Bethesda Baptist Church, Trowbridge
Bethesda Baptist Church, Trowbridge
Bethesda Baptist Church stands on Gloucester Road, Trowbridge, Wiltshire. The present brick chapel of 1931 succeeded an 1823 meeting house in Court Street.
- Location
- Trowbridge, Wiltshire
- Country
- England
- County
- Wiltshire
- City / town
- Trowbridge
- Address
- Gloucester Road, Trowbridge, Wiltshire, BA14 0AA
- Postcode
- BA14 0AA
- Built
- 1931; congregation founded 1821
- Architect
- W. W. Snailum
- Denomination
- Baptist Church
- Style
- Inter-war brick chapel
- Materials
- Brick
- Opening hours
- We are open most Tuesdays from 2pm to 4pm for a drop in centre called the Meeting Place. Please contact us to arrange access at other times.
- Access
- Accessible toilets in church. Level access throughout
Overview
Wiltshire Community History records a congregation founded in 1821 by members who left the Back Street Baptist chapel. They met first in a Sunday-school room and then in a converted warehouse on Wicker Hill before buying a site in The Courts (later Court Street) and opening a chapel in 1823. By 1829 the congregation numbered 400. Galleries were added in 1868; a renovation of 1890 provided two galleries and 840 sittings.
The Court Street chapel was damaged in the Home Mills fire of 1930. The congregation moved to Gloucester Road, to a new brick chapel designed by W. W. Snailum, opened in 1931 with 350 sittings; a Sunday-school building followed in 1933. The Wiltshire Times records the foundation stone laid in March 1931 by the Revd Olney Davies and a building cost of £3,700. The former 1823 chapel, dated and listed Grade II in its own right, was sold to Samuel Salter and converted to mill offices; it is not the present church.