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John Millard Memorial Church,
Chessel Street / Garnet Street,
Bedminster, 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 1900, but we understand it was closed about 1968.

The former John Millard Memorial Church is situated on the north-west corner of the junction of Chessel Street and Garnet Street. It is single storey, and of 4 bays, facing Garnet Street. Three of the bays have large 3-light windows with horizontal divides. The entrance doorway, and a smaller window occupy the fourth bay, and the upper part of all the windows are glazed with leaded lights.

The following notice in The London Gazette of 8th April 1921 (p.2815) recorded its registration for marriages:

A Separate Building, duly certified for religious worship, named JOHN MILLARD MEMORIAL CHAPEL, situated at Chessells-street, Bedminster, in the civil parish of Bristol, in the county borough of Bristol, in Bristol registration district, was, on the second April, 1921, registered for solemnizing marriages therein, pursuant to 6th and 7th Wm. IV, c.85. Dated 5th April 1921.

Phil Draper's ChurchCrawler website records it as built in 1900, to a design by [Sir George] Oatley. A history of Hebron Chapel on the Welland Family History website comes to the rescue in establishing its dedication. John Millard is recorded as one of the founders and leaders of Hebron Chapel, which "in its heyday was noted for its outgoing and missionary zeal". The John Millard Memorial Chapel in "the Chessels" was one of its daughter Churches, as was Salem, in Trafalgar Terrace, Bedminster Down, and Ashton Gate Chapel in Greenway Bush Lane.

In Kelly's Directory of Bristol of 1902 (in Garnet Street), it is listed as plain "United Methodist Free Church", but in the same publication of 1914 as "John Millard Memorial United Methodist Church". May one infer from this that it acquired its dedication in the intervening years?

No notice (in the Gazette) of the cancellation of its registration for marriages has been found, but the above account of Hebron's history suggests that it was closed about the same time as Hebron, that is, in 1968. Phil notes that at the time of his writing, it had been sold to the Boys & Girls Brigades and was used as their headquarters, and certainly in the present day it appears to be in secular use.

Denomination

Now or formerly United 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 Church was located at OS grid reference ST5779071116. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• John Millard Memorial 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)
• Nice website established by Neal Anthony Welland for his own family history - Welland Family History (null) (verified 2018-11-14)
• 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.