A History of St Ambrose Church

St Ambrose Church began life as a mission church at a cost of £2000.  It was funded equally by the Bristol Church Extension Committee, Mr ETD Foxcroft, (Mr Foxcroft’s family owned the land: near to the church today there is a Foxcroft Road) and St John’s Vestry.  To help with the new Mission Church a Mr John Gardiner gave iron railings to enclose the site, this was to be the first of many such gifts from Mr Gardiner.

The foundation stone of the first St Ambrose Church was laid  in  June 1905.

The Original Mission Church – stained window

The Church consisted of a hall for 300 people and two classrooms.  Rev Ernest Swann became the first vicar and the first ever service was held on the 21 December 1905.  Almshouses of St John’s were moved to the same site, (St John’s House).   

The Church was an instant success and grew very quickly making quite a demand on the existing space.  Another gift from Mr John Gardiner made it possible for an extension to be built.  The foundation stone of this extra hall was laid in February 1907 and was opened by the Bishop on the 20 July 1907.

Rev Swann put in place a Building Fund Committee and had great plans to build a new bigger church.  The church that we know today was built and the foundation stone was laid on the 20 July 1912 by Mr Gardiner.  

Foundation Stone laid by Mr J Gardiner in 1912

View of the new St Ambrose Church from St George’s Park, also showing the new Bristol & Anchor Trust Almshouses

It was known as the ‘Cathedral Church of East Bristol’, because of its size.  It was designed to seat 718 people, however, at the consecration service on 13 November 1913 it held a whopping 1000 people!  Which shows at the time there was a great need for more space at Church.

An early floor plan of the new St Ambrose Church

As you can see from the picture above there is seating for a great many people – again not much else has changed although the fixed pews that go all the way to the back of the church have been removed and chairs are now used.  This is useful as they can be moved around when more space is needed.  A new ramp has also been installed as disabled access to the church.

The Church building is now too large for our needs, the church does not have nearly the same numbers attending each week that it used to,  and so there is a lot of extra space and different plans and things are being looked at to make the most of all the space for other uses in the community. 

The old church hall remains in use today as a centre for the elderly and is called ‘The Beehive Centre’.  Many services are offered to the elderly at the Centre and a service of worship takes place there on Wednesday mornings, our Brownie group also meets there once a week.  Many other outside organisations use the hall in the evenings.

Mr Gardiner bought further land next to the old church and had the first Clergy House built.

The first Vicarage, funded by Mr J Gardiner – The vicar now lives in Whitehall not too far from the Church

In order for Bristol and Anchor Almshouses to be built many years later the second Clergy house was demolished, it was very large and cold.

Bristol & Anchor Almshouses

St John’s Almshouses