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St Barnabas's Church,
Daventry Road, BS4 1DQ,
Knowle West, 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 1933, and we understand it is still open.

St Barnabas's first building was a temporary structure, erected in 1933. It was replaced in 1938 by a permanent building, designed by C.W.F. (Charles Fredrick William) Denning. Old Maps of 1949 show Denning's structure had a nave, transepts, and a long, apsidal chancel. The plot also contained St Barnabas Institute (a long building with 2 wings) west of the church, a Vicarage east of the church, and Church Hall at the rear.

By the 1970s, this complex had become too large for the needs of its parishioners, so today's building is considerably reduced in size. The Church Commissioners Report on Pastoral and Closed Churches, on the Church of England website reveals that it was closed on 23rd February 1978, for a future which involved "Part Use/Part Demolition", the use being specified as "Parochial or ecclesiastical". The outcome is described by Phil Draper's ChurchCrawler website. He notes that the nave was demolished in the 1980s, and replaced by housing; and on his visit in the 1990s, the chancel had become the church, whilst the crossing and transepts were being used as the church hall. The board outside the building today (2014) describes it as "St Barnabas Church Centre", so presumably this is still the case. A nice touch also is that the entrance is now below the bell turret, which was placed originally on the gable of the south transept - there are photographs of before and after on Phil's site.

The Bristol Record Office hold records of baptisms for the period 1933-1970, marriages 1938-1974, and deaths/burials 1945-1966. As there is no evidence on Maps of it ever having a graveyard, the latter may refer to deaths.

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 is located at OS grid reference ST5955770326. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• St Barnabas's Church, Knowle West, 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 Knowle West, Bristol, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

• The Church Commissioners Report on Pastoral and Closed Churches, found on the Church of England (null) (verified 2018-10-04)
• The Church officiando's “Bible” - Phil Draper's ChurchCrawler (null) (verified 2018-10-16)

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.