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Windmill Hill Methodist Church,
Vivian Street / Algiers Street,
Windmill Hill, 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 before 1902, but we understand it was closed in 1962.

This former Methodist Church is situated on the north-west corner of the junction of Vivian Street with Algiers Street. Its position was first noted on Old Maps of 1903-1904, but it is also recorded in Kelly's Directory of Bristol of 1902, so it is certainly older than then.

It is built of dark stone, with lighter stone dressings, with a large "west" window of 4 lights, over a wide porch, which has 2 small windows on either side of a pointed-arched doorway.

It was closed in December 1962, according to an account of "St Michael and all Angels: The First Hundred Years", a booklet published for the Church's Centenary in 1986, and available for download from the present day St Michael & All Angels Church (Windmill Hill) website. A notice in The London Gazette of 26th July 1963 (p.6386) recorded the cancellation of its registration for marriages the following year:

The Registrar General, being satisfied that METHODIST CHAPEL, Windmill Hill, Bedminster, in the registration district of Bristol in the county borough of Bristol, is no longer used as a place of worship by the congregation on whose behalf it was on 19th January 1925, registered for marriages in accordance with the Marriage Act, 1836, has cancelled the registration. Dated 18th July 1963.

It is not known what happened to the building after that, but almost 50 years later, and at the time of Google StreetCar "drive past" in May 2012, the windows were boarded up, and building was up for sale, so it is expected to survive.

Denomination

Now or formerly Wesleyan 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 ST5893271330. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Windmill Hill Methodist Church, Windmill Hill, 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 Windmill Hill, Bristol, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

• Information provided on the St Michael & All Angels Church (Windmill Hill) website. (verified 2018-11-04)
• 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.