Westbury-on-Severn: Nonconformity

A History of the County of Gloucester: Volume 10, Westbury and Whitstone Hundreds. Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 1972.

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'Westbury-on-Severn: Nonconformity', in A History of the County of Gloucester: Volume 10, Westbury and Whitstone Hundreds, (London, 1972) pp. 101. British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/glos/vol10/p101 [accessed 24 March 2024]

NONCONFORMITY.

In 1603 there were said to be 40 recusant Puritans (including Joseph Baynham) at Westbury. (fn. 1) There was a Quaker meeting in the parish by 1670, (fn. 2) and most of the 12 nonconformists recorded in 1676 presumably belonged to it. (fn. 3) The Quakers registered a meeting-house at Elton in 1690, (fn. 4) and acquired a burial ground there in 1724. (fn. 5)

Independents and Wesleyan Methodists were among groups who registered houses in the parish between 1810 and 1829. The Independents were meeting at a house in Northwood in 1816, (fn. 6) and in 1838 they built a chapel at Adsett; it had congregations of 80-160 in 1851. (fn. 7) From the later 19th century it was called a Congregational chapel. (fn. 8) By 1889 the Congregationalists also had a small mission chapel at Lower Ley, (fn. 9) and in 1893 they built a lecture hall in Westbury village; (fn. 10) both buildings remained in use in 1939 (fn. 11) but the mission chapel was later dismantled and removed to Northwood for use as a shop, and the lecture hall was a hairdresser's shop in 1969. (fn. 12) The chapel at Adsett, a Gothic stone building, was still used each Sunday in 1969 by a small congregation with a visiting minister. (fn. 13)

The Wesleyan Methodists built a small stone chapel at Stanley in Bollow in 1822; it had congregations of 80-140 in 1851. (fn. 14) By 1969 the congregation had died out and the chapel had been incorporated in a private house. Another Wesleyan chapel built at Broadoak before 1865 (fn. 15) remained in use until c. 1950, (fn. 16) but by 1969 had been partly dismantled.

Footnotes

  • 1. B.M. Harl. MS. 594, f. 255.
  • 2. Glos. R.O., D 1340/A 1/M 1.
  • 3. Compton Census.
  • 4. Glos. R.O., Q/SO 2.
  • 5. Ibid. D 1340/B 3/T 4.
  • 6. Hockaday Abs. cccxc.
  • 7. Ibid. 1838; H.O. 129/334/2/2/2.
  • 8. Kelly's Dir. Glos. (1885), 613.
  • 9. Ibid. (1889), 933.
  • 10. Ibid. (1897), 345.
  • 11. Ibid. (1939), 368.
  • 12. Ex inf. Mr. Phelps.
  • 13. Notice at chapel; local information.
  • 14. Hockaday Abs. cccxc, 1821; H.O. 129/334/2/2/5.
  • 15. Glouc. Jnl. 4 Nov. 1865; O.S. Map 6", Glos. XXXII. SW. (1883 edn.).
  • 16. Ex inf. Mr. Jackson.