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Copyright of Alf Beard

St Helen's Church,
Gloucester Road, BS35 3QT,
Alveston, Gloucestershire.

Cemeteries

This Church has (or 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 1885, and we understand it is still open.

Kelly's Directory of 1897 describes Alveston as a village and parish containing the hamlet of Earthcott and part of the hamlet of Rudgway [sic], and on the Gloucester and Bristol road, 2 miles south from Thornbury terminal station of a branch of the Midland railway, 7 west south west from Wickwar, and 9 north from Bristol. The old church of St Helen, is described as an ancient building of stone, in the Early English style, consisting of chancel, nave, south porch and an embattled western tower, which "is now used only for funerals".

Its replacement, the new church of St Helen, situated about a mile north, was erected in 1885, so only a decade or so before Kelly's account. It was said to have cost £3,675, and to be "a building of stone in the Decorated style, consisting of chancel, nave and an embattled tower, containing a clock and 6 bells". We are also told that the parish registers date from 1742, and the living, in 1897, was a vicarage, in the gift of the Dean and Chapter of Bristol, and had been held since 1887 by the Rev. Edward Langley M.A. of Caius College, Cambridge.

Whilst obviously, the current church is a comparative "youngster" compared with the "Old" St Helen, it is, nevertheless a Grade II Listed Building - see the British Listed Buildings website for details.

You might also like to visit the Alveston Parish website, where you will find an account of St Helen's History, and further information on its role in the present day.

There may be more information available by by selecting one or more of the accompanying images on the right.

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 is located at OS grid reference ST6335987493. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• St Helen's Church, Alveston shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Alveston 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 Alveston, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

• Learn more about Buildings of special or historical interest on the British Listed Buildings (null) (verified 2018-09-19)
• “Your online guide to events in and around Alveston, Rudgeway and Earthcott” - Alveston Parish (null) (verified 2018-11-05)

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.