Talk:Above Bar Church, Southampton

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This article feels like a confused combination of information about two churches - those now known as Avenue St Andrew's and Above Bar Church. For example, I was under the impression that Above Bar Church started in the 19th century and its building was not seriously damaged by WW2 bombing. The Above Bar Church building was knocked down and the current building built as part of the redevelopment of Above Bar in about 1980. However, I'm not enough of an expert (and don't have references available) to be able to address this. ADMcD (talk) 21:32, 27 November 2007 (UTC)

From what I can make out, the history of the two churches is heavily linked as they united at one point, and then separated again later (as described in the text). I have no personal knowledge of the history - this is only what I've gleaned from the available sources. It may be the case that Above Bar Congregational Church was not the same entity as today's Above Bar Church - but as you say, there doesn't seem to be any reputable source to verify that. I do vaguely recall a rumour that today's Above Bar was once a Baptist church, not a URC, and then left the Baptist Union to become independent - but again, I've found no sources that back this up. It's amazing how much church history doesn't get recorded! Waggers (talk) 10:22, 28 November 2007 (UTC)

I should have replied to this when I made a lot of changes a couple of years back. ADMcD was right that the article was a confused combination of information about two churches. As I hope is now clear in the text, Above Bar Church has never been associated with the old Congregational Church on Above Bar Street that, eventually, became Avenue St Andrews. There is plenty of recorded church history, but most of it tends to be in the church's own records, which is where my information comes from. Tonywatkins (Tonywatkins) 28 September 2010 —Preceding undated comment added 13:42, 28 September 2010 (UTC).