St Mary the Virgin's Church (originally Trinity Chapel), Fishponds, Gloucestershire, Church History

Gloucestershire Places of Worship

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St Mary the Virgin's Church (originally Trinity Chapel), Fishponds

St Mary the Virgin's Church (originally Trinity Chapel),
Manor Road, BS16 2JB,
Fishponds, Gloucestershire.

Cemeteries

This Chapel has (or had) 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 1821, and we understand it is still open.

Kelly's Directory of 1897 describes Fishponds as an ecclesiastical parish, formed in 1869 from the parish of Stapleton, from which it is 2 miles east, and 3 north-east from Bristol, with a station on the Bristol and Birmingham section of the Midland railway.
The church of St Mary is described as "a building of stone in the Early English style, consisting of chancel and nave, and a western tower, with spire, containing one bell". There are seven stained windows. The church was restored in 1878, and then had seating for 550. The parish registers date from 1870. The living was then a vicarage in the gift of the rector of Stapleton, and had been held since 1888 by the Rev. William Samuel MacKean, of St Bees.
The return to the Religious Census of 1851 (HO 129/330/6/6/2) for "Fishponds Church" describes a building consecrated in 1821, and erected by John Kay D.D. "the then Bishop of Bristol ... because the Parish Church was too small for the increased congregation". The return was completed by William Minehouse, perpetual curate, who lived in "Hambrook Grove, near Bristol". There were, apparently, 3 services a day, with the average number of attendees in morning and afternoon of 200, and 350, but "Divine Service is performed by the Incumbent of the Parish Church in the Evening", and he had "no means of ascertaining the Number that attend".
He doesn't record a dedication, but the account of its history on St Mary's, Fishponds website says it was known as Trinity Chapel, a chapel of ease of Stapleton. The dedication to St Mary the Virgin occurred in 1869, when it became the parish church. Also mentioned are the various changes which have occurred since its foundation - in particular, the addition of the north aisle in 1902, the east end as made into a chapel dedicated to St Aidan in 1923. The original consecration was on St Aidan's Day, 31st August 1821, and "in the north aisle wall, close to this altar is a stained glass window of five lights in memory of Elizabeth with St John the Baptist, the Angel Gabriel, Our Lord, Our Lady St Mary, and St Aidan".
Together with St Aidan with St George, St John the Divine, St Michael & All Angels, All Saints, and St Ambrose with St Leonard, St Mary's belongs to the East Bristol Partnership of Anglican Churches (EBPBRISTOL) - a group of 7 parishes, covering the areas of Fishponds, Hillfields, St George, Two Mile Hill, Whitehall and Redfield in Bristol.
Note: Fishponds become part of the newly created civil parish of Bristol in 1898, and today (2014 et al) it constitutes part of Bristol City and County.

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 Chapel is located at OS grid reference ST6328275999. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

St Mary the Virgin's Church (originally Trinity Chapel), Fishponds shown on a Google Map.
Places of Worship in Fishponds 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 Fishponds, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

You may want to visit St Mary's, Fishponds website for present-day information.
Information provided on the East Bristol Partnership of Anglican Churches (EBPBRISTOL) website. (verified 2018-11-03)

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.

Information last updated on 25 Jan 2019 at 11:37.

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Further Information

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This Report was created 20 Nov 2024 - 01:35:31 GMT from information held in the Gloucestershire section of the Places of Worship Database. This was last updated on 13 Oct 2021 at 14:13.

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