The Reverend Meg Slingo is the incumbent minister for Churchill. The
Anglican and Methodist churches work together in many areas, particularly activities that involve children and initiatives in the parish schools. The schoolroom is now used as a hall and is run by a charity. The hall has a newly refitted kitchen and smaller rooms making it useful for community activities.
History
Methodists in Churchill would meet at a private home (society meetings),[1] until the autumn of 1835, when the first chapel was opened.[2][a] William Baker was a trustee of the chapel by the time the Churchill
tithe map had been constructed in 1843.[5] This chapel was demolished in 1880 so that Sidney Hill could erect a new Wesleyan church on adjacent land gifted by William Bobbett.[6][b] Sidney Hill had married his wife, Mary Ann Bobbett, at the old chapel on 15June 1864,[8] and erected the new church as a memorial to her after her early death on 7 December 1874(1874-12-07) (aged 35).[9][c] The new church was designed by Foster and Wood of Bristol in Perpendicular Gothic style, and erected by William Veals,
master builder of Bristol, at a cost of £3,300 (equivalent to £415,000 in 2023).[2] Hill would engage the same firm of architects in 1897 to design the nearby
clock tower.[10][d] The church opened on 2 May 1881 (143 years ago) (1881-05-02) with a dedication and
sacramental service commencing at 2:00pm.[12]
The schoolroom and coach house, of
Elizabethan architecture, were erected before the new church, and opened on
Whitsun, 1 June 1879 (145 years ago) (1879-06-01).[13] These buildings cost £1,300 (equivalent to £167,000 in 2023) to build and the schoolroom was later linked to the new church by a
cloister.[2] Hill also vested in trustees money to provide an income for the maintenance of the chapel and schoolroom.[6][e] In 1898, Sidney Hill funded the addition of a
porch that was designed by Foster and Wood and built by Henry Rose of Churchill.[15]
In 1906, Sidney Hill gifted land at the back of the church for a
burial ground extension. The ground was
consecrated in June of that year.[16][f] The church closed in August 1924 so that the
organ could be refurbished and four
stops added. The opportunity was also taken to provide better accommodation for the choir. Services were held in the schoolroom until the church was reopened on 27November 1924 with a service held in the afternoon.[18] On 1September 1933, the Methodist circuits of
Draycott, Cheddar,
Congresbury and Palmer's Green, were united to form one circuit, under the name of the Cheddar Valley Methodist Circuit.[19]
Design and features
Church
Porch linking the church with the schoolroom
The church consists of a
chancel,
nave chancel, and two
transepts, with a gallery at one end facing the
pulpit.[g] There is a
staircase turret with pyramidal cap to the north east for access to the gallery.[21] An organ is installed in the eastern transept. It cased with
freestone, and has an arched
pitch pine ceiling, divided into panels by
moulded ribs, bearing on attached stone shafts. At the extreme end of the chancel, immediately above the
communion table, there is memorial window by
Clayton and Bell, representing
Dorcas amidst the people that she helped, in her illness, in her death, and
resurrection.[2] Immediately beneath the memorial window, and extending the whole length of
communion platform, there is brass plate with the following inscription:[2]
This building was erected in the year of our Lord 1880, by Sidney Hill, Esq., of Langford-house, to the glory of God, and in memory of the life and labours (in this parish, and at Port Elizabeth, South Africa), of his beloved wife, Mary Ann, who was born in Bristol, March 6th, 1839, and died at Bournemouth, Dec. 7th, 1874.
In April 1894, Sidney Hill gifted four
stained glass windows to the church. The windows were made by Joseph Bell and Sons, of
College Green, Bristol, and represent:[22][h]
The
Narthex at the front of the church and the cloister from the
porte-cochère to the schoolroom
The first three subjects are installed in windows on one side of the building, and Lord blessing little children is installed in the transept. Each subject is arranged to occupy three panels formed by canopy work and casements.[i]Lord blessing little children follows the same arrangement but
angels are displayed in the stone work of the
tracery. Each of the windows has a scriptural text at the foot of the
lights.
Porch
The porch was built in Perpendicular Gothic style, with
Rowberrow stone and
Doulting freestone dressings. The side doors are made of
teak, the roof of pitch pine, with
encaustic floor tiles. The stained glass windows were made by James Bell and Son, College Green, Bristol, and represent:[15][j]
On each
sole of the church entrance is a
pedestal brought from
Bethlehem and
Jerusalem, the gift of William Sidney Adams, of South Africa, that held lamps when the porch was first opened.[k] A large number of Wesleyans from all parts of the Circuit attended the opening ceremony on 26 October 1898.[15]
Gable end of schoolroom (dated 1879) and porte-cochère to car park
Schoolroom
From January 1902, further stained glass windows were installed in the schoolroom. The first window to be installed was
Suffer little children to come unto me, displayed in three windows, and with the text displayed at the foot of the middle window. The windows were funded by Sidney Hill and designed by James Paxton Brown Young of
Horfield, Bristol.[26] Young was a former employee of Joseph Bell and Sons, and at that time, was the figure glass painting artist for the stained glass in the chapel.[27][l] Young formulated designs for a number of other windows in the school:[29]
The Reverend Meg Slingo is the incumbent minister covering Churchill. She was a former minister of Salem Methodist Church,
Cheslyn Hay,
Staffordshire,[31] before being inducted to the Somerset Mendip Methodist circuit on the 30August 2019 in a ceremony at
Wells Methodist church.[32]
Methodist Circuit Ministers covering Churchill from 1899 onwards
^Note, some sources state that the original chapel was opened in 1830 by Richard Treffry, senior.[3] Richard Treffry was president of the Wesleyan Conference in 1833.[4]
^William Bobbett was a close friend, the leader in society meetings at
Old Market Street chapel, Bristol, and the uncle of Hill's wife, Mary Ann Bobbett. Hill would later dedicate
Shipham Methodist Chapel to the memory of William Bobbett.[7]
^The cemetery to the west of the church is where the old chapel used to stand.[2]
^Foster and Wood were a busy architectural practice in Victorian Bristol and many landmark Bristol buildings were designed by them, including
Fosters Almshouse (1861),
Colston Hall (1864), the
Grand Hotel on
Broad Street (1864 to 1869),
Bristol Grammar School (1875), as well as a large number of Wesleyan chapels throughout the city.[11]
^The trustees of the Churchill Memorial Chapel and School Trust.[14]
^The Sunday school had been running since 1877 when Sidney Hill moved to the area after purchasing Langford House.[17][6]
^Joseph Bell, the maker of the original stained glass windows in the church, had died on 28 August 1895.[23]
^William Sidney Adams married Fanny Ellen Bobbett, the younger sister of Sidney Hill's wife, Mary Ann, at the Methodist church in Churchill on 6December 1898.[24] Fanny Ellen is interred in the cemetery at the front of the church, in the same grave as her uncle, William Bobbett, and next to the grave of Sidney and Mary Ann Hill.[25]
^Young was one of the best known stained glass experts in England, and was responsible for many beautiful windows in Bristol Cathedral and elsewhere.[28]
^"He returned with them to Nazareth and was obedient to them."[30]
^Amongst his works is the science fiction novel Monkeys of Hai Tu. It is set in a secret Chinese city guarded by
fascisti-like guards, and cut-off from the rest of the world, but nevertheless, possessing electric light and escalators.[43][44]
^"Deaths". Bristol Times and Mirror. 9 December 1874. p. 4.
OCLC2252826. Retrieved 7 June 2020 – via
British Newspaper Archive. December 7, at Bournemouth, aged 35, Mary Ann, wife of Sidney Hill, merchant, of London, and Port Elizabeth, South Africa, and eldest daughter of J. W. Bobbett, cornfactor, Bristol.
^
"
Sunday School Admissions" (1877). Records of the West Mendip Methodist Circuit and associated circuits and churches, Series: Churchill, ID: 40314/Ch/4/b. Bristol:
Bristol Archives. Retrieved 24 May 2021.
^"Marriages". Wells Journal. 15 December 1898. p. 5.
OCLC1065219374. Retrieved 24 June 2020 – via
British Newspaper Archive. On the 6th inst., at the Wesieyan chupel, Churchill, by the Rev. W. H. Major, William Sidney Adams, of South Africa, to Fanny Ellen, daughter of John Winter Bobbett, of Clifton.
^"Photo Gallery". www.salemmethodistchurch.co.uk. Cheslyn Hay: Salem Methodist Church. 27 April 2019.
Archived from the original on 21 August 2016. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
^Pew News. Dates for your Diary(PDF) (Report). Congresbury: Congresbury.net. 28 July 2019. p. 1.
Archived(PDF) from the original on 27 June 2020. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
^
My Methodist History (September 2016).
"Ministers entering the Ministry post 1932". www.mymethodisthistory.org.uk. Rainham: The Methodist Church.
Archived from the original on 28 June 2020. Retrieved 26 May 2021.
^
Ashplant, John (1979). Faith for life. Selected Television Talks Broadcast on Westward Television. Evesham: Arthur James.
ISBN978-0-85305-215-9.
OCLC16489830.
Hodges, Michael Alexander (1996). Churchill: A Brief History of the area of the Civil Parish (Revised 13 September 1996 ed.). Wrington: West Country Design.
OCLC31076058.
Leeming, Charles Frederick (1977). Langley, Peter (ed.). Langford and Churchill Guide. Sir John Wills. Churchill: Cliftonprint.
OCLC852053375. Leeming and his wife are interred in the cemetery extension at the back of the church.