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Thank you Tim A couple of the photographs do mention the Western Daily News. The key is the photographers name is credited to “Garratt” – this may be John William Garratt (also spelt Garrett), who was a photographer in Bristol, operating between 1905 and 1947. it is likely he did work for the paper and was a Methodist because I have a number of postcards credited to him. I hope this helps
My family’s church on my father’s side of the family.
Hall’s Circuits and Ministers: 1913 to 1923 lists six ministers in the Mid-Gloucestershire Mission in 1922. As those in the photograph are the younger ones, they are probably H. Gordon Sellers, O.B.E. , Walter A. Headey, H. Patterson Browell, B.A. and Peter Woods.
The two senior ministers were Alfred E. Watt, C.B.E, D.S.O. and Charles A. Harries
You might be able to find more information in the various lists of ministers on this site.
Thank you very much to Mark Temple of Woodhouse Eaves Methodist Church who has supplied a full account of the life of Swithland chapel.
Hi Steven, I’m very interested in the source of these photos- is it Western Daily News? Was it when the museum opened? It may help a historic discovery !
Thanks
I’ve added pictures and a location map of the chapel. In May 2022 it is for sale for offers around £675,000.
From the Editorial Team: Herbert’s father was Rev Richard Stevens. (Census 1881 and 1891). If you look at this resource: https://www.mywesleyanmethodists.org.uk/content/research-resources/an-alphabetical-arrangement-of-all-the-wesleyan-methodist-ministers-and-preachers-on-trial1896 you’ll see all the places he served until 1896 (he died in 1899). Like all Wesleyan Ministers, he moved frequently! The family were in Beverley from 1879 to 1882, so Herbert was aged about 2 to 5 and probably didn’t go to school there. I have removed your address from your comment, but will happily reinstate it if you are sure you want it published. If anyone replies to your comment, I can easily put you in touch by email without sharing your details on the website.
To quote from page 9 of the Souvenir handbook of the Centenary celebrations. “It was felt that the old organ had served its useful purpose at Leicester Road, and that a new one should be provided, and in 1897, the Misses Chester, who later became Mrs. T.H. Barratt and Mrs. G. Phillips Jones, handsomely came to the rescue and presented the present organ, built by Messrs. Brindley & Foster, of Sheffield, at a cost of over £700, and a hydraulic engine was installed for the purpose of blowing it.”
I am writing a blog about Herbert Stevens for the British Ornithologists Club. He was the son of the Minister at Beverley in the 1890’s. He went out to India as a young man and became a tea planter in Darjeeling. He later married Amy, ( who was born in Leeds) and together they made several trips, often in country, which was not then even surveyed, in the border lands between India and Tibet. He collected plants and birds which are now in National Museums and although his name is quite well known to ornithologists very little is known about his life. Are there by any chance any records of how long the family lived in Beverley and whether the church had a school attached at the time Herbert would have been at school? There were other children in the family too, a brother Horace. If there are any records of the family I would be most grateful to have them, if you could spare the time to send them. .
I guess ‘former’ relates to the Wesleyan bit. Delighted it is thriving as a Methodist Church today!
I am pleased to see that some photographs have come to light to illustrate my text. Views of chapel interiors are rare enough at best and views of Georgian buildings even rarer. Is it too much to hope there might be a picture of the rostrum area?. I imagine that the organ was a later addition. Do the papers referred to above give the date of installation or the name of the maker?
why ‘former’, still open and thriving. go and see it Sundays 11am!
I have added some photographs, collected to commemorate 50 years of Trinity Methodist Church, Loughborough, and 250 years of Methodism in Loughborough.
Further to my previous comment, I found a location of the Sunday School on the corner of Erskine St and Low Hill. It is mentioned in a document on Google books.
I noticed a photo of Brunswick Wesleyan Sunday School on eBay. I can’t see a building with a similar footprint on the map anywhere near Moss St. If you’d like the photo, I can send it to you.
Rev Walter Fytche, my grandfather was a minister in Shrewsbury in 1905. I would love to know the address where they lived and which church or churches he was in pastoral charge of. My Aunt Margaret was born there.
I have added two photographs of the chapel as it was on Sunday 13th March 2022. As the noticeboard (see first image) shows this chapel is still in use, in partnership with Frisby on the Wreake Methodist. I have been inside on a number of occasions for retreats or away days. The chapel was extended in the 1950s, as can be seen from the change in the brickwork in the second image, and the right hand door now leads to a kitchen.
Rev’d William Ainsworth died 15th August 1897 while living at 126 St Marys Road, Great Bowden, Market Harborough, Leicestershire, present at his death was his son Sydney Carly Ainsworth. Cause of death was Caries of the spine and foot, Amputation of foot, Hypostatic congestion of the lungs and cardiac failure. Buried in Market Harborough Cemetery section F, plot AX1 next to the road 4th grave from the chapel on the right hand side. In the 1901 census Mary Ann Caroline Ainsworth (Found under Mary E G Ainsworth) living with, Edith Raistrick, Arther Ogden and Wesley Douglas, later found in the 1911 census living in Peterborough, Mary Ann Caroline Ainsworth died 12th January 1920 and is buried at Thrapston Cemetery, Northamptonshire
I have a key presented to a relative when she opened the Sunday school in 1934, if you would like to have it you would be welcome
For information about this memorial (and over 200 similar memorials) visit our sister site at https://www.mymethodisthistory.org.uk/topics-2/war_memorials/leicestershire-2/wymeswold-wesleyan-chapel-war-memorial
I’ve added a photo of the Great War Memorial from the chapel
I am delighted to be able to report that the Oxford Centre for Methodist History have digitised their copy of ‘The Wesleyan Methodist atlas of England and Wales’ which complements the 1873 accommodation returns in a number of ways, not least by mapping the chapels. A link has been included in this page.
I have added a map to show the location of this chapel.
My parents married there in 1954. I was christened there in 1955. We live in the USA now but when my dad was home a few years ago the church had been demolished.
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