Chapter 16: ‘Upton Cheyney’ Again we have to speak regretfully of lost minute books and great gaps in the chain of evidence. There is, however, a very precious old minute book, the work of Wm. Clark, the actual founder of the Church, although services had been held off and on for a great many years in the village before Wm. Clark. Upton Cheyney is a delightfully situated village on the slopes of Lansdown Hill, a place made famous by that stern fight between the Parliamentarians and the Royalists when the latter lost their gallant leader, Sir Bevil Grenville. A monument marks the spot where this fight for Civil and Religious Liberty took place. That was some three hundred years ago. About a hundred years later, a young man named John Cennick, a schoolmaster and preacher from Kingswood, a friend and co-worker of Whitfield and Wesley, came and preached in a farm kitchen. He came again and again and his preaching created such a sensation that “many hundreds from surrounding villages came to Upton.” The squire, who lived in the Manor House, resented this crowd, and especially this unordained irregular preacher. He summoned Cennick to appear before a Court held in his Manor. He threatened dire punishment and imprisonment. But one of the magistrates, John Haynes of Wick, dared to take an opposite view and told the preacher that he would “grant him a warrant against any many that should dare to interfere with him on the King’s Highway.” Cennick came every Tuesday and Friday for many weeks. So did the mob aided and abetted by the Squire. They used every form of noise, violence and virulence they could think of. They used bells, drums, horns and warming-pans to add to the noise of their shouting. They caused children to bring baskets full of dirt to be thrown at the preacher. They threw stones and dead dogs; they used whips and sticks and beat the preacher black and blue. The Squire set his hounds on him and the group that gathered round the preacher. Their very lives were in jeopardy. At last deliverance came from a most unexpected quarter. “Two trusty fellows” were hired for the dirty work, but when they saw the merciless rage of the persecutors a sudden pity filled their hearts and instead of striking Cennick they belaboured the crowd with their staves and scattered them. Then they smashed the drum, battered the horn and the warming pan, and threw the bells right and left over the hedges. There was, later, one other disgraceful scene of persecution. It was the last kick. Then came peace and victory. The patient, courageous Evangelist had won a notable triumph over their malignant foes. The colliers of Kingswood were amazed at such abominable treatment. They urged Cennick to shake the dust of Upton Cheyney from off his feet. But he would not. Then the colliers held long and fervent prayer meetings and ordained public fasts. Prayer was answered and the people of Upton “heard the Word of the Lord gladly.” It is a thrilling story. The following fifty four years is wrapped in mystery. There is no documentary evidence whatsoever. Then, in 1794, we read of an application being made to the Bishop of Gloucester for a licence to hold Nonconformist public worship in the village. This was necessary by lawin those days. The services were to be held in the house of John Hopes-the very house in which Cennick had first preached the Gospel in Upton fifty-four years previously. The document was signed by John Hopes, Stephen Matthews, Thomas Proctor, Ann Palmer and John Ferris. Again the shroud of secrecy falls upon the story until William Clark, a small farmer, migrates from Newnham to settle in Upton in 1830. He finds that”the village had been neglected for 30 years, and the villagers immersed in great darkness.” He invited people to his house “to hear the Word of God read.” One of those who came was an aged Christian named Stephen Jones, who remembered the former days with love and gratitude. The attendance was so gratifying that William Clark applied to the Bristol Itinerant Society for preachers. Doubtless, the two sad gaps in the story of the Church are largely due to a regular supply of preachers. The request was readily granted in October of the same year, 1830. The kitchen, though large, proved too small for the congregation. After four years it was resolved to build a chapel. A piece of freehold land was secured and a building was erected at a cost of £360. It was opened on September 15th, 1834. Among the Trustees are Messrs. W.D. Wills, H.O.Wills, Frederick Wills, and J. Godwin. The next recorded date, 1849, is of great interest, for a Day-School house was erected at a cost of £117, Mr Holmes of Bristol providing £100. It was opened on June 25th, 1849, with forty children in attendance, Miss Haskins of Kingswood Hill being the teacher. Miss M.L. Haskins of the King’s Broadcast fame, is related to this family. Miss Phoebe Thomas (Mrs Parker, now of South Africa), was the late schoolmistress of this school; and a greatly-beloved teacher she was, as some of her former scholars now living (albert Hook, Albert Luker, and Frederick Williams) so amply testify. (Mrs. Parker is Mr. Latimer Thomas’s sister.) In the following year, 1850, another important step was taken, for Upton joined with Hanham in inviting a minister. By this time, Mr. Somerville of the Bitton Mills, had taken a great interest in the Church. The Rev. Thomas Page was the new minister, and he spent seven happy and successful years there and at Hanham. It was during those years that the surrounding wall , surmounted by railings, was built and Mr. Clark gave the piece of ground adjoining to be used as a graveyard. In 1864 William Clark, that devout and generous man, passed to his rest and was buried in the graveyard beside his wife. “Though dead, he yet speaketh”. In 1858 the Rev. Richard Clark became the minister of the jint-pastorate: “Mr. Clark was an ideal pastor and a sound preacher. He walked in all winds and weather and was never late.” Later there came the ministry of lay pastors. Mr. F.J. (now Sir F.J.) Bodinnar was the first; then came Mr. Sidney Foster, 1921-29. Mr. and Mrs. Foster rendered such devotion and loving service that its gracious influence will long remain. In 1931 Mr. Weeks undertook the work; he was unsparing in his labours and much appreciated. Upton, beautiful for situation, still smiles and flourishes. The church on the hilltop has true friends and stalwart supporters.