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Upton Baptist Church,
47 Old Street, WR8 0HN,
Upton on Severn, Worcestershire.

Cemeteries

This Church has (or 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 1653, and we understand it is still open.

A Baptist Congregation was established in Upton about 1653, following on from the Battle of Upton in 1651. The bridge over the river had been the only crossing point of the Severn between Gloucester and Worcester, and it was being held by the Royalists, quartered at Hanley Castle; however on the 29th August 1651, Parliamentary troops stormed the bridge, to advance and fight Charles II's troops at Worcester a few days later, which was to be the decisive Battle of England's Civil War.

It was therefore unsurprising that Cromwell's supporters, many of whom were dissenters from the established church, would want to establish a place of worship at this important bridge-head. Their first meeting place is understood to be a house in Dunn Lane, but in 1734, a more permanent meeting house was built, on the site of the present church.

The present hall replaced it 2003, opening to coincide with the Church's 350th anniversary. Further details are available on the webpage "Our History" on the Upton Baptist Church website, which also mentions a more detailed history in a book by the Rev. Colin Rogers, entitled 'I will build my church', available from the Church.

I am also indebted to the History section of the Upton on Severn, Worcestershire website for details of the Battle of Upton. In addition, the site has a list of Cholera Deaths in July and August, 1832 which mentions the possibility that one or two of the burials may have taken place in the Baptist Churchyard. Therefore we can infer the Baptist Church must have had a burial ground at that time.

Denomination

Now or formerly 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 Church is located at OS grid reference SO8516140425. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Upton Baptist Church, Upton on Severn shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Upton on Severn 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 Upton on Severn, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

• You may want to visit Upton Baptist Church website for present-day information.
• All you want to know about Upton on Severn, Worcestershire (null) (verified 2018-12-06)

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.