We have 4 Images Above Photograph(s)
Copyright of John Williams

Wesleyan Chapel,
Kents Green,
Taynton, 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 1865, but we understand it was closed in 1969.

This Methodist Chapel at Kents Green is mentioned by Eric Warde, in his book Prosperity to this Parish - A History of Redmarley D'Abitot (2007). It belonged to Ledbury Methodist Circuit, which included chapels in 3 counties - Birtsmorton (Worcestershire), Ledbury and Much Marcle (Herefordshire), and Cliffords Mesne, Dymock, Newent, Playley Green (Redmarley), Pool Hill (Pauntley), and Upleadon in Gloucestershire.

There were also close links with Tibberton Methodist Church. One of its members, Charles Palmer Teague (1876-1971), a "carpenter, wheelwright, farm wagon maker and builder... part time farmer, the village undertaker and a coal dealer" was a lifelong Methodist, and worked not only at Tibberton Chapel but also in Kents Green Chapel until its closure.

Though founded in 1865, the chapel is not seen on Old Maps until those of 1903 1:10,560. Its last appearance, following its closure in 1969, is on OS 1973-74 of the same scale. The site it occupies is on the opposite side of the road to Five Elms Farm, and is obscured by trees.

The Story of Kents Green Chapel, by Bill Balmforth, was published privately in 1992 - a history covering both the building of the chapel, and the people who worshipped there. The booklet records that after the chapel's closure, some of its fittings survived. Amongst these was a hymn board dedicated in 1949 to the memory of Alfred Davis (1874-1948) of Upper Welland, who had preached at the chapel shortly before his death. The hymn board is now installed in West Malvern Chapel.

A second article, illustrated in the booklet, is a framed newspaper cutting (circa 1938), which hung for many years on the chapel wall. The cutting shows a photograph of the chapel, submitted by Mr. C.P. Teague to the Methodist Recorder, captioned "The Smallest Methodist Chapel", and showing it as it was in its heyday.

The booklet ends with the following, most poignant, "Last Words":

"The wooden-walled, tin-roofed tabernacle of Kents Green was a small church, indeed a very small church and a make-do-and-mend church, but it was a real church serving the spiritual needs of the tiny, isolated community around it. Thus, this story ends, not in dwelling on the failure and closure of Kents Green Chapel, but in wonderment at the ability of a very small number of people having the faith and vigour to provide their own tiny place of worship and sustain it, through good times and bad, for over a hundred years - in fact until improvements in roads, transport and personal circumstances brought other places of worship hitherto inaccessible (i.e. beyond reasonable walking distance) within easy reach."

"It may have been the smallest chapel in England, but in terms of the service it rendered and the affections it evoked, it was by no means the least."

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 SO7387124002. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Wesleyan Chapel, Taynton shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Taynton 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 Taynton, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

• See Tibberton Methodist Church elsewhere in this database.

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.