At Brendon Hill and Gupworthy church buildings doubled as national school on weekdays.
In January 1861 a national day school was opened in the ‘Iron church’ at Brendon Hill. The school day lasted for six hours with a two hour lunch break at midday. Children were taught arithmetic, reading and writing. Writing was taught with the aid of sand trays for forming letters with a pointed stick, and for those who had learned to write, slate pencils and Treborough slates framed in timber, from which the writing could be erased with a damp cloth.
In September 1860, the Bible Christians bought from the Company for £5. a triangular plot of land 0.051 ha (0.127 acres) in area at the junction of the Bampton and Wheddon Cross roads on which a chapel was built. After the dedication of the foundation stone a tea for 70 persons was held, and a collection raised the large sum of £5, enough to pay for the land. The building, named ‘Beulah’, derived from Isaiah 62.4, which refers to the future blessed condition of Israel, was dedicated on 31 May 1861.
After the mines reopened in 1879, the building was renovated at a cost of £20, but in 1883, the chapel became derelict. It was rescued in 1907 by Revd T C Jacob, who raised money for its restoration, which was completed in 1910. The chapel is still used as a place of worship.
Although the Gupworthy Bible Christian meeting was formed in 1855, the congregation probably then met in a nearby farm barn, but at some time between 1864 and 1871 services began to be held in the chapel created by the conversion of two of the single story miners’ cottages in ‘The Square’, leased from the Company and let to the Bible Christians by James Phillips, the auctioneer and merchant of Bridgetown.
After a revival meeting in 1882 led by Henry Brewer, a local preacher, the chapel was lengthened by 3.65m (12 feet) by taking in part of a third dwelling. Gupworthy chapel continued in use until 1972 when the building reverted to the ground landlord and was demolished.
As the number of houses at Brendon Hill increased, the dormitory over Sea View stables was no longer required. The room and was rented by the Wesleyans and was opened as a chapel and Sunday school in August 1867. Known as the ‘Long Room’ the Wesleyans paid £2 a year for its use until 1879, and £1 thereafter. It lasted until the mines closed in 1883.
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