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Cirencester Baptist Church,
37a Coxwell Street, GL7 2BQ,
Cirencester, Gloucestershire.

Cemeteries

This Church 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 1651, but we understand it was closed in 2017.

Baptist worship in Cirencester can be traced back to the Civil War period - the church celebrated its 350 year anniversary 2001. Meetings were always held in Coxwell Street, however the building we see today is a replacement for the original, which dates from 1856-8.

The early Meeting House provided space for burials, and William FREEMAN, one if its early ministers was buried in the meeting yard, in 1727. His wife was buried 9 years later, also in the meeting yard. Later in the 18th century, a burial ground was opened to the west of the chapel, with Elizabeth Blackwell, recorded as dying 10th April 1754, being the first burial.

When the new Chapel was built, the old Chapel was turned into schoolrooms and the new building erected over the rear burial ground; however since 1872, when the town cemetery at Chesterton opened, Baptists have opted to be buried there or in Stratton Cemetery, and today a flowerbed marks the place where the old burial ground used to be.

The above account was first prepared in 2011. Now, in 2019, I understand that "new" is now "old", as from 8th January 2017, all Sunday gatherings and most other church activities take place in a new building on Chesterton Lane, GL7 1YE. More details are available on the Cirencester Baptist Church website.

Denomination

Now or formerly Baptist.

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 SP0215402152. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Cirencester Baptist Church, Cirencester shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Cirencester 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 Cirencester, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

• You may want to visit Cirencester Baptist Church website for present-day information.

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.