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St Martin's Church,
Wells Road / St Martin's Road, BS4 2ND,
Knowle, 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 1901, and we understand it is still open.

St Martin's Church stands at the north-east corner of the junction of Wells Road with St Martin's Road, a short distance south of the Broadwalk Shopping Centre. It is an attractive building, with a "country" air to it, and indeed at the time it was built, Knowle was still very much a village, with working farms, and even a thatched roof or two. Phil Draper's ChurchCrawler website provides the information that St Martin's was built between 1901 and 1908, and was designed by W.V. Gough.

It is not readily visible from the road, as it is surrounded by trees, but from above it can be seen to have chancel, nave, north and south aisles (of differing widths), transepts, and a western porch. In addition, shadows cast on the roof show there are two small turrets on either side of the nave, at the west end of the Church. John Latimer, in The Annals of Bristol in the Nineteenth Century (concluded, 1902) mentions it as one of three new churches planned in 1900 - the other two being St Aldhelm's, Bedminster, and St Aidan's, Crews Hole. He adds that a portion of St Martin's was consecrated on April 23rd, 1901. Evidently, this was the chancel, which can be seen on Old Maps of the 1900s. Also shown are 2 small buildings in the grounds at the front, joined at right angles, and labelled as a Sunday School. Maps of 1916 show these were retained, and incorporated into the body of the Church, which was shorter than it is today.

There is an old postcard in Paul Townsend's Photographic Archive of Knowle capturing it at this early stage of its history, showing - in addition to the above description - that there is a bell turret at the east end of the nave (above the crossing).

By Maps of 1947, the nave had been extended, to leave only one of the former Sunday School buildings, labelled as a "Hall" - this was in addition to the Parish Hall, at the rear, built by 1916. The latter still remains, as "St Martin's Community Hall", but the former has now been demolished.

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 ST6086870502. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

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

• The Church officiando's “Bible” - Phil Draper's ChurchCrawler (null) (verified 2018-10-16)
• What can I say? Paul Townsend's collection of photographs, old and new, of Bristol is spectacular, focussing on his Photographic Archive of Knowle (null) (verified 2018-11-13)

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.