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Page 3 – The History of Rosebery Park Baptist Church and Pokesdown: From Boscombe to Freemantle to Rosebery Park, cont’d…

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The ‘Bournemouth Guardian’ newspaper reported on the opening on the new Baptist Mission Chapel at Freemantle, 14th September 1889: introduction below, or you can read the full article here.

PDF of the newspaper articles is available here. They are images, and not plain text, but they can be enlarged for easier viewing this way.

Newspaper image © The British Library Board.
All rights reserved. With thanks to The British Newspaper Archive.
Evidence of “Freemantle” on a building in Somerset Road today. 21
Photo taken 25th March 2021 for RPBC.

Rosebery Park Baptist Church, founded 1891…

In 1891 a breakaway group from the Freemantle Baptist Mission Chapel formed their own new, small, church of 24 members, initially meeting in a rented school room in what was then the nearby Stanley Road (later renamed Livingstone Road). In 1892 they purchased a building plot on the new Rosebery Park Estate, on the corner of Morley and Harcourt Roads, and built their first small chapel.22

Drawing from booklet ‘Rosebery Park Baptist Church: The First Hundred Years’ by Robert J. Jeans

Newspaper image © The British Library Board. All rights reserved. With thanks to The British Newspaper Archive.

The Rosebery Park Estate

Rosebery Park Baptist Church History Map, 1889 to 1950. On Old Ordnance Survey Map Godfrey Edition ‘Boscombe & Pokesdown 1923’.23 Click on image for a high resolution version.

1. In the 1880s ‘Freemantle’ was the name for the area between Pokesdown and Boscombe. The nucleus of the original Rosebery Park Baptist fellowship came from the Baptist Mission Chapel at Freemantle, opened in 1889, on the same site now occupied by the present Rosebery Park Baptist Church building (812-814 Christchurch Road).
2. In 1891 the new fellowship met in a rented school room in Stanley Road, which later had its name changed to Livingstone Road.
3. The chapel on the corner of Harcourt and Morley Roads, on the Rosebery Park Estate, was built in 1892. It was expanded in 1897 and 1925.23

Morley and Harcourt Road signs today, opposite the chapel. Plus signs for Granville and Rosebery Roads. Photo taken 15&16/03/2021 for RPBC.

The copy and paste citation for this page:

The History of Rosebery Park Baptist Church and Pokesdown, Page 3. Author: Michelle Fogg. Date: May 2022. Url: https://roseberypark.org/history/rosebery-park-and-pokesdown-3/

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Rosebery Park Baptist Church, 812-814 Christchurch Road, between Boscombe and Pokesdown, Bournemouth, BH7 6DF