Bethany Chapel (or 'Regent Chapel'), Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, Church History

Gloucestershire Places of Worship

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Above Photograph(s)
Copyright of Rosemary Lockie

Bethany Chapel (or 'Regent Chapel'), Cheltenham

Bethany Chapel (or 'Regent Chapel'),
Regent Street,
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 1840, but we understand it was closed in 1865.

According to the document Cheltenham Borough Archaeological Assessments, compiled as part of the Gloucestershire Extensive Urban Survey (EUS) of 1995-8, this chapel was built for Association Methodists about 1840, and occupied by them until a Royal Well chapel was built in 1865. It was known in 1979 as Regent Chapel, though according to the list of Cheltenham - Current and Former Places of Worship on Stuart Flight's "Glosgen" website, it has been used in recent years as an estate agent's premises. At the time of our photograph (2011) it looks like an employment agency!
The 'Bistro' on its right is called "The Slug and Lettuce". Nice...
It is described in Non-Conformist Chapels and Meeting Houses, Gloucestershire (1986) as a "plain low building with rendered west front, blank except for a rounded-arched doorway with fanlight near the south end... now used by the Brethren and renamed 'Regent Chapel'".
A search of the National Archives 'Access to Archives' site reveals the Gloucester Archives have a bundle D5678/2, for the period 1849-1865 which mentions the Wesleyan Methodist Bethany Chapel, in Regent Street, and the names of Thomas Aquila Dale of Birkenhead, The Trustees of the Bethany Chapel, and Nathaniel Smith of Cheltenham. A further bundle, D5678/3 (1854-1858) mentions 53 Regent Street, and the names of James and William Vaughan, and Nathaniel Smith all of Cheltenham, but it is not clear whether this refers to the chapel property.

Denomination

Now or formerly Wesleyan Association.

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 SO9497222401. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

Bethany Chapel (or 'Regent Chapel'), Cheltenham shown on a Google Map.
Places of Worship in Cheltenham 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 Cheltenham, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

Part of a national programme of surveys of England's historic towns and cities - Gloucestershire Extensive Urban Survey (EUS) (null) (verified 2018-11-11)
Stuart Flight's webpages of Cheltenham - Current and Former Places of Worship (null) (verified 2018-11-08)

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 11 Nov 2018 at 14:28.

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This Report was created 22 Dec 2024 - 18:15:30 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.

URL of this page: https://churchdb.gukutils.org.uk/GLS660.php

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