We meet the man holding a light for one of the most ‘forgotten’ areas of Bristol

With his tattooed forearms, trainers and Harry Potter glasses, Gwyn Owen doesn’t look like your average Bristol vicar.

Puffing thoughtfully on a Sherlock Holmes-style pipe outside Christ the Servant church, the Reverend Canon Owen (to give him his full title) momentarily stops carving his wooden spoon - one of his many crafting hobbies - to talk to me about Stockwood.

Gwyn has been the Church of England vicar in charge of the parish of Stockwood for the past 23 years. He was also Area Dean for ten years so he has covered the whole of south Bristol during that time.

We’re sitting outside Christ the Servant on a warm August afternoon. The church on Materman Road was built in the 1960s around the same time as the houses and shops in Stockwood. Before that, the area was just fields.

“I love it here,” says Gwyn, “It’s my home and Stockwood is a fantastic place although a lot of people in Bristol still don’t know it. One of the interesting things about Stockwood is that you can’t get anywhere through it. It’s very Hotel California - ‘You can check out any time you like but you can never leave’.

“And why would you leave? You’ve got a doctors surgery, chemist, supermarket and takeaways, and there’s loads of trees and wide paths - it’s got everything you need and you don’t have to go anywhere else.”

Talk to locals in Stockwood and they’ll soon tell you about problems with anti-social behaviour - mostly drugs or kids and teenagers riding motorbikes around the area late at night - but it’s pretty much the same issues found in other areas of the city where there are a lot of low income families and a high proportion of council/social housing.

Gwyn says: “Yes, the world is becoming a more unkind and corrupt place and, yes, we are feeling the impact of that in Stockwood but we try to hold a little light.

“People often say there’s a problem with the kids in Stockwood, but there are probably 1400 kids in the area and it’s only a small handful and that’s often because they have a challenging home life. There’s plenty for kids to do here. We run youth groups at the church and there’s also a lot going on for kids at the BS14 social club around the corner.”

Christ the Servant is open every day and the hall is used two or three times a day for different activities and events.

“I think we’re a good, happy church and we’re holding our own. A good percentage of our congregation are elderly but we also get people who regularly come along so our numbers are holding up. The pandemic allowed us to refocus what a church is supposed to be so although it was a tough time it was also a huge blessing. It forced us together as a church family and we came back and found the things we value.

“The pandemic was a very real thing. It was a huge financial, spiritual and social blow for people but I think for us as a church what the pandemic taught us was that sometimes the worst things are often the best things.

“The things that hurt us the most are the things that make us grow the most and learn to love the most. The other thing the pandemic taught us was to ask the question ‘what are we here for’ and ‘what really matters’.”

The church runs a food bank every weekday from 2pm and 4pm. Unlike many food banks where people have to have a referral from a GP, social worker or other frontline professional, anybody can turn up at the Stockwood church if they’re hungry.

Gwyn says: “We’re more aware of people’s struggles and we’re trying to help them more spiritually and the food bank is a direct result of that. During the pandemic we had a box outside the church and posted on social media that people could drop off or take food and they did.

“We now run a small food bank here and anybody can turn up. The gospel imperative is to give to all who ask for it not to give to those who have the right bit of paper!

“We’ve had six people in today. We aim to give everybody a package which is a tin of meatballs, tuna or ravioli, tin of beans, tin of vegetables, rice or pasta, milk and sugar, tea, packet of dehydrated soup, packet of porridge, packet of biscuits and a toilet roll. This week has been really busy and we’re out of milk and sugar already.

“We get all sorts here. If a family come in we try and give them a bit more. A lot of the people who come here have mental health or addiction issues. There are a lot of broken people at the moment.

“What people say when they come here is that it’s the one place where people are polite to them and they can have a conversation. Sometimes they may light a candle but we don’t force religion on anybody.

“We get contributions from the congregation but I get some funds for the food bank so go to Lidl and spend £40-£70 for food for the boxes.

“Some days you might see one person, another day it might be ten. We have our regulars but the more we get to know them, the more we form a relationship with them and we hope they get the feeling of a bit of love.

“That bag of food might cost us £7 but it means a lot more for people who have very little, have had their benefits sanctioned or have their kids or grandkids coming to stay and they haven’t got enough food.

“We had a guy who came in the other day and he asked for an extra packet of biscuits because his grandkids were coming to stay. This is a man trying to look after his family.

“I’m not anti people enjoying life but when there are more and more people flying off on holiday from Bristol airport a few miles from here, there are also people making really tough decisions as to whether they can give their grandkids some biscuits.”

The vicar of Stockwood adds that the problems and challenges people face south of the river are the same wherever you live in the city, regardless of wealth.

“I have friends working in Clifton and Hartcliffe and, at the risk of sounding all hellfire and brimstone, sin is sin and it’s everywhere.

“The people in Clifton aren’t any better off spiritually than the people in Hartcliffe or Stockwood. The challenges of being a human soul are as real anywhere, regardless of how much money you’ve got or not!”