My Kingswood Ancestors

The Chapel at North Common

The Chapel. North Common, Warmley
Sue Westcott 2012
The inscription on the Chapel at North Common, Warmley
Sue Westcott 2012

I have been researching my ancestors for a couple of years. My maternal grandfather’s ancestors come from the Kingswood area of Bristol and it appears that many of them were Primitive Methodists.

Firstly my 3x Great Grandfather Arthur Bateman 1810 – 1859.

Arthur was born in Bitton on 11 February 1810. On the 5 April 1833 he married Hannah Bright. The couple lived in Kingswood where Arthur was a coalminer. Arthur died on 20 December 1859 and his obituary appears in The Primitive Methodist Magazine June 1860 Vol XVIII Third Series pg 321.

Secondly my Great Grandfather Edwin Iles 1867 – 1918.

Edwin Iles married Arthur Bateman’s granddaughter Ethel Bane. This couple also lived in Kingswood where Edwin was a boot clicker. In a letter from my grandfather, I was told that my great grandfather ‘had been accidently killed walking back from preaching at North Common Chapel’. In a recent trip to the area I found the chapel, now used as a private dwelling, in Poplar Road, Warmley. The inscription on the front of the chapel reads:

PRIMITIVE METHODIST CHAPEL. 1879.

THE FOUNDATION STONE WAS LAID JULY 21ST

BY T. CULLY. ESQR.

As this appears to confirm that Edwin was a Primitive Methodist, like his grandfather-in-law, it seems likely that generations of my ancestors from Kingswood were also Primitive Methodists.

I wonder if Edwin also had an obituary in The Primitive Methodist and whether it would tell me more about what he was like and how he died?

Sue Westcott Aug 2013

Comments about this page

  • My great-grandmother, the late Kathleen Neill (nee Iles) was Edwin and Ethel’s only daughter. She would often recount how her father was a popular preacher and died tragically in mysterious circumstances. As Sue says, he was walking back home from preaching at North Common Chapel and was later found, neck broken, after apparently falling over a stile. This happened in February 1918 and my great uncle Wilfred, who was on active duty at the Western Front, had to return to England on compassionate grounds.

    By Matthew Rogers (03/12/2017)

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