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Copyright of John Williams

Worcester Street Chapel (partly Demolished),
35 Worcester Street (north west side),
Gloucester, 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 1857, but we understand it was closed after 1894.

This chapel was built for a New Connexion Methodist congregation, who had been holding services at an inn in Hare Lane. It was of brick, and designed by Jones & Son, and opened in 1857. Its location can be seen on various Old Maps, for example OS Map 1886 1:2,500, showing that there was a Sunday School attached at the rear, and that there was seating for 420.

In the early 1860s the chapel was made the head of a circuit which included Dursley and Saul and had two preachers, though by 1868 it had been "downgraded" to a mission station. In 1882, a minister who conducted a burial service in the Chapel of Gloucester (Old) Cemetery, in Tredworth Road, styled himself as Minister of "Worcester Street Chapel", but by the mid 1890s it was closed.

In 1930, it was in use as a theatre studio, and in 1981 it housed a tyre depot. At the time of writing (2011) it is in retail use, and its frontage has been rebuilt, but the nave of the chapel, with its large traceried west window can still be seen at the rear of the building, from Park Street. [Sources: the Victoria County History series: A History of the County of Gloucester, Volume 4: The City of Gloucester (1988), pp.319-334 (Protestant Nonconformity), John Williams, and a document Worcester Street Conservation Area available (in 2011) on Gloucester City Council website]

Denomination

Now or formerly Methodist New Connexion.

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 SO8337918873. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Worcester Street Chapel (partly Demolished), Gloucester shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Gloucester 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 Gloucester, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

• The Victoria County History series: A History of the County of Gloucester, Volume 4: The City of Gloucester (null) (verified 2018-11-06)
• The Local Government website of Gloucester City Council (null) (verified 2018-11-09)

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.