Thorpe Audlin Wesleyan Methodist chapel

Thanks are due to Raymond Ella who found a catalogue entry for the records of this chapel

West Yorkshire Archive Services : WWN246/C6/34, Thorpe Audlin Primitive Methodist: Records including trustees treasurer’s accounts 1844-1974, trustees meetings 1925-1967, report and valuation re: sale 1979.

It would appear that the records of two places of worship in this small village near Pontefract had become conflated. A Wesleyan Methodist chapel consistently appears on all the Ordnance Survey maps, and in the trade directories and gazeteers.

The Methodists of Thorpe Audlin set up a charitable trust in 1834/35. This was replaced in 1838 by a trust for the Wesleyan Chapel and School Room. On 31st March 1851 George Castle, the Chapel Steward, recorded that the chapel had been founded in 1836. It had 40 free sittings and 60 others, plus standing room for another 40 worshippers. There was an evening service that day, attended by 40.

It was recorded in the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel Committee Returns of accommodation of 1873, with space for 132, and appears as an ex-Wesleyan chapel in the 1940 returns (100 sittings).. A chapel at Thorpe is listed in the 1970 returns, but the deposite records suggest closure in 1974, followed by sale.

Street view on Google Maps shows a well constructed Victorian building which was clearly once a chapel, and still has the plaque “Wesley Chapel” above the main entrance.

Further information is always welcome.

Sources

HO 129/504B/92

The Thirty-Second Annual Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records (1871) , Vol. II Appendix II pp161 and 924 .

List of places of meeting for public religious worship certified to the Registrar General to 30th June 1867

Returns of Accommodation provided in Wesleyan Methodist Chapels, 1873

Methodist Church buildings: Statistical returns, 1940