of the building (or its successor) for marriages:

A Separate Building, duly certified for religious worship, named BAPTIST CHAPEL, situated at West-street, Bedminster, in the civil parish of Bristol, in the county borough of Bristol, in Bristol registration district, was on the 19th April, 1927, registered for solemnizing marriages therein, pursuant to 6 & 7 Wm. IV. c.85. Dated 21st April 1927.

Sadly, it proved to be one of the many casualties in Bedminster of WWII bombing, achieving a degree of notoriety amongst them by having only one wall left standing, with an inscription - "Worship the Lord in the Beauty of Holiness". Thereafter it was replaced by a prefabricated building, which was in its turn, registered for marriages, with a notice appearing in the Gazette of 2nd May 1950 (p.2197) for "BAPTIST CHAPEL situated at West Street, Bedminster", being substituted for the building named "Baptist Chapel" situated at West Street, Bedminster, now demolished.

The building is still in use today, but is now home to the South Bristol Christian Centre. The latter is described on its notice board as "A Ministry to the Churches and Community of South Bristol". It is not known whether the building was closed first as a Baptist Church, and then taken over by the Centre, or whether the Baptist Church was assimilated. Certainly, this may have been possible, as its description suggests the Christian Centre welcomes everyone, of whatever Christian faith.

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 Church is located at OS grid reference ST5796470928. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• West Street Baptist Church, Bedminster, 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 Bedminster, 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)
• 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.