Northampton Queens Road Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, Northamptonshire
At first the Wesleyans of Queens Road used a room in Newtown Road. After various moves they settled in a school chapel in Queens Road. This probably means the building erected in 1877 which stands to the rear of the present chapel (photographs 3 & 4). When they decided to erect another chapel they bought a site for £400. The building was designed by H H Dyer and Sons of St Michael’s Road and was expected to cost £3200. It was to be built in the early decorated Gothic style using brick and Bath Stone. It had an octagonal tower surmounted by a spire 100 feet high . The stump is clearly visible in photograph 1. Inside there were to be galleries all round. The building was designed to seat 900. The schoolroom below the chapel was to seat 800. The ground floor would also contain a minister’s vestry and twelve classrooms. The foundation stones were laid by T Wetherall, E Irons and H H Dyer in May 1887. Over the next twenty years the seating capacity fell to the perhaps more realistic figure of 800. There was a more substantial fall to 610 between 1931 and 1940. In 1960 the chapel merged with Kettering Road to form Queensgrove on the Kettering Road site. The building is now used for retail purposes and has been extended to the perimeter of the site to provide window display space.
Sources
Northampton Mercury, 14.5.1887
Northamptonshire Record Office, NMC12, 13, 14, 453, 454, Gold Street Circuit trust schedules, 1911-1959
Northamptonshire Record Office, NMC426, The Northampton Commission, 1963
John Rylands Library University of Manchester, MAC Lawson Returns of Accommodation provided by Wesleyan Methodist Chapels and other Preaching Places, 1891/109, 1901/106, 1911/101, 1931/104. 1940/680f
Site visit 10 July 2019
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