Carlisle, Wigton Road WM chapel, Cumberland

Grid Ref NY390557

 

Wigton Road WM chapel was built as a successor to Church St/Caldewgate. The architects were Arthur Brocklehurst & Co of Norfolk S, Manchester and the plans were approved by the local authority on 28 April 1928. The chapel was entered through a porch and vestibule (13 feet and 4 inches by four feet and one inch) at each side of which were toilets and stairs to the gallery. The church measured 56 feet by fifty feet and had three blocks of pews arranged in an arc and divided by two aisles. Opposite the main entrance was the communion area and rostrum and behind them the choir and organ. At the rear of the building were vestries for minister and choir. The chapel provided seating for 560 people, 191 in the nave, 206 in the aisles, 38 in the choir, and 125 in the gallery. The adjacent block of ancillary facilities was entered at each side through lobbies provided with toilets. Between them was a ladies’ parlour (24 feet by 16 feet). Behind it was the main hall flanked by four classrooms on one side and three classrooms and a kitchen, each measuring eleven feet and nine inches by nine feet. The block to the rear of the hall had a connecting passage to the chapel, two classrooms, a primary room (36 feet by 22 feet) and stairs leading to a further classroom and the senior department room. An organ costing £1000 was installed in 1928-9.

In 1940 the chapel had sittings for 560 on chairs. There was also a schoolroom and 17 other rooms. By 1980 the sittings had been reduced to 499 and the other rooms to 14. The chapel was in use as a Methodist place of worship in January 2014.  

Sources

Cumbria Archive Service, Carlisle CaE4/15543 building byelaw plans

John Rylands Library, University of Manchester, Carlisle WM District minutes, 1920-32

Carlisle Library, 1A287, Methodist property statistics 1940, 1980, 1991

Carlisle, Wigton Road WM,chapel, 09.01.2014
Carlisle, Wigton Road WM, halls, etc 09.01.2014
GW Oxley

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