Default Image We do not have a
Photograph at present.
Image by courtesy of
openclipart.org

Old Baptist Chapel,
Hounds Road, BS37 6EE,
Chipping Sodbury, Gloucestershire.

Cemeteries

This Chapel 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 1656, but we understand it was closed in 1971.

According to a Document Avon Extensive Urban Survey, Archaeological Assessment Report - Chipping Sodbury (PTE070133.pdf), available (in 2011) on South Gloucestershire Council website, the Baptist Chapel in Hounds Lane was established in 1708, and rebuilt 1821 (though in fact, the plaque above its entrance says rebuilt 1819).

Some 80 years later, The Baptist Handbook for 1896 (available from The eBook and Texts Archive) (p.216), records its origin as early as 1656. At the time of their survey, the chapel had seating for 270; there were 61 members, 22 Sunday-school teachers, 155 scholars, and 3 local preachers; and it was served by pastor A. Lemon.

A church hall was built for the chapel in 1886 on a plot between the rear of the chapel and the High Street. "The plot ran back to abut the Baptist Chapel burial ground and is first shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1908... in 1965 it was converted to the present day church". The original chapel continued in use for some time after that, then in 1971 it was converted to a Church Centre, when its gallery was removed and a first storey floor inserted.

The burial ground, which has over 60 surviving memorials, was extended in 1860 and 1930, and has been shared between the two places of worship. Documents for the church survive for the period 1708-1990 (Gloucestershire Record Office D6717).

There is more information about the building's history on the website of today's Chipping Sodbury Baptist Church.

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 Chapel was located at OS grid reference ST7280682107. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Old Baptist Chapel, Chipping Sodbury shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Chipping Sodbury 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 Chipping Sodbury, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

• The Local Government website of South Gloucestershire Council (null) (verified 2018-11-09)
• The “Wayback Machine” Internet Archive of The eBook and Texts Archive (null) (verified 2018-11-07)
• Information provided on the Chipping Sodbury Baptist Church website. (verified 2019-01-29)

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.