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Bristol Holiness Mission Hall (later Church of the Nazarene),
Summer Hill, BS4 3EF,
Totterdown, 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 1924, but we understand it was closed by 1987.

The building is of red brick, with sand-coloured brick dressings around the windows, door, and at the corners. At the front are 2 rectangular windows on either side of a central round-arched doorway, approached by a flight of steps. Above it is a round-arched window, divided into two by a horizontal cross bar. Below the cross bar the window is divided into 9 lights, and above it 3 more lights, the arch above them filled with radial glazing. The sides are of 5 bays. The north side has 4 rectangular windows and one smaller, almost square window in the rear bay, and the south side abuts the end of a terrace of houses.

There is an oblong inset stone above the doorway, which may once have been a dedication plaque, but it is no longer readable. Certainly a Mission Hall existed in "Summers Hill, Bath road to Goolden street" at the time of publication of Kelly's Directory of Bristol of 1902, but whether it was what was ultimately known as the Bristol Holiness Mission is unknown.

The following notice in The London Gazette of 5th August 1924 (p.5908) recorded its registration (as such) for marriages:

A Separate Building, duly certified for religious worship, named BRISTOL HOLINESS MISSION HALL, situated at Summer Hill, Totterdown, in the civil parish of Bristol, in the county borough of Bristol, in Bristol registration district, was, on the twenty-eighth July, 1924, registered for solemnizing marriages therein, pursuant to 6th and 7th Wm. IV, c.85. Dated 31st July 1924.

Although no notice of cancellation of a registration under the name "Bristol Holiness" has been found, a cancellation for the "Church of the Nazarene" in Summer Hill was published in the Gazette of 31st July 1987 (p.9798):

The Registrar General, being satisfied that CHURCH OF THE NAZARENE, Summer Hill, Totterdown, in the registration district of Bristol in the Non-Metropolitan County of Avon is no longer used as a place of worship by the congregation on whose behalf it was on 28th July 1987, registered for marriages in accordance with the Marriage Act 1836, has cancelled the registration. Dated 13th July 1987.

A notice published 10 days earlier (21st July 1987 (p.9297)), indicated the Church of the Nazarene registered a building in Broad Walk, Knowle Park on the same date, so one might assume they transferred premises. The date stated of its registration, 28th July 1987, is as printed in the original source, for a cancellation supposedly on 13th July 1987, but either the year was recorded in error, or was being applied retrospectively.

The building was indeed taken over, or became Church of the Nazarene, as it was offered for sale in November 2011 under that name - "Church of the Nazarene, Summer Hill, Totterdown, Bristol BS4 3EF". It was described as "a non-listed Church with lapsed planning permission for conversion into four flats with underground parking". Photographs available on a Property Advertisers' website in 2014 (probably long gone by now!) showed that whilst the building was derelict, some features of its previous history remained, as for instance, a legend on the rear (east) wall which read "Worship the Lord in the Beauty of Holiness" - presumably above where the altar would have been.

Note: since The Church of the Nazarene is an international evangelical denomination in the Wesleyan-Holiness tradition, the Bristol Holiness Mission may not have been "taken over", but rather, by the time of its closure, had become affiliated with the international federation. The latter explanation does seem more understandable.

Denomination

Now or formerly Christians.

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 ST6022971634. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Bristol Holiness Mission Hall (later Church of the Nazarene), Totterdown, 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 Totterdown, Bristol, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

• “An international evangelical denomination in the Wesleyan-Holiness tradition - The Church of the Nazarene (null) (verified 2018-11-17)
• 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.