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St John's Independent Methodist Chapel (now Church of Christ),
298 St Johns Lane, BS3 5AY,
Bedminster, 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 in 1903, but we understand it was closed in 1941.

This former Methodist Church is built of red brick, with light stone dressings. It has 2 tall round-arched windows, on either side of a central porch, above which is a "rose" window, with four radial lights (of stained glass) arranged around a circular central light. Above this is a triangular datestone, with a date "1903". The entrance is above ground level, so the doorway is approached by a flight of steps.

It is on the north side of St John's Lane, a few blocks to the west of its junction with Brendon Road. Old Maps of 1916-1918 show it labelled as "Meth. Ch. (Indt.), and at the time, it looked out onto open fields. One of the few buildings on the south side of the road at the time was a public house - The Engineers' Arms. Next to it was a long strip of land labelled "Miniature Rifle Range".

In the present day, the public house is now known as The Brunel, and the Church has been adopted by the "Church of Christ". The following notice in The London Gazette of 16th December 1941 (p.7133) recorded its closure:

NOTICE is hereby given that the Place of Meeting for religious worship described as ST. JOHN'S INDEPENDENT METHODIST CHAPEL situated at St. John's Lane, Bedminster in the civil parish of Bristol in the registration district of Bristol in the county borough of Bristol which was duly certified for worship on the 13th day of June, 1903 has wholly ceased to be used as a Place of Meeting for religious worship by the congregation on whose behalf it was so certified, and that the Registrar-General has caused the record of the certification thereof to be cancelled pursuant to the Act 18 & 19 Vict., c.81 from the 12th day of December 1941. Dated 12th December 1941.

Denomination

Now or formerly Independent 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 Chapel was located at OS grid reference ST5878770955. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• St John's Independent Methodist Chapel (now Church of Christ), 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.

• 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.