Default Image Place of Worship has been
Demolished.
Image by courtesy of
openclipart.org

St Maurice's Church (Demolished),
off A38,
Newport, Berkeley, Gloucestershire.

Cemeteries

We don't know whether 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 1883, but we understand it was closed after 1970.

In the days of stage coaches, Newport was the "half-way house" between Gloucester and Bristol, and contained several inns. It also had an Anglican Mission church, founded in the late 19th century, dedicated to St Maurice. It was adjacent to the Horse Shoe Inn, both of which are shown on Old Maps of (for instance) OS 1923-4 1:10,560. It is also mentioned - as St Maurice's Mission chapel - in Kelly's Directory account for Berkeley in 1923. Kelly records that it opened on 8th August 1883, and was "a plain structure of wood, consisting of chancel, nave, south porch, and a bell-turret in the centre of the nave containing 1 bell". It would have seated about 120 persons.

There is also a record of a chantry chapel dedicated to St Maurice founded at Newport in 1340, by Lord Berkeley, though obviously this would have been dissolved during the Reformation. Details are available in Chapter III of A Sketch of the History of Berkeley, Its Castle, Church, and the Berkeley Family transcribed by Dave Berkeley.

The Gloucestershire Archives hold a record of services at St Maurice, 1893-1970 (P42 IN 1/10-12); and the church's presence is remembered by the aptly named street on the opposite side of the road - "Church View" - however both St Maurice's Church, and the Inn now appear to have been demolished, and replaced by modern housing.

Note: this is believed to be the Mission Church recorded at Alkington in the Incorporated Church Building Society (ICBS) Archive of Church Plans Online, when in 1883, an application for a grant from the Society was made for its construction.

Denomination

Now or formerly Church of England.

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 ST6991097842. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• St Maurice's Church (Demolished), Newport, Berkeley shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Berkeley 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 Newport, Berkeley, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

• A Sketch of the History of Berkeley, Its Castle, Church, and the Berkeley Family, transcribed by Dave Berkeley (null) (verified 2018-11-24)
• Search the Incorporated Church Building Society (ICBS) Archive for Church Plans Online (null) (verified 2018-10-16)

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.