Gloucestershire Places of Worship

We have 2 Images Salem Baptist Chapel, Cheltenham (1) (76k) Salem Baptist Chapel, Cheltenham (2) (74k) Above Photograph(s)
Copyright of Rosemary Lockie/John Williams
Salem Baptist Chapel, Cheltenham
Salem Baptist Chapel,
Clarence Parade,
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.

Cemeteries

We believe the Chapel did 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 1845, but we understand it was closed in 1999.

The Salem Baptist Chapels in Cheltenham were founded in 1835-6 by a group of seceders from the Bethel Chapel, described as radical antinomians in the document Cheltenham Borough Archaeological Assessments, compiled as part of the Gloucestershire Extensive Urban Survey (EUS) of 1995-8. Their first meetings were held in the Clarence Gallery on Clarence Street, until - unable to find suitable premises for a new building - the congregation purchased Barrett's Riding School in Regent Street, which was refitted as a galleried chapel.

This remained in use until 1845, when a new chapel in Clarence Parade, built between 1843-4, became ready for occupancy. This is the large "Gothic" edifice shown on our photographs, which now enjoys Listed Building status. It cost £3,400 to build, £1,000 of which was donated by Mrs Gardner, and provided seating accomodation for 2000.

It is known to have been converted by 1999 into a public house known as 'Festival and Firkin', for which see Cheltenham - Current and Former Places of Worship on Stuart Flight's "Glosgen" website. The congregation had vacated the premises some time prior to that, and in 2001, a new Salem Baptist Church was opened in St George's Road.

More recently, in 2005, the Clarence Parade premises became a pub called "The Pulpit" - there is a photograph of it as such in the Church Album of The Roughwood Homepage. The sign on the door in 2011 does, however say 'revolution', so it is not known what its present usage is, though its Listed Building status should keep it safe from further development for some years to come.

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 SO9477422439. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

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 Cheltenham, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

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 15 Nov 2018 at 08:29.

Search for other Places of Worship in Gloucestershire, or in another County in this Database

Please choose a County by selecting one of the Tabs below.
Note: you MUST choose a County - searching all four at once is not an option!

Search Tips:

You can specify either a Place, or OS Grid Reference to search for. When you specify a Place, only entries for that place will be returned, with Places of Worship listed in alphabetical order. If you specify a Grid Reference, Places of Worship in the immediate vicinity will be listed, in order of distance from the Grid Reference supplied. The default is to list 10, but you can specify How Many you want to see, up to a maximum of 100.

You can further refine your search by supplying other search terms.

Please note the above provides a search of selected fields in the Gloucestershire section of the Places of Worship Database on this site (churchdb.gukutils.org.uk) only. For other counties, or for a full search of the Database, you might like to try the site's Google Custom Search, which includes full webpage content.

Further Information

This site provides historical information about churches, other places of worship and cemeteries. It has no affiliation with the churches or congregations themselves, nor is it intended to provide a means to find places of worship in the present day.

Do not copy any part of this page or website other than for personal use or as given in our Terms and Conditions of Use.

You may wish to take a look at our About the Places of Worship Database page for an overview of the information provided, and any limitations which may be present.

This Report was created 10 Oct 2024 - 20:37:36 BST from information held in the Gloucestershire section of the Places of Worship Database. This was last updated on 13 Oct 2021 at 14:13.

URL of this page: https://churchdb.gukutils.org.uk/GLS622.php
Logo by courtesy of the Open Clip Art Library