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Salem Baptist Chapel,
Brockhampton Village Centre,
Brockhampton, Sevenhampton, 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 1849, but we understand it was closed in 1990.

The present village of Brockhampton may owe its present-day fortunes to the purchase of land known as Ford Hey by Paul Pearte Esq. in 1639. He built Brockhampton House, surrounding it with "ornamental parkland, a very beautiful setting for a gentleman's country seat". Though a settlement at Brockhampton predated his arrival, he built "about six stone cottages for his key people... long, low, two storey buildings of one room width and an innovation for his time as staff had not been so well housed hitherto. Most villagers were still living in house of wood, wattle and daub with thatched roofs"

Prior to the early 19th century, villagers would have attended the parish church at Sevenhampton, but by the mid 19th century two distict Baptist congregations had been established. One group began meeting in each other's homes, but "were of the same belief as the members of Salem Baptist Church in Cheltenham and were visited by them from time to time". In 1849, according to the Salem Church records, "the Brethren and Sisters at Brockhampton (were) advised to form themselves into a District Church", and accordingly they built their own chapel in Brockhampton, opening, possibly the following year.

"The original chapel was a long, single storey, stone building, which had been in use for about 70 years when it was decided in 1920 to build a second storey to accomodate a Sunday-school." It remained a focus of village life well into the 20th century, finally closing in 1990. "After some debate by Salem Church as to whether it should be turned into flats for old people it was finally sold to a builder who converted it into a private house"

The other Baptist Chapel, known as "Bethel", was founded by former members of the congregation of Naunton Baptist Chapel in 1834, and is described as a separate entry in this Database. [Source: The Story of Sevenhampton by Ros Stewart (2006)]

Denomination

Now or formerly General 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 SP0363622368. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Salem Baptist Chapel, Brockhampton, Sevenhampton shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Sevenhampton 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)