Raunds, Brook Street Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, burial ground and day school, Northamptonshire, NN9 6LP

Introduction

The site occupied by Brook Street Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, burial ground and day school is of exceptional quality and interest. The chapel and the burial ground are on a long but fairly narrow plot of land which rises quite steeply from the highway. The school building is on an adjacent plot but only occupies the back portion fronting on Hollington Road.

The Chapel

The Chapel stands at the Brook Street end of the plot and was built in 1874 at a cost of almost £3000 (images 01-06). The organ was donated in 1911 having previously been in a private residence. (Did they keep the organ from the old chapel up to this point?). In 1925 the chapel underwent renovation which increased the seating capacity by twenty and cost over £1500. (Was this when the brick rear projection was built?). The sloping site means that while the back of the chapel is at ground level the front is high enough for there to be rooms below the chapel. The original access was through a pair of central doors, now windows, which can be seen on what was at the front first floor level They were reached via a flight of steps. More recently the main entrance has been moved to the rear of the chapel and the steps removed. (We must hope that an image of the chapel as built will come to light and show the arrangement of the steps.) About the same time the pews were removed from the chapel and a kitchen installed. In 1881 the seating capacity was 850 and it remained little changed until 1911. By 1931 the capacity had fallen to 741, comprising 442 lettable seats and 299 free seats. The building continues to be used as a Methodist place of worship.

The graveyard

Behind the chapel there is a long graveyard extending to Hollington Road. Many of the memorial stones remain but as far as I am aware no transcription of the inscriptions has been made (images 07, 08).

The day school

The existing school buildings were erected in 1860. They consisted of a master’s house (the building facing Hollington Road, image 09) and a school room behind. The entrance with its distinctive doorway, matching the entrance to the house, is depicted in image 10 and the roofline with its characteristic ventilators can be seen in image 07. The buildings shown in image 11 are probably the 1870 and 1898 extensions, The school could accommodate 269 children but in 1894 the average attendance was 190. At that time the staff consisted of a master,(George Lee, and an infants’ mistress. Miss Sarah A Burrows. The school was financed by the income from a bequest, voluntary contributions and government grant. In 1914 the children were transferred to the newly built council school  and the building was repurposed for Sunday school and other chapel uses.  By 1988 it had become surplus to requirements and was sold for conversion to residential use as Wesley Court ‘

A much weathered plaque (image 12) facing the public footway record the nineteenth century history of the schools:

Wesley[an Schools]

[Sunda]y Scho[ol …………………..] 1812

Day School established in 1848.

Reorganised 1861.

Enlarged in 1870 and in 1898

The buildings in 1940

A report on the premises as a whole was compiled in May 1941 In some cases it is not possible to be certain which rooms belonged to which building. The chapel itself measured 72½ feet by 38½ feet and seated 303 of the floor of the chapel and 328 in the gallery, all in pews. There were two school halls 65 feet by 21½ feet and 25 feet by 18 feet, five vestries or classrooms and a six roomed caretaker’s house, probably the former master’s house.

Sources

Kelly’s directory for Northamptonshire, 1885 p. 457

John Rylands Library University of Manchester, MAC Lawson Returns of Accommodation provided by Wesleyan Methodist Chapels and other Preaching Places, Higham Ferrers Circuit 1881/101, Raunds Circuit 1891/114, 1901/111, 1911/106, 1931/109

John Rylands Library University of Manchester DDPD2/109  Returns of Accommodation provided by Wesleyan Methodist Chapels and other Preaching Places, 1931 (Raunds Circuit)

Northampton Mercury, 28.8.1925

Methodist Church Buildings: Statistical returns including seating accommodation as at July 1^st 1940, No 685

Nene Valley Circuit website www.nenevalleymethodist.org.uk/our-churches/. The section relating to Raunds includes a very useful history of the chapel

Site visit 1.10.2022