PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY
Religious nonconformity (fn. 1) in Gloucester was
insignificant before the early 1640s when it was
encouraged by preachers from elsewhere. (fn. 2)
Baptist and Quaker meetings had been established
by the later 1650s when Independents formed a
church under James Forbes. (fn. 3) Nonconformist
groups met with opposition but a report in 1659 of
a plan to massacre Independents, Baptists, and
other sectaries was denounced by the mayor as a
calumny. (fn. 4) After the Restoration the tradition of
nonconformity was maintained principally by
James Forbes and his Independent church, but
smaller and less influential groups of Baptists and
Quakers continued to hold services. The nonconformist conventicles were persecuted and in
1671 Walter Clements was imprisoned at
Gloucester for giving legal advice and encouragement to Baptists and Quakers in the shire and
adjoining districts. (fn. 5) The Independents registered
several meeting places in Gloucester and Longford in 1672 and 1673, but the Baptist church was
apparently dissolved soon after 1674. In 1676,
when it was reported that conventicles in
Gloucester had greatly increased, (fn. 6) 110 protestant
nonconformists were recorded there. (fn. 7) They
presumably included Thomas Merrett, a former
curate of Churchdown who leaned towards antiTrinitarianism. (fn. 8) The Quakers had opened a new
meeting house by 1682 and the Independents
built a chapel in 1699. The chapel had become
Presbyterian by 1716 and Unitarian by the later
18th century. Although prominent families
continued to attend it, it declined in importance.
In 1735 membership of the Independent, Presbyterian, and Quaker meetings in Gloucester totalled 220. (fn. 9)
In 1708 Samuel Jones came to Gloucester and
opened a nonconformist academy. (fn. 10) It had
attained considerable repute by 1710 when
Thomas Secker, later archbishop of Canterbury,
entered it, and in 1711 it had 16 students. The
following year Jones came under pressure from
the ecclesiastical authorities, which accused him
of undermining Church and State, and he moved
the academy to Tewkesbury. (fn. 11) John Alexander,
who took over the training of ministers in
Gloucester, left the city in 1716. (fn. 12) Methodism was
introduced to Gloucester by George Whitefield in
1735 when the Independent meeting was already
a centre for evangelical revival. Whitefield
retained close links with the city, his birthplace,
and preached to large crowds there in the late
1730s and early 1740s. In 1739 he was excluded
from St. Michael's church on weekdays by opposition to his use of its pulpit during working hours
and he preached publicly in the Boothall and in a
field belonging to his brother. (fn. 13) In 1741 he preached one Sunday in St. John's church, the rector,
his opponent, having died recently. By then
Whitefield and other revivalist preachers were
holding meetings in a barn, which had been
enlarged by 1743. (fn. 14) In the late 1740s and early
1750s there were several meetings in Gloucester
of Calvinistic Methodist preachers (fn. 15) but the
Whitefieldian society there has not been traced
after 1747, when it was under the stewardship of
Gabriel Harris, an alderman. (fn. 16) Some members
may have drifted towards the Independent
chapel. The Wesleyan Methodists, who did not
attract much support until the last quarter of the
century, opened a chapel in 1787 or 1788. At the
same time the countess of Huntingdon provided a
meeting place for those who had favoured
Whitefield's brand of revivalism. At the end of the
century Gloucester had five protestant nonconformist meeting places, each belonging to a
different denomination. (fn. 17)
In the 19th century Gloucester nonconformity
expanded and diversified with the extension of the
main denominations into the burgeoning suburbs,
the opening of evangelistic missions, and the
arrival of many new groups. Between 1811 and
1851 nonconformist groups registered 46 places of
worship in Gloucester, Barton Street, Kingsholm, Longford, and Twigworth. Many were
small and short lived and the doctrines and even
the location of some have not been identified. (fn. 18) In
1851 congregations totalling c. 2,802 were
claimed for 12 dissenting meetings in the city. (fn. 19) At
a religious census of the city conducted by the
Gloucester Journal on 13 November 1881 about
half of the worshippers were at nonconformist
meeting places, which comprised 16 churches or
chapels, belonging to 11 denominations, and 11
mission rooms. In the evening 6,610 people
attended nonconformist meetings as opposed to
4,203 at Anglican and 248 at Roman Catholic
services. (fn. 20)
The main denominations, the Wesleyan Methodists and the Independents or Congregationalists, gained in strength and wealth in the
19th century, and the Baptists, who formed a
church in 1813, became an important group. The
Countess of Huntingdon's chapel closed in 1869.
New churches were formed following schisms in
the Baptist and Independent meetings, and there
was a division within the Wesleyan Methodist
Church in the late 1840s. In the later 19th and
early 20th century Wesleyan Methodism, which
prospered in the new suburbs, retained the largest
nonconformist following in Gloucester. The
smaller Methodist denominations made comparatively little impact, although Primitive Methodists built several chapels in the suburbs.
Nonconformists took the lead in opening the
Sunday schools and missions which characterized
religious work in the slums and working-class
suburbs in the 19th century. Most missions
evinced a concern for the social and moral welfare
of the poor and many, particularly those in which
Quakers were involved, were run on non-sectarian
lines. Several were directed at particular groups of
workers connected with Gloucester's commercial
growth. In the later 19th century the Congregationalists and the Wesleyan and Primitive Methodists consolidated the work of missions to the
Barton Street, Tredworth, and Bristol Road areas
by building chapels, (fn. 21) and the Countess of Huntingdon's chapel was reopened for a mission to the
St. Mary's Square area. The main chapels were
also centres from which outlying villages were
evangelized, the Independents having resumed
village preaching by the later 1790s and the
Wesleyan and Primitive Methodists and the
Baptists taking up similar work. New Connexion
Methodists and Presbyterians began the evangelizing of areas of growing population outside
Gloucester at Longlevens and Coney Hill.
From the early 20th century the older churches
declined and new groups started, including
fundamentalist and pentecostal sects. The
fortunes of the older denominations were in part
determined by the movement of people to new
residential suburbs east and south of the city and
by the growth from the 1950s of a non-Christian
population in the Barton Street area. The Baptists
opened four churches on new estates between the
late 1920s and the 1950s. The Methodist Church,
which took over nine chapels in Gloucester,
Wotton, and Hucclecote on the union of the
Wesleyan, Primitive, and United Methodists in
1932, opened one in 1934. There were then seven
Methodist chapels in the south part of the city and
five of them, including the new church, were
closed between the late 1940s and the mid 1960s.
The two Congregational chapels in Gloucester,
both of which joined the United Reformed
Church, were closed in the mid 1970s. By 1981 all
the principal chapels in the central area, save for
the former Presbyterian church which belonged
to the United Reformed Church, had been demolished, but the Methodists, who took over an
Anglican church in 1972, the Baptists, who
opened a new church in 1974, and the Quakers
continued to meet there. From the late 1950s the
new sects, some of which moved from older parts
of the city, built meeting places in the expanding
residential suburbs to the east and south, and in
some older suburbs people of West Indian origin
formed pentecostal churches, which in three cases
used former Methodist chapels.
BAPTISTS.
By 1642 two preachers from
London, invited by a nonconformist group under
the curate of Whaddon, presumably the Independent John Wells, had gained converts in
Gloucester. The converts, who were baptized,
many in the river Severn, were later described as
Baptists or Anabaptists and their meeting flourished in the mid 1640s. (fn. 22) The Gloucester Baptists
were evidently drawn from the poorer trades, and
their church was without means and on the brink
of collapse in 1674 when they made several
appeals to the Broadmead church in Bristol to
help them carry on meetings in Framilode and
Whitminster. The Gloucester church was
apparently dissolved soon afterwards, (fn. 23) and in
1735 Baptists were attending the Independent
chapel in Gloucester. (fn. 24)
In 1813 seven Baptists who had recently settled
in Gloucester formed a church worshipping in a
room in New Inn Lane. They included George
Box Drayton, a surgeon, from whom the room
was hired. The church, which opened a Sunday
school c. 1815, evangelized outlying villages and
hamlets, including Birdwood in Churcham and
Hucclecote. Thomas Flint, the minister, discouraged by the smallness of congregations, resigned
in 1817. During the next three years there was no
minister and the church experienced many difficulties, including disagreements with Drayton
over the conduct of its affairs and method of
worship. In 1819 there was a reconciliation with
Drayton and a management committee was
formed. (fn. 25) In 1820 Drayton became minister and a
chapel was built at his expense in Parker's Row
(later Brunswick Road). The chapel, which
opened in 1821, included two schoolrooms.
Under Drayton the church began a mission to the
Barton End suburb and increased its support
among the working classes, and by 1824, when he
resigned, the congregation at the chapel had risen
to over 200. The church also evangelized outlying
villages (fn. 26) and established a chapel in Little
London in Longhope. (fn. 27) The continuation of a
settled pastorate in the late 1820s was jeopardized
by lack of funds and the debt on the Parker's Row
chapel, which was mortgaged in 1827 to pay
Drayton's building costs. (fn. 28) In the early 1830s
there was considerable dissatisfaction with the
ministry of Edward Elliott, who resigned in 1835,
and in 1836 the church was re-formed with 16
members and an open communion. The
admission of Paedobaptists to the new church and
communion caused dissension and in 1839 the
church was re-formed with an adult membership
of 38, some drawn from other churches. (fn. 29)
The new church prospered and in 1847 the
chapel was rebuilt to provide more accommodation. (fn. 30) The new chapel, which opened in 1848
and was designed and built by Joseph Sims, had a
pedimented street front with round-headed windows and a schoolroom to the south. (fn. 31) In the late
1840s the average congregation was c. 450. (fn. 32) The
church grew during the ministries of William
Collings, 1856–69, and John Bloomfield, 1870–
86. (fn. 33) In 1864 classrooms were built in the chapel
and an organ loft and gallery placed over them.
The schoolroom was demolished in 1872 and the
chapel was enlarged and reoriented. The new
building, which opened in 1873 and incorporated
external features of the old, was designed by
Searle & Son of London with galleries on three
sides. (fn. 34) It had morning and evening congregations
of 375 and 531 in 1881. In 1884 the Baptists built
a schoolroom and hall next to the chapel as a
memorial to Robert Raikes. (fn. 35) J. E. Barton's ministry from 1888 occasioned dissension at the chapel
and in 1893 he withdrew with a large part of the
congregation to form a separate church. (fn. 36) By the
1960s the membership of the Brunswick Road
church had declined considerably, partly as the
result of the move of population to new suburbs. (fn. 37)
In 1972 the chapel was sold and the building of a
new church in Southgate Street was begun.
Known as Brunswick Baptist church it opened in
1974 (fn. 38) and had an average congregation of c. 135
in 1981. (fn. 39) The Brunswick Road chapel was demolished in 1972 (fn. 40) and the Raikes Memorial Hall
later, the sites of both being used for an extension
to a shop.
In 1823 the Baptist minister built a small
school-chapel in Back Barton Terrace (later
Albany Street) for a mission to Barton End. (fn. 41) The
building was for sale or lease in 1825 (fn. 42) but was
used by Baptists in 1830 (fn. 43) and was replaced by a
new room in Barton Terrace (later the north part
of Tredworth High Street) in 1840. Anglicans
then used the older room for services until St.
James's church was opened. (fn. 44) The newer mission
room, which was restored in 1878, had morning
and evening congregations of 100 and 30 in 1881. (fn. 45)
It was closed in 1903, when the Sunday school
was moved to the Hatherley Road school, and was
demolished in 1906. (fn. 46)
In the late 1860s the Parker's Row church sent
preachers to Little Witcombe, where a preaching
station was established, and Matson. A mission to
Suffolk Street in Kingsholm, which Baptists had
begun by 1870, was at first hampered by lack of a
room. (fn. 47) Three houses acquired later that year
were converted for the mission, which had morning and evening congregations of 44 and 60 in
1881. (fn. 48) The buildings were used by the Salvation
Army from 1906 and were sold in 1919. (fn. 49)
In 1879 Baptists began an undenominational
mission to the south part of the city in South End
Hall in Weston Road. (fn. 50) In 1881 it had morning
and evening congregations of 90 and 177. (fn. 51) It had
closed by 1913, (fn. 52) and in 1981 the hall, which had a
timber front, was used for commercial purposes.
By 1843 a group of Particular or Calvinistic
Baptists had withdrawn from the Parker's Row
church and had built a chapel in Worcester Street.
The chapel, which had a gallery, was acquired in
1846 by Anglicans and they altered it for use as a
school. The Particular Baptists may have moved
to a meeting place in Russell Street where Richard
Cordwell, who is said to have built a little chapel
there called Zoar, (fn. 53) registered a room in Russell
Terrace in 1847. (fn. 54) The Particular Baptists, who
had a chapel in Bell Lane by 1894 and had moved
to Berkeley Street by 1906, have not been traced
after 1923. (fn. 55)
Gloucester Baptist Free church, formed in
1893 following the schism at the Brunswick Road
church, met at the corn exchange in Southgate
Street. It had its own minister and thrived as an
open evangelical fellowship. (fn. 56) By 1901 it had
opened a mission room in Eastgate Street, (fn. 57) which
was replaced in 1911 by two dwellings, converted
as an institute, in Priory Place, Greyfriars. (fn. 58) All
services were held in the institute from 1938, and
in 1940 the congregation moved to a new church,
built with the help of the Forward Movement of
the Baptist Union, in Kendal Road in Longlevens. (fn. 59)
Trinity Baptist church in Finlay Road was
formed by the Brunswick Road church in 1929 to
serve a new housing estate in Tuffley. A timber
Sunday school built near the corner of Selwyn
Road that year was used for services and in 1930 a
timber hall was erected next to it. (fn. 60) A permanent
church had been built by 1957. (fn. 61) In 1981 it was
independent and evangelical. (fn. 62)
From 1942 Baptists led by the pastor of Trinity
church held services on an estate being built in
Lower Tuffley. In 1947 they erected an army hut
in Grange Road for worship, and in 1955 they
built a permanent church there. (fn. 63) It was remodelled in the early 1980s. In the early 1950s the
pastor of Trinity Baptist church formed a congregation on an estate being built at Matson,
where in 1956 a church was erected in Matson
Avenue. (fn. 64)
BRETHREN.
In 1848 a congregation of Brethren worshipped in the former Quaker meeting
house in Park Street (fn. 65) and in 1851 it numbered c.
45. (fn. 66) The congregation moved to a meeting place
in St. John's Lane, where premises were registered in 1854. (fn. 67) That place, known as the
Ebenezer preaching room in the late 1850s, (fn. 68) had
morning and evening congregations of 45 and 56
in 1881 (fn. 69) and ceased to be used by Brethren in the
late 1880s. (fn. 70) An unidentified group which in 1862
registered a room over a warehouse in Russell
Street (fn. 71) was presumably the Brethren congregation with a meeting house near the corner with
Clarence Street. (fn. 72) That meeting house, which had
morning and evening attendances of 65 and 57 in
1881, (fn. 73) closed in the early 20th century. (fn. 74) In the
late 1860s there was a Brethren meeting in
Whitfield Street (fn. 75) and in 1872 a group of Christian
Brethren built the Ebenezer Gospel Hall in King
Street. (fn. 76) The hall, which had morning and
evening congregations of 78 and 203 in 1881, (fn. 77) was
demolished during redevelopment of the area c.
1970 and replaced by a new hall at the corner of
Russell and Whitfield Streets registered in 1971. (fn. 78)
A group of Brethren met in a room behind a
house in Cromwell Street by 1894 (fn. 79) and until the
mid 1960s. From then the room was used by other
groups. (fn. 80) W. R. Hadwen, a doctor who came to
Gloucester in 1896 to champion the antivaccination cause, was an active member of the
Brethren. He opened a mission in the Glevum
Hall in lower Southgate Street and by 1906 he had
built Albion Hall, a brick building behind
cottages further south, to accommodate the congregation. The new hall, to which two classrooms
were added, was later known as Southgate Evangelical church and was in use in 1981. In 1896
Hadwen also organized a mission to Tredworth
where he renovated a hall in Nelson Street. (fn. 81) That
hall, which apparently had been built in 1882, (fn. 82)
was registered in 1953 (fn. 83) and called the Nelson
Street assembly in 1981. By the early 1940s there
was a Brethren meeting place in Bloomfield
Road. (fn. 84) Christian Brethren registered a meeting
room in Brunswick Square in 1956 but had ceased
holding services there by 1959. (fn. 85)
In Hucclecote a group of Christian Brethren,
which originated in a Sunday school begun in
1949, held services from 1957 in Colwell Avenue
in a former R.A.F. hut, known as Hillview
Gospel Hall by 1964. In 1969 the meeting, called
Hillview Evangelical church, built a permanent
church to replace the hut. (fn. 86) In 1954 a group of
Exclusive Brethren registered a meeting place in
Church Road in Longlevens, (fn. 87) and in the 1970s a
similar group built a meeting place in Old
Painswick Road in Saintbridge. (fn. 88)
CONGREGATIONALISTS AND INDEPENDENTS.
The Independent or Congregational
church, which was the most important dissenting
meeting in Gloucester in the later 17th century,
was led by James Forbes. Forbes came to
Gloucester in 1654 on his appointment by the
Council of State as lecturer and minister at the
cathedral. He received the stipend which had
been paid to augment the living of the minister of
St. Mary de Crypt. (fn. 89) Forbes's followers formed a
nonconformist church, which worshipped in the
great hall of Edward Fletcher's house near the
little cloister in the college precincts; by will dated
1660 Fletcher, minister of Bagendon, left the
reversion of the house in trust to Forbes and five
members of the congregation, including inhabitants of Barnwood and Saintbridge. The church,
which may have been formed by 1658 when
Forbes attended the Savoy Conference, evangelized the countryside (fn. 90) and urged Increase
Mather to come to Gloucester. (fn. 91) Mather, who
arrived late in 1659 and became minister of St.
Mary de Lode, left early in 1660 and was later
prominent in the affairs of the colony of Massachusetts. (fn. 92) After the Restoration Forbes was deprived of his lectureship and was twice imprisoned,
the second time for a year. By 1664 he had moved
to London. (fn. 93)
In 1672 Forbes returned to Gloucester (fn. 94) and
held services in Sampson Bacon's house behind
Blackfriars or Greyfriars. (fn. 95) At the same time one
of his followers, John Badger, was licensed to
hold services in a house in Longford; another,
Thomas Cole, was also named in the request for
the licence. (fn. 96) For a time Congregationalism or
Independency enjoyed some security and by February 1673 three more houses in the city, one
belonging to John Wall, the ejected minister of
Broadwas (Worcs.), had been licensed. (fn. 97) Forbes's
congregation, which included several prominent
citizens, (fn. 98) continued to worship in Bacon's house
after the renewal of official persecution, (fn. 99) and
according to one estimate in 1677 numbered over
100. (fn. 100) Services were sometimes followed by meetings in Richard Till's house. (fn. 101) In late 1680 or early
1681 the mayor imprisoned Forbes under the Five
Mile Act and the meeting place was ransacked.
On his release Forbes held services outside the
city at Elmbridge Court until the owner William
Craven, earl of Craven, intervened in 1682 to stop
them. (fn. 102)
During the reign of James II the meeting's
fortunes improved. Forbes, who had left the area,
came back to Gloucester in 1687 (fn. 103) and resumed
his work, including visits to outlying villages. (fn. 104) In
the early 1690s, when he was training students for
the ministry, he actively supported the Happy
Union of Independents and Presbyterians and
was moderator of an association of ministers in
Gloucestershire, Somerset, and Wiltshire. (fn. 105) In
1692 Forbes and Jonathan Greene, a member of
his congregation, entered into a theological debate
with the Gloucester Quakers, which was marked
by the publication of pamphlets. (fn. 106) In 1699 the
Independents built a small brick meeting house in
Barton Street near the east gate. (fn. 107) Forbes, who
had an assistant from 1706, remained the minister
until his death in 1712 but during his last years
factions emerged in the church. Under his
successor, Joseph Denham, some members,
presumably objecting to changes in church government, withdrew to form a separate church
under John Alexander. (fn. 108) They took the library
and four tankards of 1702 which Forbes had
settled on the chapel. (fn. 109) The larger part of the
congregation remained at the chapel, which was
described as Presbyterian by 1716 and later
became Unitarian. (fn. 110)
In 1716 the secessionists' church, described as
Independent, had a congregation of 250 and in
1718 Thomas Cole, a descendant of the Thomas
Cole mentioned above, became its minister. (fn. 111) In
1720 the Independents took a lease of a great hall
in Blackfriars for services. (fn. 112) In 1725, 1728, and
1730 they registered houses in Southgate Street,
the last being Cole's house outside the south gate, (fn. 113)
where later in 1730 they built a meeting house.
The site, in front of that of St. Owen's church, was
near land which had been used by dissenters as a
cemetery. (fn. 114) Under Cole the Southgate meeting
was an important centre for evangelical revival.
From the later 1720s its members registered many
houses in outlying towns and villages, especially in
the Stroud area, for worship, (fn. 115) and in 1735 the
chapel, which had a membership of 100, was
attended by Baptists. (fn. 116) In the late 1730s Cole,
whose followers registered four houses in
Gloucester between 1736 and 1742, (fn. 117) became an
important ally of the Methodist movement. (fn. 118) He
worked in close harmony with George Whitefield
and followed his example by attending private
religious meetings, holding fortnightly lectures in
remote country places, and conducting weekday
preaching tours; sometimes he preached in the
open air, as at Quarhouse in Stroud. He died in
1742, (fn. 119) and in 1768 a testimonial, which
Whitefield signed, was published as a model for
gospel ministers. (fn. 120) The Southgate chapel
remained sympathetic to the evangelical revival
after Cole's death, and in the later 1740s Howell
Harris, a leading Calvinistic Methodist and associate of Whitefield, preached in it several times. (fn. 121) In
the mid 1730s a vestry was added to the chapel to
hold Forbes's library and in the late 1750s a house
for the minister was built. (fn. 122) In 1744 a house in
Barton Street was registered for another group of
Independents. (fn. 123)
The Southgate meeting declined in the late
18th century but flourished again during the
ministry of William Bishop, 1794–1832, who
promoted philanthropic ventures in the city and
county. (fn. 124) The side galleries of the chapel were
enlarged in 1803 (fn. 125) and two schoolrooms were
added in 1820; a Sunday school had been held
from 1812. The chapel and schoolrooms were
enlarged in 1830. (fn. 126) Under Bishop the meeting
supported missions to outlying villages, where
some churches were formed, (fn. 127) and its influence
reached Newnham and Lydney. Bishop was also
active in the Forest of Dean. (fn. 128) In 1831 and 1832
Job Bown, a village preacher of the Southgate
church, registered several houses in and around
the city, (fn. 129) and by 1833 the Independents had
opened a school in the west part of the city,
presumably in the Island where they ran a mission. (fn. 130) The growth of the meeting and its involvement in missions continued under Joseph Hyatt,
minister 1833–57, and the chapel gave financial
help to many smaller churches in the county. (fn. 131) In
the late 1830s and in the 1840s the average
congregation at the chapel was 550. (fn. 132) In 1850 the
minister's house was demolished and the chapel
rebuilt on a larger scale and reoriented. The new
chapel, which opened in 1851, was faced with
stone and designed by James Medland in a 14th-century style with north and south galleries,
vestries, and a schoolroom. (fn. 133) The street front was
richly decorated. (fn. 134) In the late 18th and the early
19th century the meeting received a few gifts to
maintain the minister, including in 1770 land at
Wotton from John Beale and by 1838 £300 under
the will of John Garn (d. 1835). From 1848 the
meeting used part of the land as a cemetery. (fn. 135)
In 1862 a schism occurred within the Southgate
church, and the minister James Kernahan, who
wanted a more open communion, and some
members resigned. (fn. 136) They formed a free church,
which leaned towards first Anglicanism and then
Presbyterianism. (fn. 137) In the 1870s the Southgate
Congregational church became involved in evangelizing new working-class areas of the city and
the St. Mary's Square area. (fn. 138) In 1881 the chapel
had morning and evening congregations of 337
and 264. The schoolroom was replaced in 1889 by
a larger hall with classrooms on two floors. (fn. 139) The
church, which had financial problems from the
early 20th century, sold James Forbes's tankards
in 1923 and his library to Toronto University in
1966. In 1973 it united with the Presbyterian
church in Park Road to form the James Forbes
United Reformed church, and in 1974 regular
services at the Southgate chapel ceased. (fn. 140) The
chapel was demolished in 1981.
The Independents' mission to the Island,
which occupied a schoolroom in Levy's Yard
rebuilt c. 1844, had an average congregation of 30
at evening services in 1851. (fn. 141) The room, which
was reopened for Sunday evening services in
1898, (fn. 142) was sold in 1941. (fn. 143)
In 1877 Independents converted the St. Mary's
Square chapel, which had belonged to the
Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion, as a mission hall known as St. Mary's Hall. (fn. 144) The mission,
which was run by a committee including members
of the Southgate Congregational church, (fn. 145) had
morning and evening attendances of 84 and 220
on the day of the religious census in 1881. (fn. 146) In the
early 1890s it was led by D.S. Hollies, a Congregationalist minister, (fn. 147) and in 1905 it was taken over
by the Southgate church, which paid for alterations to the hall; (fn. 148) a gallery was replaced by a
floor with five classrooms on it. (fn. 149) Services were
held there until 1958 when the congregation
moved to a new building in St. Mary's Street.
The old hall was demolished as part of a slum
clearance programme. (fn. 150) St. Mary's Hall, which
became a separate Congregational church in 1974,
had an adult membership of 47 in 1981. (fn. 151)
Tyndale Congregational chapel originated in
1871 when the Southgate church opened a mission to lower Barton Street and acquired land at
the corner of Stratton Road for a chapel. The
mission, which William Hurd ran from a room
opposite Blenheim Road until 1873, was revived
in 1874 under John Bennetts. He held services in
a room above the co-operative society's stores in
Stratton Road. Tyndale chapel, begun later the
year and opened in 1875, was built of brick faced
with stone and was designed by James Tait of
Leicester in an early 14th-century style. The
principal benefactor was William Somerville of
Bitton. A Congregational church, which was
formed with 37 members in 1876, was
reorganized after Bennetts resigned in 1877 and
for a time attendance declined. (fn. 152) By the day of the
religious census in 1881 the morning congregation
had risen to 345. (fn. 153) At first the chapel, which had a
north gallery, was divided by a temporary wall,
the south end, including the transepts, being used
as a Sunday schoolroom. (fn. 154) The partition had been
removed by 1883 to accommodate the congregation, (fn. 155) and in 1884 new schoolrooms were opened
on the south side of the chapel. (fn. 156) In the late 19th
century the Tyndale church began missions to
Tredworth and Saintbridge and, outside
Gloucester, to Bulley (fn. 157) and to Cooper's Hill in
Brockworth. (fn. 158) Congregations at the chapel declined in the mid 20th century and by 1966 winter
services were held in a schoolroom. The room,
which was refitted as the chapel in 1970, closed in
1975 and the congregation joined the James
Forbes United Reformed church. (fn. 159) The former
Tyndale chapel and schoolrooms were demolished in 1979.
By 1883 the Tyndale church had built a mission
room in Wellesley Street in Tredworth. The
mission, which from 1887 was run on undenominational lines, had closed by 1964. (fn. 160) The building
was derelict in 1981. In 1887, following the
severing of the connexion with the Wellesley
Street mission, the Tyndale church built a mission hall in Saintbridge at the corner of Painswick
and Cemetery Roads. (fn. 161) Services were held there
until 1973, (fn. 162) and in 1980 the African Methodist
Episcopal Church reopened the hall for services. (fn. 163)
It was not in use in 1981.
COUNTESS OF HUNTINGDON'S CONNEXION.
Selina Hastings, countess of Huntingdon, acquired a large building on the south
side of St. Mary's Square, which was fitted and
registered in 1788 as a chapel for followers of
George Whitefield. (fn. 164) It was of brick and had been
erected a few years earlier as a theatre. (fn. 165) The
chapel was run by local trustees (fn. 166) and was
supplied by ministers of the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion, for whom a house was
provided at the back. (fn. 167) Robert McAll, one of the
chapel's earliest ministers, enjoyed a settled pastorate in the later 1790s (fn. 168) when he was also
working with Independents in the Forest of
Dean. (fn. 169) The St. Mary's Square chapel, which
between 1799 and 1821 was usually served by
visiting preachers, (fn. 170) was said to be frequented by a
large and respectable society in the late 1820s. (fn. 171) In
1830, after some internal divisions and at the
beginning of F. G. White's ministry, the church
was re-formed with 30 members. (fn. 172) White, who
stopped using Anglican liturgy and promoted
political and social causes, was minister until his
death in 1849. (fn. 173) In the late 1830s the chapel
supported Sunday schools in Sweetbriar Street
and Longford; (fn. 174) a Sunday school had been held at
the chapel from soon after its inception in 1810. (fn. 175)
In 1832 the chapel was repaired extensively and
the ensuing debt had not been cleared by 1841
when the schoolroom remained dilapidated. (fn. 176)
Further alterations were made in the mid or late
1840s. (fn. 177) In 1851 morning and evening congregations of 200 and 400 were claimed for the
chapel, (fn. 178) which was refitted in 1863 when more
seating for the poor was provided. The growth of
slums in the neighbourhood and competition
from more imposing chapels contributed to a
marked fall in attendance in the late 1860s and the
trustees decided to build a memorial church to
George Whitefield in Park Road. It had not been
started by 1869 when the St. Mary's Square
chapel was closed (fn. 179) and the congregation united
with the Presbyterians. (fn. 180)
Later in 1869 the chapel was renovated with the
help of the Independents as an interdenominational mission station and an evangelist was
appointed. The venture failed but in 1870 the
chapel was reopened by J. F. T. Hallowes, a
Congregationalist minister who built up a large
congregation. Attempts to continue the mission
after he left in 1876 were unsuccessful and in 1877
the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion ended
its involvement in the chapel's affairs. (fn. 181)
LATTER DAY SAINTS.
Mormon missionaries
entered Gloucestershire in 1840 and gained
converts in villages near Gloucester. Some of
them emigrated by way of the city to America in
1841. The same year a Chartist, the first Mormon
missionary to Gloucester, preached in a room in
Worcester Street and took part in a public
debate. (fn. 182) The Latter Day Saints, who from 1851
worshipped in a room in a passage off Westgate
Street formerly occupied by the mechanics' institution, (fn. 183) encountered hostility in Gloucester. In
1855 a lecture on polygamy was broken up and the
magistrates dismissed the case against the culprits
on the ground that the assembly had not been a
religious service. (fn. 184) In 1856 the Latter Day Saints
registered a building in Worcester Street and
although services had ceased there by 1866 (fn. 185) local
people attended a small Mormon conference in
the city in 1876. (fn. 186) In 1912 a group of Latter Day
Saints (Reorganized) registered a mission hall in
Stroud Road. In 1942 the same group registered a
hall behind Wellington Street and by 1965 it had
built a church in Newton Avenue at Coney Hill. (fn. 187)
In 1963 Mormons registered a house on the main
road in Barnwood. In 1970 they moved to a new
church next to the house, (fn. 188) which they demolished for a car park.
WESLEYAN METHODISTS.
John Wesley
came to Gloucester with George Whitefield in
July 1739 and preached to large crowds. (fn. 189) In
August Charles Wesley addressed a society, which
included three clergymen, and preached to large
crowds in a field belonging to Whitefield's
brother, but when he returned in 1740 he found
his reception lukewarm. (fn. 190) Wesleyan Methodism
took a long time to become established in the city
and John Wesley, who addressed a gathering
when he passed through Gloucester in 1744, did
not preach there again until 1766. (fn. 191) His followers,
who were few and poor, were without a permanent meeting place until they took over the
cordwainers' hall, in the former St. Kyneburgh's
chapel, (fn. 192) which John Brown, a local preacher, and
others registered in 1767. (fn. 193) There was local opposition to the Methodists at that time. In 1768
Wesley was confronted by a hostile mob (fn. 194) and in
1769 a preacher was flogged through the streets
for disturbing the peace of the city with his rant. (fn. 195)
From 1777 support for Methodism grew and
Wesley preached there regularly. In 1785 his large
audience in a public building included many
people 'of the better sort'. In 1786 he preached in
the chapel of St. Bartholomew's Hospital. The
Methodists had opened a subscription for building
a chapel by 1787 (fn. 196) when George Conibere
provided a site for it behind cottages in lower
Northgate Street. (fn. 197) The chapel, which had a
gallery, was open by 1788 and Wesley preached in
it several times. (fn. 198) The chapel became the head of a
circuit which covered the north part of
Gloucestershire, (fn. 199) and in 1795 a house was built
alongside it for the use of preachers. (fn. 200) The circuit,
which had two, occasionally three, ministers, (fn. 201)
was reduced by the creation in the late 18th
century and the early 19th of the Stroud,
Winchcombe (later Cheltenham), and Tewkesbury circuits. (fn. 202) Chapels and meeting places
opened in Gloucester's suburbs in the 19th
century were attached to the Gloucester circuit,
which was re-formed in 1933 to include Primitive
and United Methodist chapels. (fn. 203)
The Wesleyans began a Sunday school in the
Northgate chapel in 1814, (fn. 204) and in 1835 they
improved the seating and built a schoolroom at
the back. In 1840 the chapel was enlarged and
more accommodation provided for the poor. (fn. 205) At
that time local Methodist leaders opposed the
involvement of evangelicals, led by William
Higgs, in an interdenominational society for
young men and in the mechanics' institution, and
the replacement of Higgs as a local preacher
apparently occasioned a sharp drop in Wesleyan
membership. (fn. 206) The Wesleyan society divided
again during the reform controversy within the
Wesleyan Methodist Church in the late 1840s,
and the reformers left the chapel in 1850. (fn. 207) In
1851 morning and evening congregations of 450
and 650 were claimed for the chapel (fn. 208) and the
schism proved only a temporary setback. In 1877
the chapel and the buildings in front were pulled
down and a new chapel and schoolroom were
built. The new chapel, designed in a baroque
style, with eclectic detail, by Charles Bell, had
twin north spires flanking a semicircular portico,
above which was a rose window crowned by an
open pediment. It was completed in 1878 (fn. 209) and
the congregation numbered over 400 in 1881. (fn. 210)
Slum clearance before the Second World War
reduced congregations. (fn. 211) In 1972 the chapel was
closed and the congregation moved to the church
of St. John the Baptist, which under a sharing
agreement with Anglicans was renamed St. John
Northgate. (fn. 212) The Northgate Methodist church
had a membership of 162 in 1980 and the church
had Sunday morning and evening congregations
of 111 and 73 respectively. (fn. 213) Following its closure
the Northgate chapel was demolished (fn. 214) and a
supermarket built on the site.
In 1816 a Wesleyan minister registered two
houses in Gloucester, (fn. 215) and perhaps five or those
registered in 1821 and 1822 were for Wesleyans.
Two, including one on the quay, were in St.
Nicholas's parish (fn. 216) where there was a Wesleyan
meeting in 1825. (fn. 217)
The Wesleyans were particularly active in the
Barton Street and Tredworth areas. At Barton
End they had opened a Sunday school by 1827. It
had closed by 1829 and they began another there
in 1834; (fn. 218) a minister registered a house in Barton
Terrace (later the north part of Tredworth High
Street) in 1837. (fn. 219) In 1847 the Wesleyans built a
schoolroom in Victoria Street to serve an increasingly populous area nearer the city and to relieve
pressure on the Sunday school at the Northgate
chapel. (fn. 220) They used it for services, (fn. 221) and in 1851,
after part of the congregation had presumably
moved to the Wesleyan Reformers' chapel at
Ryecroft, (fn. 222) it had morning and evening attendances of 50 and 100. (fn. 223) By 1851 the Wesleyan Methodists were also holding services in nearby
Newtown, (fn. 224) and by 1858 they had built a chapel in
Tredworth High Street. (fn. 225) In 1863 they purchased
the Ryecroft chapel and closed those in Victoria
and High Streets. The Victoria Street chapel,
sold in 1864, was converted as two dwellings, (fn. 226) and
the High Street chapel was acquired by Anglicans
in 1866 (fn. 227) and used by nonconformist groups from
the mid 20th century.
The Wesleyans made the Ryecroft chapel the
centre of their work in Barton Street and Tredworth. It was soon too small for the congregation
and in 1870 a large brick chapel was built next to
it at the corner of Falkner Street. The new chapel,
designed by A. W. Maberly with twin towers
above the entrance and a gallery on three sides,
opened in 1871. (fn. 228) In 1876 a house in Falkner
Street was bought for its minister. (fn. 229) In 1881 the
chapel had morning and evening congregations of
356 and 312. (fn. 230) The older building, which the
Wesleyans turned into a school, was enlarged in
1898. (fn. 231) In 1955 the Ryecroft chapel was closed
and its members transferred to the former United
Methodist church in Stroud Road, which was
renamed St. Luke's Methodist church. (fn. 232) The Ryecroft school building was sold and the front part
demolished in 1957. The chapel, which was then
leased to the city education committee for use by
the technical college, (fn. 233) was used by the
Gloucestershire College of Arts and Technology
in 1981.
By 1875 the Wesleyan Methodists had moved
back into Newtown (fn. 234) where they opened a mission
room in Tredworth Road. (fn. 235) The room, which was
attended by 50 people in 1881, (fn. 236) went off the
circuit plan in 1883. (fn. 237)
A Wesleyan meeting place in Westgate Street
was recorded in 1875, (fn. 238) and a mission room in or
near Alvin Street was registered by a minister in
1887 and had closed by 1896. (fn. 239) In the 1890s the
Wesleyans ran a mission in Goddard's assembly
rooms in lower Northgate Street. (fn. 240)
The Wesleyans commenced open-air services in
Bristol Road in 1891, (fn. 241) and later that year they built
a temporary wooden mission room at the corner of
Clegram Street. In 1892 it was replaced by a brick
school-chapel, next to which an iron church was
erected in 1897; (fn. 242) the iron building had housed an
Anglican mission elsewhere in Bristol Road. (fn. 243) In
1909 the Wesleyan mission to the Bristol Road
area, which had outgrown its accommodation,
moved to new buildings, a large brick hall and
Sunday school designed by J. Fletcher Trew, at
the corner of Seymour and Frampton Roads. The
Seymour Road front of the hall was flanked by
octagonal towers, that on the south side being
carried up to a turret, and had a large semicircular
window above the entrance. (fn. 244) The hall, known
later as Wesley Hall, had 67 members in 1965 (fn. 245)
when it was closed and they were transferred to St.
Luke's Methodist church. The school was sold in
1965 and the hall to the city education committee
for a youth centre in 1966. (fn. 246)
The Methodist church in Lonsdale Road had
its origins in a free church which opened in the
expanding Wotton suburb in 1909. Its principal
benefactor was J. R. Pope, a Wesleyan, and he
acquired for it the Bristol Road mission's iron
building, which was re-erected in Lonsdale Road
as a chapel. (fn. 247) The chapel was on the Gloucester
Wesleyan Methodist circuit plan from 1913 (fn. 248) and
joined the Wesleyan Methodist Church in 1925. (fn. 249)
In 1928 a Sunday school, erected at Pope's
expense as a memorial to his wife and designed by
H. A. Dancey, opened elsewhere in Lonsdale
Road. (fn. 250) The school, built of brick with stone
dressings, was also used for services and the iron
chapel was sold to the Rechabites in 1930 and
moved to Cromwell Street. (fn. 251) With the growth of
the Lonsdale Road church in the mid 1950s a
manse and a hall were built next to the Sunday
school, which was modified to look more like a
church. (fn. 252) Membership of the church fell in the
later 1970s and was 132 in 1980 when the Sunday
morning and evening congregations were 90 and
30 respectively. (fn. 253)
In 1934 the Methodists built a small church in
Coney Hill, where Primitive Methodists had been
holding services in a hall in Newton Avenue. The
new church, in Coney Hill Road, was erected at
the expense of Elizabeth and Violet Wheeler as a
memorial to Daniel Sterry, and in 1939 a
schoolroom was added. The hall was sold in 1953
and demolished. The church closed in 1955 and
was then used by the Salvation Army, which
bought it in 1961. (fn. 254)
Wesleyan Methodism was established in the
villages and hamlets around Gloucester in the
early 19th century. (fn. 255) Longford, where William
Barber, a Wesleyan minister, ran an academy
until 1822, (fn. 256) had a Wesleyan Sunday school in
1823. (fn. 257) In 1827 a minister registered a house in
Twigworth, (fn. 258) where cottage services ceased some
years later because of opposition from landowners. (fn. 259) The meeting at 'Cheltenham Gate'
ascribed to the Wesleyan Methodists in the late
1860s (fn. 260) was presumably that at Longlevens of
New Connexion Methodists and from 1868 of
Primitive Methodists. (fn. 261)
PRIMITIVE METHODISTS.
In 1824 Primitive Methodists, described as Revivalists, held a
camp meeting in a field at Longford to pay for the
fittings in their chapel in the Dockham area. The
chapel, which occupied part of a warehouse in
Archdeacon Lane, (fn. 262) had closed by 1825. Another
short-lived chapel was opened in Clare Street in
1837 when many Primitive Methodists from the
Forest of Dean attended a gathering on Town
Ham. (fn. 263) The meeting in Park Street described in
the early 1850s as Primitive Methodist (fn. 264) was
presumably the nonsectarian group which had
morning and evening congregations of 55 and 140
in 1851. (fn. 265)
In 1855 a Primitive Methodist mission to
Gloucester was established with the help of preachers from Stroud. It covered a large area,
including until 1874 Cheltenham, and from 1875
looked after chapels at Broom's Green in Dymock
and at Lowbands in Redmarley D'Abitot
(Worcs., later Glos.). The mission, which held
open-air and cottage services in many parts of the
city and its suburbs, including Barton Street,
Kingsholm, and Bristol Road, was based on two
rooms in Ryecroft Street registered in 1856. (fn. 266) The
proximity of Wesleyan and New Connexion
Methodist chapels limited the mission's scope and
so in 1858 the Primitives built a chapel in lower
Barton Street. (fn. 267) Maintenance of the chapel laid a
heavy financial burden on the small societies
around Gloucester and in the 1860s the mission
ceased much of its work. An attempt to hold
regular services in Longford in 1862 came to
nothing. Bristol Road and Tredworth were dropped from the mission's plan in 1864 and 1865
respectively, both apparently because of a failure
to obtain rooms for services, and Union Street in
Kingsholm, where the work had been neglected,
in 1868. Cheltenham Road also went off the plan
in 1868 but later that year the mission took over a
chapel at Longlevens formerly used by New
Connexion Methodists. It was abandoned for lack
of success in 1873. (fn. 268)
In 1869 seating in the Barton Street chapel,
which had a gallery, was increased. The average
attendance at the principal services was 130.
From 1875 the chapel, to which a schoolroom had
been added, faced competition from an Anglican
church and a Congregational chapel (fn. 269) and in 1881
it had morning and evening congregations of only
26 and 70. (fn. 270) In 1882 the Primitives sold it and
moved to a new and much larger chapel on the
other side of the road. (fn. 271) The new chapel, erected
as a memorial to Robert Raikes in brick to a
design by Kerridge & Sons of Wisbech (Cambs.),
had a street front with tall, recessed round-headed
windows and galleries on three sides. The
building also contained a schoolroom and several
classrooms. (fn. 272) In 1883 Gloucester was made a
circuit with one, later two, ministers. (fn. 273) It included
the chapels at Broom's Green and Lowbands and
one in Churchdown, and in 1915 the Cheltenham
mission was amalgamated with it. (fn. 274) After the
formation of the Methodist Church the Primitives' chapels in the city were included in the new
Gloucester circuit. From the 1960s membership
of the Barton Street Methodist church, never
large, declined and was 44 in 1980 when the
chapel had Sunday morning and evening congregations of 20 and 26 respectively. (fn. 275)
The Primitive Methodist mission resumed
evangelical work to the south-east part of the city
in the mid 1870s. Cottage services were held in
Painswick Road from 1874 but a mission house
there went off the plan in 1886 following the
opening of a mission by New Connexion Methodists. (fn. 276) The Primitives began regular services in
Tredworth in 1875 and built a temporary chapel
there in 1876. It was in Melbourne Street, where
a permanent chapel was built in 1879. The chapel
presumably served Barton End, where the Primitives had discontinued Sunday services in 1877, (fn. 277)
and it had morning and evening congregations of
92 and 88 in 1881. (fn. 278) In 1895 an iron schoolroom
behind the chapel was replaced by a brick building. (fn. 279) The Melbourne Street church had 20
members in 1955 and the chapel was used for
Methodist services until 1962. (fn. 280) It had been sold to
the Church of God of Prophecy by 1966. (fn. 281) The
Tredworth Gospel Hall, which in 1881 had morning and evening congregations of 58 and 95, (fn. 282) was
possibly the mission room at Barton End ascribed
to the Primitives in 1885 and recorded until 1919. (fn. 283)
The Primitives started regular services in the
Bristol Road area in 1880. Meetings were held in
the open air or in hired rooms, (fn. 284) and in 1881 the
attendance at an evening service in a room in
Philip Street was 37. (fn. 285) In 1886 a school-chapel,
Gothic in style, was built in Bristol Road, but the
Primitives attracted little support there. (fn. 286) The
growth of the wagon works made the meeting
place undesirable and in 1901 it was replaced by a
brick and stucco chapel in Stroud Road. (fn. 287) The
new chapel, designed by H. A. Dancey with a
gallery, (fn. 288) stood opposite the junction with
Seymour Road, in which the Primitives had held
services in a reading room of the co-operative
society in the mid 1890s. (fn. 289) The Stroud Road
chapel was sold in 1947, (fn. 290) and in 1981 the New
Testament Church of God occupied it.
By 1903 Primitive Methodists were holding
services in a mission hall in Coney Hill (fn. 291) and in the
mid 1930s the Methodists built a church there. (fn. 292)
UNITED METHODISTS AND THEIR PREDECESSORS.
The expulsion of three reforming ministers from the Wesleyan Methodist
Conference in 1849 excited feelings in Gloucester
where many members of the Wesleyan society
favoured changes in Methodist organization.
They held meetings in support of reform and in
November two of the expelled ministers
addressed a large public gathering in the Baptist
chapel in Parker's Row. The reformers were
opposed by John Smedley, the superintendent
minister, and during 1850 the division within the
society widened. Several local preachers were
suspended or expelled and at the end of the year
80 Wesleyan Reformers founded a society, which
held services in the circular room in Worcester
Street and appointed seven local preachers as
ministers. In 1851 the society built Ebenezer, a
school-chapel at Ryecroft in the later Conduit
Street. (fn. 293) Later that year, when the society was
described as Christian Brethren, morning and
evening congregations of 250 and 450 were
claimed for the circular room, and Ebenezer had
afternoon and evening congregations of 33 and
50. (fn. 294) The Ryecroft chapel was replaced by a
larger building in 1852. (fn. 295) The society, which also
had members in Churchdown, Hucclecote, Hartpury, and Minsterworth, did not sustain impetus
and members joined the New Connexion Methodists, who registered a meeting place in the city
in 1856. Services at the circular room ceased in
1857. (fn. 296)
The New Connexion Methodists held services
in an inn in Hare Lane (fn. 297) until they had built a
chapel to the east in Worcester Street. (fn. 298) The
chapel, which was of brick with stone dressings
and was designed by Jones & Son, opened in
1857. (fn. 299) In 1859 the schoolroom at the back was
enlarged and in the early 1860s the chapel was
made the head of a circuit which included Dursley
and Saul and had two preachers. Despite initial
success the New Connexion was never strong in
Gloucestershire and in 1868, when the circuit
only had chapels in Worcester Street and
Churchdown, Gloucester was made a mission
station. (fn. 300) The New Connexion had sold the Ryecroft chapel, which it had taken over, (fn. 301) to the
Wesleyans in 1863, (fn. 302) and a small chapel at Longlevens, which it had registered in 1855, (fn. 303) was used
by the Primitives from 1868. A mission room in
Painswick Road, opened by the New Connexion
by 1886, (fn. 304) was evidently superseded by the mission hall built in Saintbridge by the Tyndale
Congregational church in 1887. (fn. 305) The Worcester
Street chapel, which in 1881 had morning and
evening congregations of 65 and 85, (fn. 306) closed in the
mid 1890s. (fn. 307) In 1930 the building was used as a
theatre studio (fn. 308) and a few years later the street
front was rebuilt. In 1981 it housed a tyre depot.
A group of Bible Christian Methodists,
apparently formed in 1901, held services in the
Wellington Hall in Longsmith Street until it had
built a brick chapel in Stroud Road. The chapel
with gallery and schoolroom opened in 1904 and
was designed in a 14th-century style by the Revd.
V. H. Culliford, a Bible Christian minister. (fn. 309) At
first it was called Tuffley Bible Christian chapel
but after the Bible Christians joined with other
groups to form the United Methodist Church in
1907 it was renamed Stroud Road United Methodist church. (fn. 310) After the formation of the Methodist Church it was included in the Gloucester
circuit. (fn. 311) In 1955 the members of the Ryecroft
society were transferred to the church, which was
dedicated to St. Luke. (fn. 312) With the addition of the
members of the Wesley Hall society in 1965 St.
Luke's church became the centre of Methodism in
the south part of the city and in 1967 a new wing
of ancillary buildings was opened. (fn. 313) Membership
of St. Luke's Methodist church was 144 in 1980
when the chapel had Sunday morning and
evening congregations of 94 and 41 respectively. (fn. 314)
PRESBYTERIANS.
The Barton Street chapel,
which was described as Presbyterian in 1716, later
became Unitarian. (fn. 315) The re-establishment of a
Presbyterian church in Gloucester was aided by
the secession from the Southgate Independent
chapel in 1862. (fn. 316) The minister James Kernahan
and his followers formed a free church which met
at the Theatre Royal until 1863 and then at the
corn exchange. (fn. 317) It leaned first towards Anglicanism (fn. 318) but by 1865 Kernahan, who wished to find a
home for his congregation, was encouraging the
Presbyterian Church in England to open a church
in the city. (fn. 319)
The Presbyterians set up a preaching station in
1865. Services were held in hired rooms but the
congregation dwindled. The cause was revived in
1868 by P. R. Crole, (fn. 320) who conducted services in
a hall in the co-operative society's Brunswick
Road stores, (fn. 321) and was further strengthened in
1869 when the congregation of the Countess of
Huntingdon's chapel joined the Presbyterians.
The latter took over the plan to build a memorial
church to George Whitefield in Park Road, and in
1870 the preaching station was raised in status to a
fully sanctioned charge. (fn. 322) The Whitefield
Memorial church, begun in 1870 and opened in
1872, was built of yellow and red brick and was
designed in a 14th-century style by Medland and
Son on two storeys with vestries, classrooms, and
caretaker's accommodation in the lower, and with
a tower with ashlar spire. (fn. 323) In 1881 it had morning
and evening congregations of 253 and 229. (fn. 324) An
organ loft was added to the church in the late
1880s (fn. 325) and the spire was removed in the later
1970s. (fn. 326) In 1973 the Presbyterians united with the
Congregationalists of the Southgate church to
form the James Forbes United Reformed church
and from 1974 worship centred on the Park Road
church, (fn. 327) to which the members of the Tyndale
Congregational church were transferred in 1975. (fn. 328)
There had been a union with the congregation of
the Churches of Christ, in Derby Road, by 1981
when the combined membership was 180. (fn. 329)
In 1884 the Presbyterians erected a wooden hall
at the corner of Newton and Arreton Avenues in
Coney Hill (fn. 330) and registered it as an undenominational mission. (fn. 331) The hall was used by several
groups, including Primitive Methodists, and in
the mid 20th century the site was confirmed to the
Methodists. (fn. 332)
SALVATION ARMY.
The Salvation Army
'opened fire' in Gloucester in 1879 under the
leadership of Pamela Shepherd who held meetings in the Wellington Hall. Some of its early
open-air meetings and marches were disrupted, (fn. 333)
but on the day of the 1881 census of places of
worship 246 and 1,200 people attended special
morning and evening services in the skating rink
at the former Boothall. (fn. 334) In 1888 the army built a
barracks or citadel in King's Barton Street and in
1890 it registered another in lower Westgate
Street, which became the headquarters of a
second corps. It moved from the latter in 1914 to
the mission room in Suffolk Street in Kingsholm
which it occupied until 1919; (fn. 335) the army had used
that room in 1906 and 1907. (fn. 336) The army evangelized outlying areas, including Longford where
a company was established in the 1930s, (fn. 337) and in
1955 it took over the Methodist church in Coney
Hill, (fn. 338) The citadel in King's Barton Street was
replaced in 1960 by a new building at the corner
of Barton Street and Park Road; (fn. 339) the old building
became a theatre in 1963. (fn. 340)
SOCIETY OF FRIENDS.
From the mid 1650s
Quakers held meetings in Henry Riddall's house
in Gloucester where they were occasionally
mocked and assaulted. (fn. 341) A meeting attended by
George Fox in March 1660 was peaceable, (fn. 342) but in
the early 1660s several meetings in private houses,
including one in Maisemore, were broken up and
men imprisoned for unlawful assembly and
refusal to take the oath of allegiance. (fn. 343) A Quaker
preacher was fined in 1668. In 1670 the
authorities, having failed despite the use of force
to stop Quakers from meeting at Henry Engley's
house, locked it, imprisoned a few members, and
confiscated personal property. (fn. 344) Two cottages in
Back Hare Lane (later Park Street), said to have
been acquired in 1678, had been converted as a
meeting house (fn. 345) by 1682 when during renewed
harassment it was ransacked, the fittings were
burned in the adjoining burial ground, and 25
members were imprisoned. (fn. 346) The Quakers, who
were drawn from the poorer trades, remained a
small and uninfluential group. (fn. 347) In 1735 only 20
were enumerated in Gloucester. (fn. 348)
From 1670 Gloucester was the place of the
monthly meeting for the surrounding area,
including Churchdown, Taynton, and Westburyon-Severn, and for Alvington and Aylburton. In
1755 the Gloucester and Stoke Orchard monthly
meetings were united because of their smallness. (fn. 349)
The circular yearly meeting was held in the
Boothall in 1739, 1773, 1779, and 1786. (fn. 350) By the
end of the century the number of Quakers in
Gloucester had dwindled and the meeting house,
which was repaired in 1800, was seldom used. A
regular preparative meeting was resumed in
1812, (fn. 351) and in 1834 the Quakers moved to a new
meeting house in Greyfriars and sold the Park
Street meeting house, which was of one storey
with dormer windows above a plain brick front. (fn. 352)
It was later used for meetings and for worship by
other groups, (fn. 353) and became a mission room. (fn. 354) The
Gloucester Quakers, though few in number,
included several prominent businessmen. One
was Samuel Bowly (d. 1884), a supporter of
causes such as negro emancipation, temperance,
and universal peace, who attended the meeting
from 1829. (fn. 355) Another was Jesse Sessions (d.
1894), whose family was involved in many philanthropic ventures. (fn. 356) The Greyfriars meeting
house, which was used for meetings to promote
benevolent causes, had a congregation of 36 in
1851 (fn. 357) and morning and evening attendances of 87
and 79 respectively in 1881. (fn. 358) In 1879 a lobby,
with a schoolroom over, was added to the front of
the meeting house, (fn. 359) which with its lodge
remained in use in 1981.
UNITARIANS.
In 1716 the Barton Street
chapel, formerly Independent, from which some
members had withdrawn, (fn. 360) had a congregation of
400 and was described as Presbyterian. Joseph
Denham, minister until 1722, (fn. 361) acquired the
house next to the chapel in 1715 and conveyed it
to Thomas Browne, the leading member of the
meeting and a former alderman, in 1721; it later
became the manse. (fn. 362) The chapel, which in 1735
had a membership of 100, (fn. 363) became Unitarian
under Joshua Dickinson, minister from 1751. (fn. 364)
Dickinson, who in 1772 sought to be released
from the legal obligation to subscribe to the
Thirty Nine Articles, (fn. 365) had become infirm by
1784, when an assistant was appointed, but
remained minister until his death in 1796. The
meeting continued to be supported by prominent
city families, (fn. 366) and in the late 18th century and the
early 19th it received a few legacies to maintain
the minister. (fn. 367) In 1819 the minister claimed that
the Sunday school at the chapel had been started
in the 1780s and had been supported by Robert
Raikes. (fn. 368) For two years in the mid 1820s there was
no minister and the chapel was closed for extensive repairs. (fn. 369) The street front, of ashlar and with
a pediment, probably dated from the 18th century
but its windows were altered in 1844 when the
chapel, which had a gallery on three sides, was
extensively restored; the wall in front was taken
down and the vestry, which projected south of the
line of the front, was replaced by rooms on two
floors for the school and library. (fn. 370) At a restoration
in 1867 the chapel was repewed. (fn. 371)
In 1851 morning and evening congregations of
60 and 80 were claimed for the chapel. (fn. 372) In the
later 19th century, despite a reorganization of the
meeting on free church principles in 1876, the
membership dwindled and most ministers stayed
only a few years. (fn. 373) The morning and evening
congregations in 1881 were 63 and 115 respectively. (fn. 374) The manse, which had been occupied by
tenants from 1875, was pulled down in 1893 and
two shops were built in its place to provide more
income. (fn. 375) Later that year the interior of the chapel
was altered to make it more attractive for worship;
the gallery was removed from two sides, an
extension made on the north side to take the organ
and choir, and new fittings and decorations were
provided. (fn. 376) In the early 20th century the chapel
depended on the support of the Price family of
Tibberton Court and in 1905 Margaret Price gave
it £1,000. The chapel, which from 1956 shared a
minister with the Cheltenham Unitarian church, (fn. 377)
had fallen into serious disrepair and commercial
development of the site had been approved by
1963. (fn. 378) The remains of James Forbes were
removed to the cathedral cloisters in 1966, (fn. 379) and
the chapel was closed in 1968 and demolished. In
1981 a small meeting, part of the Cotswold group
of Unitarian churches, was held twice a month in
the Friends' meeting house. (fn. 380) The site of the
Barton Street chapel was occupied by the offices
of a building society.
UNDENOMINATIONAL MISSIONS.
Colin
Campbell, who in 1831 registered a room in an
office at the canal basin for worship, proposed
building a chapel for seamen and boatmen frequenting Gloucester's docks and quay. His
scheme failed for lack of funds, but a similar idea
promoted in 1846 by men connected with the port
was supported by the established church and led
to the opening of a chapel in the docks in 1849. (fn. 381)
The chapel is dealt with above. (fn. 382) The mission,
which occasionally included services in foreign
languages, had been extended to Sharpness docks
by 1876. The chaplain opened a coffee house and
reading room in Gloucester docks in 1877, and
from 1885 until c. 1970 the mission used a hall at
the corner of lower Southgate Street and
Llanthony Road. (fn. 383)
In 1866 a mission organized in connexion with
a sailors' home in Ladybellegate Street was
opened at the city quay in an upper room registered by Bible Christians and known as the
Gospel Hall. (fn. 384) In 1874 the Southgate church
withdrew its support from the mission to concentrate its missionary work in the Island, (fn. 385) and the
room, which may have been that used by the
Anglican mariners' chaplain for a mission to
boatmen in 1876 and 1877, (fn. 386) was disused in
1895. (fn. 387)
The Norwegian Seamen's Missionary Society
established in 1865 planned occasional services in
Gloucester and from the late 1860s they were
conducted by a preacher from Bristol whenever
there were enough Norwegian seamen in port.
With the increase in trade with Norway in the mid
1870s services were held every other Sunday, and
in 1878 a small wooden church was built by
subscription next to the canal at the wagon
works. (fn. 388) It apparently closed in the late 1880s. (fn. 389)
In 1839 David Nasmith (fn. 390) founded the
Gloucester City Mission to evangelize the large
number of poor which did not attend religious
services. It was supported by the main dissenting
churches and some members of the established
church and was financed by donations. It
employed a missionary in the slums in the north
and west parts of the city to hold meetings,
circulate religious tracts, and visit dwellings. A
female missionary had been appointed by 1842.
Although its secretary Isaac Cooke registered a
house in Longford in 1840, the mission did not
have a fixed centre. It also lacked funds and has
not been traced after 1842. (fn. 391)
Part of its work was continued by the
Gloucester Female Mission, which from 1842
held a weekly meeting in the Quakers' former
meeting house in Park Street. The work of the
mission was expanded to include Sunday services
at the Park Street room, (fn. 392) which was registered in
1867 (fn. 393) and had morning and evening attendances
of 55 and 83 in 1881. (fn. 394) In 1890 Edith Sessions
bought the room to ensure that the work of the
Park Street mission continued. The room, which
was strengthened in 1894, was replaced by a
larger brick building in 1903. Two classrooms and
a caretaker's cottage were added in 1911. (fn. 395) The
mission was open in 1981.
In 1840 Charles Jones, a member of a temperance society, registered a room in Bull Lane
for worship. (fn. 396) The room was probably in the
building used by the mechanics' institution,
which was then being revived under evangelical
leadership. (fn. 397) Other buildings used for missionary
work included a working men's hall in Parliament
Street, registered between 1865 and 1876 for use
by Bible Christians, and the working men's institute in lower Southgate Street, registered in 1881
and with morning and evening attendances of 106
and 570 later that year. The last-mentioned mission ceased some time before 1925. (fn. 398)
There was a short-lived interdenominational
mission to the Dockham area where a Sunday
school was opened in 1846. It received much
support from Quakers, and the schoolroom was
also used in winter for an evening school supervised by the master of the British school, but it
has not been traced after 1847. (fn. 399)
St. Aldate's Hall in St. Aldate Square, used by
the Gloucester Sunday School Mission from 1879
or 1880, had morning and evening congregations
of 60 and 350 in 1881. (fn. 400) The hall had been
registered for the Gloucester Bible Christians
earlier that year and services had ceased there by
1896. (fn. 401)
In 1880 Quakers opened a mission in a hall in
Sherborne Street in Kingsholm (fn. 402) and in 1881 the
morning and evening congregations were 60 and
150. The mission prospered and in 1901 the
building was enlarged for the third time. (fn. 403) The
hall was sold to Christadelphians in 1959. (fn. 404)
A railway mission was established in Gloucester
in 1884. Meetings were held in the co-operative
society's hall and later in the British school, and in
1887 a hall was built in Millbrook Street near the
railway. A classroom was added in 1888. In 1891,
following a dispute over the use of the building, (fn. 405)
E. H. Spring, the superintendent, and his
supporters withdrew to join a congregation of the
Churches of Christ and the hall was closed. (fn. 406) It
was reopened after a while and in the early 1930s
was taken over by a pentecostal church. (fn. 407)
At Tuffley Alfred Brown, a Quaker, erected an
iron building next to a house on the Stroud road
in 1896 for a mission to employees of the Robins
Wood Hill brickworks. The mission, which
provided a coffee house and reading room, had
closed by 1921. The building, which was put to
other uses, was pulled down in 1980. (fn. 408) In the early
20th century there was also a mission room
further south on the Stroud road, just within the
former boundary of Tuffley, (fn. 409) and in 1906
Quakers held meetings in the Tuffley school. (fn. 410)
OTHER CHURCHES.
In 1839 the schoolroom
of James Ricketts in Oxford Street was registered
for public worship. (fn. 411) Ricketts had moved his
school by 1853 to Greyfriars, where it was called
Abbot's Hall and was similarly registered until
1876. (fn. 412)
Christadelphians were holding services in Goddard's assembly rooms in 1881 when the congregation numbered 80. (fn. 413) By 1885 they were meeting
in a hall in St. Aldate Square and by 1889 in a hall
in King Street. (fn. 414) In the early 1940s they worshipped in a room in Northgate Mansions, in lower
Northgate Street, (fn. 415) and from 1959 they used the
Sherborne Street mission hall. (fn. 416)
In 1890 an evangelist of the Disciples or
Churches of Christ began preaching in Goddard's
assembly rooms. In 1891 the congregation was
joined by E.H. Spring and his followers from the
railway mission and Spring became its pastor. At
the end of the year the Churches of Christ built a
chapel, the East End tabernacle, in Derby Road
and in 1896 added a schoolroom to it. (fn. 417) In 1981
the congregation held joint services with the
James Forbes United Reformed church. (fn. 418)
The Labour Church, which held a meeting in a
hall in Barton Street in 1904, failed to establish
itself in Gloucester. (fn. 419)
By 1920 a group belonging to the Pentecostal
Churches, later known as the Assemblies of God,
was meeting at a house in Blenheim Road. The
congregation moved several times: to a house in
lower Barton Street, registered for a full gospel
mission in 1925; to a room in India Road, registered in 1936; to the chapel in Tredworth High
Street, registered in 1957 and formerly used by
Anglicans; and in 1978 to the gymnasium of the
former army barracks on Robins Wood Hill. (fn. 420)
A gospel mission recorded in Commercial Road
in 1931 (fn. 421) may have been the pentecostal church
which in 1933 registered Victory Hall, the former
railway mission hall, in Millbrook Street. The
church joined the Elim Four Square Gospel
Alliance in 1934 and the hall, which was destroyed by a bomb in 1941, was replaced by a
larger temporary building in 1950. In 1957 the
Elim Pentecostal church took over a cinema in
Parkend Road to accommodate larger congregations. (fn. 422)
Spiritualists in Gloucester were reported in
1876 to be about to form an association (fn. 423) but no
record of any place of worship has been found
before 1939 when the Gloucester Spiritualist
church met in Russell Street. (fn. 424) By 1959 it had
moved to a small meeting place in Montpellier (fn. 425)
and in 1981 was known as the Gloucester First
Spiritualist church. In 1962 another group, the
Gloucester National Spiritualist church, registered the room in Brunswick Square formerly
used by Christian Brethren. (fn. 426)
Zion Hall of the Jehovah's Witnesses recorded
in London Road in 1939 was presumably Kingdom Hall, (fn. 427) which had closed there by 1952. In
1955 the Jehovah's Witnesses registered Kingdom
Hall in Seymour Road. (fn. 428)
Christian Science services were held in the
early 1940s in Cromwell Street in the iron chapel,
moved from Wotton where Wesleyan Methodists
had once used it. (fn. 429) In 1960 the congregation
moved to the new First Church of Christ Scientist, Gloucester, in Cheltenham Road at Longlevens. (fn. 430)
A branch of the Seventh Day Adventist Church
was using a room in the Good Templars' hall in
Park Road by 1959. (fn. 431) By 1962 it had taken over
the iron chapel in Cromwell Street vacated by the
Christian Scientists. (fn. 432) The chapel was later
replaced by a brick church. (fn. 433) In 1980 another
group of Seventh Day Adventists opened a new
church in Tredworth at the corner of Hatherley
and Tarrington Roads. (fn. 434)
The Apostolic Church registered two rooms in
Stroud Road in 1960. In 1968 the congregation
moved to the room behind Cromwell Street,
which had earlier been used by Brethren. The
New Testament Church of God, which had registered that room in 1965, moved in 1967 to a hall,
originally a Primitive Methodist chapel, in Stroud
Road. (fn. 435) In Tredworth the Church of God of
Prophecy purchased the Methodist chapel in Melbourne Street in 1965 or 1966, (fn. 436) and in 1981 the
Bethel United Church of Jesus Christ (Apostolic)
occupied the chapel in High Street, formerly used
by the Assemblies of God and built by Wesleyan
Methodists.
Two rooms of a Christian youth centre in
Denmark Road were registered in 1948. Services
had been discontinued by 1964. An unspecified
Christian group, which registered a room at Spa
Villas, Montpellier, in 1963, had disbanded by
1967. (fn. 437)