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Copyright of John Williams

Ebenezer Wesleyan Chapel,
Marle Hill,
Chalford, 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 1814, but we understand it was closed in 1963.

This former Chapel enjoys Grade II Listed Building status. The summary available on the British Listed Buildings website provides the information that it is of two storeys, with a former school room at ground level and former chapel above it, being built into the ground at the rear. There is 3-light pointed arched window, and tall two-light pointed chapel windows, both with Decorated tracery, and a 2-light trefoil headed window below. It occupies a very prominent position on the hillside, and can be seen clearly from the A419 which follows a lower route along the valley. The interior was not inspected for Listed Building purposes, but it is said to retain a balcony at west end of chapel.

Old Maps show that it was a Wesleyan Methodist Chapel. The Victoria County History series: A History of the County of Gloucester, Volume 11: Bisley and Longtree Hundreds (1976), pp.36-37 (Bisley - Protestant Nonconformity) provides the information that the first Wesleyan chapel in Chalford (called Ebenezer) was built in 1814, and "in 1859 a new chapel, incorporating a schoolroom on the ground floor, was built on the steep hillside at Marle Hill in Chalford [which] went out of use in 1963".

Its position is still marked with a '+' on my Landranger Map of 1974, so maybe it remained consecrated for some years after that; however the building is now in private ownership.

Denomination

Now or formerly Wesleyan Methodist.

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 SO8958902573. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Ebenezer Wesleyan Chapel, Chalford shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Chalford 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 Chalford, 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)
• The Victoria County History series: A History of the County of Gloucester, Volume 11: Bisley and Longtree Hundreds (null) (verified 2018-11-06)

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.