The Bloomsgrove Mission in Radford was founded by Castle Gate Congregational Church in 1836. It moved from Ronald Street to the corner of Norton Street and Denman Street in 1894. The Mission’s Ronald Street premises were then used by the Bloomsgrove Social Club.
At the end of 1904, 187 members transferred from Castle Gate to Bloomsgrove to form a new church, which was re-named Norton Street Congregational Church. In 1917 the church expanded by merging with the Old Radford Mission, formerly of Cobden Street, which had been under the control of Castle Gate since 1867.
Norton Street joined the United Reformed Church in 1972, but closed in November 1979 due to falling membership.
Records
Records of Norton Street Church are part of the Castle Gate Collection held at The University of Nottingham (CU/Z3). The earliest surviving records are minutes and subscriptions of the Bloomsgrove Benevolent Fund, 1856-1909. There is a series of church minutes dated 1886-1979. Records of the Sunday School include minutes of teachers’ meetings, and Superintendents’ Registers containing names of teachers and numbers of students attending each week, 1903-1979. Miscellaneous correspondence and papers relating to bazaars and special services date from 1948 to 1979. There are also papers relating to social clubs and societies based at the church.
Registers
There is one original register in the Castle Gate Collection at The University of Nottingham:
- Baptism register, 1925-1976 (CU/Z3/R/3)
Next page: Park Hill Congregational/United Reformed Church, Nottingham and its predecessor St James’s Congregational Chapel, Nottingham