From May 2003 to May 2019 I served as one of three local councillors (elected representatives) for the ward of Woodstock on South Gloucestershire Council. The former Wesleyan Methodist Chapel and Burial Ground between Blackhorse Road and Waters Road, Kingswood were (mostly) within the ward I represented. Due to the bizarre way in which boundaries are put on maps over the years and the way in which land is divided up, a small portion of the Burial Ground does, in fact, lie within the boundaries of Bristol City Council. At the local council elections in May 2019 (when I stood down) the ward boundaries for South Gloucestershire Council were re-drawn and the wards re-named. The site of the Chapel and most of the Burial Ground are now (from May 2019 until any future boundary review) within the ward called 'Kingswood'.

In 2005, myself and my two fellow councillors for the Woodstock ward began a campaign to encourage South Gloucestershire Council to use the various powers at its disposal to tackle the state of the burial ground. In the intervening years since its closure to new burials (ca. 1979) and changes in ownership, the burial ground had fallen into disrepair. The boundary wall along Blackhorse Road and Waters Road had fallen down in a number of places, the cemetery itself was totally overgrown with brambles and other vegetation and the site was being used for fly-tipping.

I am sorry to say that our campaign didn't really achieve it's goals, although a number of small steps forward were made. However, over the 14 or so years that we tried to get something to happen, we did amass a fair bit of information about the site. As a keen family historian myself I am well aware that this may be of interest to the families of those who are interred in the Burial Ground or who were associated with the Chapel. The purpose of this webpage and the various links from it are to enable me to share information that we gathered during our campaign. I do wish to make clear, however, that apart from look-ups in a copy of a Monumental Inscription that I have, I am unable to assist in any researches with the Chapel or Burial Ground.

This website will exist only for as long as I can continue to afford to pay for the hosting, so if there is material here you are interested in, rather than just 'bookmarking' the pages, I do suggest you print-off (or create PDFs of) anything you are interested in and/or download photos, documents etc. because I cannot promise it will be here indefinitely.

Andy Perkins, Hanham, Bristol. February 2021. Updated July 2021.

Over the years I took a fair few photographs of the site. Some of these were general shots, others were for helping when filing complaints with the Council (e.g. fallen walls). I also took many photos of gravestones in October 2017 when the developers of the Chapel were 'converting' the Burial Ground fronting the Chapel into a car parking area. All of the photos I have taken are listed below. The links will take you to full-resolution copies. I am happy for you to download copies for your own use. If you ever use them in publications or reproduce them elsewhere, I would appreciate an acknowledgment accompanying their use.

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