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St Thomas More & St John Fisher's Church,
Church End (off Common Road),
Box, Minchinhampton, 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 1936, but we understand it was closed after 1973.

A date for the foundation of Saints Thomas More and John Fisher Church of about 1930 is provided by a Wikipedia article on Box, Gloucestershire. The Victoria County History series: A History of the County of Gloucester, Volume 11: Bisley and Longtree Hundreds (1976), pp.204 (Minchinhampton - Roman Catholicism) is more specific: "a small Roman Catholic chapel, served from Woodchester, was opened at Hampton Green, near Box, in 1936, and remained in use in 1973".

The Church is still in evidence on OS Maps of 1980-1984. OS Maps of 1924 and earlier showed a Quarry in this position. Maps more recent than 1984 don't show it at all, so it is assumed to have closed after Maps of the early 1980s were prepared.

Thomas More was Lord Chancellor to King Henry VIII, and John Fisher was Bishop of Rochester. They were both executed in 1535 for their beliefs. Their canonisation occurred 400 years later, in 1935.

In 1980, More and Fisher were jointly added to the Church of England's Calendar of "Saints and Heroes of the Christian Church", to be commemorated every 6th July. This, and other fascinating information is to be found in the lengthy account of Thomas More on Wikipedia.

Denomination

Now or formerly Roman Catholic.

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 SO8618200660. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• St Thomas More & St John Fisher's Church, Box, Minchinhampton shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Minchinhampton 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 Box, Minchinhampton, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

• A link to an article from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, on Box, Gloucestershire (null) (verified 2018-11-22)
• A link to an article from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, on Thomas More (null) (verified 2018-11-22)
• 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.