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Copyright of Rosemary Lockie

Gadfield Elm Chapel,
Mill Lane, off B4208,
Redmarley d'Abitot, Gloucestershire.

Cemeteries

We believe the Chapel does 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 1840, and we understand it is still open.

Gadfield Elm chapel was built in 1836 by the United Brethren, a group of breakaway Primitive Methodists. It was transferred by deed to the Mormon Missionary Wilford Woodruff in 1840 by John Benbow and Thomas Kington.

John Benbow was a wealthy farmer living in Castle Frome, Herefordshire. He was introduced to Woodruff by his brother William, who had become a member of the LDS Church after meeting Woodruff during his missionary campaign in The Potteries, in Staffordshire.

Thomas Kington was born in Bodenham, Herefordshire in 1794, and by 1831 had become an enthusiastic Primitive Methodist preacher. His revivalist zeal upset the more formal preachers, resulting in his expulsion from the Methodist church, and he became the leader of the United Brethren in Herefordshire.

Almost all of the United Brethren congregation were baptised into the LDS church in 1840; however the building was sold 2 years later, to help fund British LDS members' emigration to America.

After years in private ownership the building had become dilapidated, but in 1994, it was acquired by a group of LDS church members, who established themselves as the Gadfield Elm Trust, a charitable foundation. It has since been restored as nearly as possible to how it may have looked originally, and on 23rd April 2000 it was rededicated for worship by LDS apostle Jeffrey R. Holland. His great-great grandparents William Carter and Ellen Benbow had been worshippers in the chapel, more than 160 years previously.

"Today it is the oldest Mormon chapel in the world still standing and the last surviving memorial to the United Brethren" [Sources: Gadfield Elm Chapel on The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints website, Gadfield Elm Chapel on Wikipedia, and Prosperity to this Parish - A History of Redmarley d'Abitot, by Eric Warde (2007)]

Denomination

Now or formerly Latter-day Saints.

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 is located at OS grid reference SO7845031283. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Gadfield Elm Chapel, Redmarley d'Abitot shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Redmarley d'Abitot 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 Redmarley d'Abitot, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

• Website for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (null) (verified 2018-11-11)
• A link to an article from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, on Gadfield Elm Chapel on Wikipedia (null) (verified 2018-11-22)

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.