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Copyright of Rosemary Lockie

Seventh-day Baptist Chapel,
Natton,
Ashchurch, Gloucestershire.

Cemeteries

This Chapel had 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 1620, but we understand it was closed before 1970.

The accompanying photograph shows the site of the chapel, and its burial ground in the middle distance, hidden now by trees.

A congregation was meeting here from the 18th century or earlier. Quoting from Seventh Day Baptists in Europe and America, Volume I, by Albert N. Rogers (1910), Part 2, a "Brief History of Known Churches" (pp.39-63, in which Natton is #2:

"There is evidence that there were Sabbath-keepers here as early as 1620, and this church was probably gathered not later than 1640; but a complete organization may not have been effected until about 1650. Prior to 1680, Natton seems to have been a mixed congregation consisting of both first-day and seventh-day observers."

Non-Conformist Chapels and Meeting Houses, Gloucestershire (1986) says that the congregation divided in 1871, when seceders built a new chapel at Kinsham in Worcestershire; further, that a small building which may have been the former meeting house was demolished sometime during the 1960s. This is not mentioned in the above account, which focuses mainly on the names of the chapel's Elders.

There is a separate Burial Ground, a short distance away, originally an orchard belonging to the owner of the chapel building. There are memorials dating from 1761-1947, which have been transcribed by Gloucestershire Family History Society. Both chapel and burial ground are marked on Old Maps, for instance OS 1888-1891 1:10,560, where the chapel is labelled as "Baptist Chapel (Particular)". The whole is ably described in the above Brief History of Known Churches:

"In 1718, Benjamin, youngest son of Elder John Purser, purchased a small place at Natton, and fitted up part of his house as a chapel for divine service... This building is probably the only one now standing in England which is distinctively a Seventh-day Baptist chapel. It is to all intents and purposes a part of the farmhouse which it adjoins. It is built of brick and wood, with a thatched roof... The entrance is thru the dooryard of the farmhouse. Mr. Purser walled off a portion of his orchard for a graveyard, and here sleep many of the saints, pastors and people, of those early days."

For anyone requiring further information, there are digitized copies of Seventh Day Baptists in Europe and America (Volume I) available for download in The eBook and Texts Archive.

Denomination

Now or formerly Particular Baptist.

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 SO9288532670. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Seventh-day Baptist Chapel, Ashchurch shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Ashchurch 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 Ashchurch, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

• The “Wayback Machine” Internet Archive of The eBook and Texts Archive (null) (verified 2018-11-07)

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.