Churches
St Philip & St James
The first church at the Frome Road location was built in 1892 as a mission church for St Luke's parish. By the 1950s, the population of Odd Down had grown to the extent that a bigger church was needed. The current church was funded by a 'war grant'. This arose because the old St James church in the centre of Bath had been destroyed during the Bath Blitz in 1942 and it was decided not to rebuild it but to use the funds put aside for this to build a new church in Odd Down instead. Hence the full name of the church is St Philip and St James.
Salvation Army
The Salvation Army's presence in Odd Down started in 1937, with the use of a tent to provide a Sunday School for local children who were unable to make the journey into Bath city centre to attend meetings. The tent was later blown away so the meetings took place in a hut. The current building in Oolite Road dates from 1938 and marks the creation of the Odd Down Corps of the Salvation Army.
Rush Hill Congregational Chapel / United Reformed Church
The origins of the United Reformed Church in Odd Down can be traced back to 1825 when some local preachers, in conjunction with the Countess of Huntingdon's chapel in the city centre, began holding services and a Sunday school in a cottage on Rush Hill. By 1831 the original premises were too small so a new site at 'the thatched cottage' on Frome Road was acquired and services were held here until 1856, when a permanent church - The Congregational Chapel - was built at the corner of Frome Road and Bloomfield Road ('Noad's Corner'). In 1870 the chapel was taken over by the Argyle Church (now the Central United Reformed Church) which acted as the parent church. In 1891, the new Rush Hill Congregational Church was formed, independent of the central church.
By 1906, various extensions and alterations had been carried out meaning that the church now had seating for up to 250 people, and in 1911 further extensions added two more large rooms and two smaller rooms. The services were well attended and 250 children were enrolled in the Sunday school.
In 1936, new Sunday school buildings were built on land on the opposite side of Frome Road, these were then extended in 1957 to provide several new rooms. In 1963, the old congregational chapel was sold and used as storage by A.G. Workman removals company. The new church then opened in the Sunday school buildings. The church became the Rush Hill United Reformed Church in 1971.
In 1972, one of the rooms was let to the local playgroup, Sunshine Pre-School, which continued to operate here until 2023. In 1991, the centenary of the Rush Hill church was held.
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Source: History of Rush Hill United Reformed Church, G. Rumble.
