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Copyright of Alf Beard

St Paul's Church,
Church Drive,
Parkend, Gloucestershire.

Cemeteries

This Church 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 1822, and we understand it is still open.

Parkend, at the time of Kelly's Directory of 1923 was described as a hamlet in the township of West Dean, and was formed into an ecclesiastical parish in 1842 from West Dean and Newland townships, and was then known as "St Paul, Dean Forest".

St Paul's Church was built on a piece of land called "Mason's Tump", by Richard James, in 1820-22, under the direction of Henry Poole, a curate at Newland. Before he was ordained, Henry had had experience in architecture in Bristol.

At the time of the Religious Census of 1851 (HO 129/577/1/5/17), the name and description of the church was given as "Saint Paul's Church - of a New and distinct District", in the Township of West Dean. It then had 600 sittings, 500 of which were free, some of which evidently were unused as its average congregation was 300 to morning service, and 350 in the afternoon, with 150 and 135 Sunday scholars respectively. The return was completed by Henry Poole, who was by then its Minister. As will be seen elsewhere in this database, he also completed the return for St James's Church in Bream.

In 1897, according to Kelly's Directory, the church was reseated, at a cost of about £300, effectively reducing the number of sittings to 400.

Interestingly, the Google Satellite view from above shows that the churchyard has an almost circular surrounding wall, suggesting a site of antiquity, though this may have been simply to take advantage of the shape of the site.

There is a large cemetery, the entrance of which is almost exactly opposite the church.

There may be more information available by by selecting one or more of the accompanying images on the right.

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 SO6197807676. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• St Paul's Church, Parkend shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Parkend 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)