A society in Sileby appears in the June 1780 accounts of the Leicester and Nottingham Circuit. The property of Wesleyan minister Michael Moorhouse was licensed as a meeting house in 1786. A chapel house was erected in High Street about 1790 and was enlarged in 1818. In 1807 the chapel had 94 members, which had swelled to about 140 in 1829. On 30th March 1851 the congregation numbered 110 in the morning and 100 at the evening service. The average attendance was 140 in the mornings in a chapel that was built to hold 300 people. In 1873, however, the accommodation was estimated as 230.
In 1884 a new chapel was built on another site in High Street and opened on the 3rd December 1884. The £2000 cost was borne by Thomas Caloe, the local corn miller, who also gained the old building. In 1886 the Chapel house adjoining the Chapel was also built by Caloe. These buildings are shown in the photograph. In the same year services were conducted twice on Sundays at 10.45am and 6pm.
The Chapel was enlarged in 1932 when new Primary rooms were constructed, and the accommodation was reported in 1940 to be 350. Membership in 1956 was 135.
In 1969 the chapel closed after a consultation and the congregation joined with that at the former PM chapel in King Street. The building was purchased by the Parish council and is now (2015) used as a Community Centre and Parish Hall.
Grid reference SK602151
Sources
Richardson, S.Y. Bright Hope: Methodism in Loughborough 1. Heritage vol 7, no.3 April 2006 p 10
National Archives, HO 129/416 fol. 15
ROLLR, QS 95/2/1/56
Returns of accommodation … 1873. London: Wesleyan Conference Office, 1875
Jubilee of High Street Methodist Church, Sileby: Souvenir 1884 to 1934 (1934)
Leicester Chronicle, 6th December 1884
Wright, C. N., Directory of Leicestershire and Rutland (1886), 556
Statistical returns … as at July 1st 1940. Manchester: Department of Chapel Affairs, 1947
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