St Andrew's with Castle Gate United Reformed Church
St Andrew's with Castle Gate United Reformed Church is in Nottingham.
Formation
St Andrew's with Castle Gate United Reformed Church, Nottingham, was established in 1975 by the union of St Andrew's URC with Castle Gate URC, following the creation of the United Reformed Church by Act of Parliament in 1972. Prior to this date, St Andrew's had been the leading Presbyterian Church in the city and Castle Gate the leading Congregational Church.Buildings
Following Union, the membership of St Andrew's-with-Castle Gate resolved to retain the former St Andrew's premises on Goldsmith Street, where it still worships and hosts its many other activities, while the Castle Gate premises were acquired by the Congregational Federation, for use as its national headquarters. It is now known as The Castle Gate Centre.History
The Church has a long and distinguished history of Christian witness in the city and county through its different branches. The history of Castle Gate Congregational Church can be traced to the mid-seventeenth century and the period of the English Civil War. A dissenting community of Independents first set up a Church in Castle Gate in 1689, while the existing building was opened in 1864. The St Andrew's Presbyterian Church was constituted in 1866 and its present building was opened in 1870.Both Churches assisted in the foundation of daughter churches in the locality in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Castle Gate's included The Boulevard, Albion, Addison Street, Queen's Walk, Park Hill, Bloomsgrove, with missions at Thorneywood and Old Radford. Most of these have now closed or have merged again with their mother churches. St Andrew's, in its turn, established the Hyson Green Mission in 1885, where a new Church was opened in 1901, to survive until the close of WW2. In 1896, St Columba's was opened on the Mansfield Road, to re-unite with St Andrew's in 1946. The St Ann's Well Road Congregational Church, an independent foundation, united with Castle Gate Congregational Church in 1971, shortly before the majority of Congregational Churches in England and Wales united with the English Presbyterian Church to form the United Reformed Church.
In October 2022 the church members voted in favour of offering same sex marriage, and shortly thereafter published statements online confirming their commitment to LGBTQ+ inclusion.
Archives
The archives of St Andrew's with Castle Gate URC, its precursors, and a number of their daughter churches are now located at The Department of Manuscripts and Special Collections at The University of Nottingham, where it is accessible to all bona fide enquirers at the discretion of the Keeper of the Manuscripts.Ministers
The Castle Gate Congregational Church and the St Ann's Well Road Congregational ChurchThe St Andrew's Presbyterian Church and the St Columba's Presbyterian Church
'''St Andrew's-with-Castle Gate United Reformed Church'''