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St Dunstan's Church (formerly Bedminster Down Mission),
Bedminster Down Road, BS13 7AB,
Bedminster Down, 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 by 1892, but we understand it was closed in 1992.

The building which became St Dunstan's is shown on Old Maps of 1904 labelled as "St Aldhelm's", and listed in Kelly's Directory of Bristol of 1914 as "St Aldhelm Mission Church". Old Maps of the 1880s indicate a building existed on its site, of similar size, but unfortunately, do not indicate what it was. All is revealed, however in The National Archives Catalogue (TNA "Discovery"). Under the heading of St Dunstan's parish records available at Bristol Record Office [Ref: P/St.D], it records that the church building was originally a school attached to Bishopsworth, built in 1888. It was subsequently adapted firstly as a mission of St Francis, Ashton Gate, then in 1902, as a mission to St Aldhelm; then ultimately, in 1929 acquired district chapelry status, when a district of St Dunstan was created out of St Aldhelm's parish.

At the time of TNA's description it formed part of the Bedminster Team Ministry, incorporating the parishes of St Aldhelm, St Dunstan, St Francis, Ashton Gate, and St Paul, Southville; however it is not clear in the present day whether a separate district of St Dunstan still exists, since the church itself has been closed. The date of closure, listed in the Church Commissioners Report on Pastoral and Closed Churches, on the Church of England website, is recorded as 1st November 1992; with its subsequent disposal, for use as storage, occurring in 1995. It is now (2014) known as "St Dunstan's House", and in use as a retail outlet by APC Workware.

The Bristol Record Office's Handlist of Parish Records indicates they hold records of baptisms at St Dunstan for the period 1892-1995; and marriages 1929-1989. Their list also mentions records of baptisms for Bedminster Down Mission Church, which are held with St Aldhelm registers. So far as I can tell, from the description on TNA's website, this refers to a volume of baptisms covering the period 1892-1904 [Ref: P/St.Ald/BD/R1a], which would appear to relate to the period when St Dunstan's was a mission of St Francis, Ashton Gate.

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 ST5768370598. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• St Dunstan's Church (formerly Bedminster Down Mission), Bedminster Down, 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 Down, Bristol, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

• “One Thousand Years of History” - The National Archives (null) (verified 2018-11-09)
• The Church Commissioners Report on Pastoral and Closed Churches, found on the Church of England (null) (verified 2018-10-04)

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.