Birdwood Methodist Church, Birdwood, Churcham, Gloucestershire, Church History

Gloucestershire Places of Worship

We have 3 Images

Birdwood Methodist Church, Birdwood, Churcham (1) (79k)

Birdwood Methodist Church, Birdwood, Churcham (2) (64k)

Above Photograph(s)
Copyright of John Williams

Birdwood Methodist Church, Birdwood, Churcham

Birdwood Methodist Church,
Chapel Lane,
Birdwood, Churcham, Gloucestershire.

Cemeteries

We believe the Church 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 1800, but we understand it was closed in 2002.

This chapel was built in 1814 for the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion, and later sold for Methodist use. As a Methodist Chapel at Birdwood it is now a Grade II Listed Building - see the British Listed Buildings website for details. The Victoria County History series: A History of the County of Gloucester, Volume 10: Westbury and Whitstone Hundreds (1972), pp.28 (Churcham - Nonconformity) records that the Wesleyan Methodists registering a chapel at Birdwood in 1814.
Non-Conformist Chapels and Meeting Houses, Gloucestershire (1986) describe it as constructed of brick and tile, with a broad north front of 3 bays, and two tiers of round-arched windows. A porch was added in the 19th century on the east side, and this now appears to be the main entrance. A schoolroom built onto the south side, of a similar date to the porch, has its own entrance. The interior has (or had) an east gallery.
At the time of the Religious Census of 1851 (HO 129/334/2/4/10), when it was called "Birdwood Chapel", it was said to have been erected "before 1820" by its Minister, Richard Roberts, of 1 Worcester Street, Gloucester. It had free seating for 150 and 50 "other" sittings, and on March 30, the estimated congregation was 45 to morning service, and 76 in the afternoon, with 22 Sunday Scholars to the morning class. There was no evening service.
Our 3rd photograph shows memorial plaques which were inside the chapel. When it was closed, in 2002, they were removed, and placed on a wall inside St Andrew's Church in Churcham. The board underneath them reads:
These Plaques were moved
from Birdwood Methodist Church
on its closure in May 2002
Standing at Birchwood Crossroads
the Methodist Church was
built by the Countess of
Huntingdon in 1814
For a time, after its closure, the building was in commercial use, but today (2011) it appears to be abandoned and unused.
On the opposite (north) side of the A40, and a short distance away is Birdwood's "Tin Tabernacle", also mentioned in this Database, and also no longer in use. [Other Sources: John Williams/Rosemary Lockie]

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 Church was located at OS grid reference SO7421818697. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

Birdwood Methodist Church, Birdwood, Churcham shown on a Google Map.
Places of Worship in Churcham 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 Birdwood, Churcham, 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 10: Westbury and Whitstone 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.

Information last updated on 30 Dec 2014 at 10:40.

Search for other Places of Worship in Gloucestershire, or in another County in this Database

Please choose a County by selecting one of the Tabs below.
Note: you MUST choose a County - searching all four at once is not an option!

Derbyshire

Gloucestershire

Herefordshire

Worcestershire

Photo	Place or OS GridRef	Dedication (optional)	Street (optional)	How Many	Denomination

Search Tips:

You can specify either a Place, or OS Grid Reference to search for. When you specify a Place, only entries for that place will be returned, with Places of Worship listed in alphabetical order. If you specify a Grid Reference, Places of Worship in the immediate vicinity will be listed, in order of distance from the Grid Reference supplied. The default is to list 10, but you can specify How Many you want to see, up to a maximum of 100.

You can further refine your search by supplying other search terms.

You can specify entries with ('Yes') or without ('No') photographs.

You can specify a church or chapel's Dedication, to restrict entries to those containing the term you supply as a dedication. So for instance, 'John' would return 'St John', 'St Mary and St John', 'St John the Divine' &c.

You can specify a Street address, and likewise 'George' will return George Place, St George's Street, George and Dragon, &c.

You can restrict the search to classes of Denomination. The exact denomination is always shown in the results, although the search is for broad types. Thus you can search for 'Methodist', but not 'Wesleyan Methodist' or 'Primitive Methodist'. 'Multi-denominational' includes Ecumenical Partnerships, and 'Miscellaneous' means anything not covered by other broad classes.

Please note the above provides a search of selected fields in the Gloucestershire section of the Places of Worship Database on this site (churchdb.gukutils.org.uk) only. For other counties, or for a full search of the Database, you might like to try the site's Google Custom Search, which includes full webpage content.

Further Information

This site provides historical information about churches, other places of worship and cemeteries. It has no affiliation with the churches or congregations themselves, nor is it intended to provide a means to find places of worship in the present day.

Do not copy any part of this page or website other than for personal use or as given in our Terms and Conditions of Use.

You may wish to take a look at our About the Places of Worship Database page for an overview of the information provided, and any limitations which may be present.

This Report was created 23 Nov 2024 - 05:37:18 GMT from information held in the Gloucestershire section of the Places of Worship Database. This was last updated on 13 Oct 2021 at 14:13.

URL of this page: https://churchdb.gukutils.org.uk/GLS915.php

Logo by courtesy of the Open Clip Art Library