Central Methodist Church, Eastbourne
Encyclopedia
Central Methodist Church is the main Methodist
place of worship in Eastbourne
, a town and borough
in the English county of East Sussex
. The large town-centre building, with attached schoolrooms and ancillary buildings, is the successor to earlier Methodist places of worship in the area. Soldiers brought the denomination to the area in 1803, when an isolated collection of clifftop villages stood where the 19th-century resort town of Eastbourne developed. A society they formed in that year to encourage Methodism's growth and outreach survives. Local Methodist worshipper and historian Carlos Crisford designed the lavish church in 1907, and it has been used for worship ever since—even as several other Methodist churches in the town and surrounding villages have declined and closed. As of , it also provides a home for a Baptist congregation displaced from their church, which was sold for redevelopment. English Heritage
has listed Central Methodist Church at Grade II for its architectural and historical importance.
coast and was based around the 12th-century parish church of St Mary the Virgin; Southbourne was a linear settlement on the road from Bourne to the sea; Sea Houses, further along this route, developed from the 14th century as a fishing village; and Meads stood on much higher land to the west, where the sheer cliffs around Beachy Head
rose from the coastline. The combined population of the four settlements in 1801 was 1,668, and all were served by St Mary the Virgin Church in the parish of Bourne. Prince Edward visited Sea Houses in 1780, but unlike nearby Brighton
this royal patronage failed to encourage tourism and residential growth—most likely because all the surrounding land was owned by two rich families (the Davies-Gilbert
s and the Dukes of Devonshire
), who sought to control development.
Sea Houses grew in importance in the late 18th century nevertheless. A row of houses was built facing the sea in about 1790, and the area soon assumed strategic importance in the defence of the south coast against Napoleonic
invaders. By the end of the 18th century, troops were sent to Hastings
, Bexhill
and Southbourne, and a chain of Martello tower
s was built. Soldiers from the 11th Hussars
(known by that time as the 11th Regiment of Light Dragoons) reached Eastbourne in July 1803, and a newspaper report of 5 October 1803 noted that "everything here is on the alert to receive the enemy: the whole of the 11th Light Dragoons have been ordered from their different outposts, and are stationed at Hastings, Bexhill and Southbourne [... and] the Sussex and Gloucester Militias [... made] entrenchments at Sea Houses".
These soldiers were almost certainly the founders of Methodist worship in the Eastbourne area. Local Methodist historian Carlos Crisford, who later designed Central Methodist Church, first made this claim, and subsequent research has found that there was no Methodist presence before 1803. The first Nonconformist
chapel in the Eastbourne area was the "Marsh Chapel", registered in the late 18th century to a group described simply as Calvinists: at the time this could refer either to Calvinistic Baptists
or to Methodists following Calvinist
theology, such as those who were aligned to the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion
. The Marsh Chapel's later history proves that it had no Methodist connection, though: after a period of tension between different factions in the congregation, the church split into two: Independents stayed in the building, and Strict Baptist
s moved elsewhere and founded a new church. The Marsh Chapel was therefore of Calvinistic Baptist character.
A group of these soldiers registered themselves as Dissenter
s, as was required by the laws of the time; this allowed them to establish a place of worship in one of the houses built in 1790 at Sea Houses, where they were stationed. In 1803, they founded the "Society of the People Called Methodists" to encourage the spread of their beliefs in the Eastbourne area. The house does not survive: the mid 19th-century buildings at 27 and 28 Marine Parade are on the site.
Many of the troops were posted away from Sea Houses in 1804. Their services had interested the local civilian population, though, and with the help of shopowner Henry Beck the Society and community continued to thrive after the soldiers' withdrawal. Beck moved from nearby Lewes
in 1804 and set up a shop in Sea Houses; he joined the Society and became an important member of the Methodist community: by 1813 he was one of the first recorded Methodist preachers in Sussex. In 1808, Rev. Robert Pilter, known as the "Apostle of Kent
" for his Methodist missionary work in that county, became associated with the Eastbourne cause, and further helped its development.
Pilter used his experience of establishing a Methodist chapel at Brighton
to help the community acquire their first permanent place of worship. He was called to minister elsewhere in Sussex before he could buy a plot of land, but his successor was able to do so almost immediately: in September 1809 Rev. Robert Wheeler paid £145 (£ as of ) for the site in the Southbourne area, where the present Grove Road runs. The Anglican
Diocese of Chichester
recorded the chapel's existence in its Records of Dissenting Chapels published on 9 March 1810, and it officially opened 19 days later. The cost of construction was £861 (£ as of ). In the chapel's early years, locals and the remaining soldiers were joined by increasing numbers of wealthy visitors who were attracted to the growing town of Eastbourne by its new reputation as a high-class resort; £8.10s.-
(£ as of ) had to be spent on extensions soon after it opened.
Difficulties soon arose though: in 1815, the Napoleonic Wars
ended and all soldiers posted to Eastbourne left, depriving the chapel of some of its followers. In 1817, Henry Beck moved to Hastings
to evangelise that town, which had no Methodist place of worship. Debt was also a problem: the interest rate on the borrowings for the chapel's construction was 5%. The chapel's transfer from the Brighton Methodist Circuit
to the much larger Lewes Circuit in 1825 caused disruption, storm damage in the 1840s meant services had to be held in the open air for a time, and the congregation reached a low point in 1860.
The cause was helped by lay preacher Thomas Scott's efforts to secure a permanent resident preacher for Eastbourne's Methodist population. This was achieved in 1860, at which time the Lewes Methodist Circuit was renamed "Lewes and Eastbourne" to reflect the latter town's growing importance. Scott also contributed £25 (£ as of ) to the building fund for the proposed new church, and was instrumental in encouraging the idea.
Pevensey Road had just been laid out across the fields of a farm whose land was owned by the Duke of Devonshire and leased to tenant farmers. Eastbourne's Methodists acquired a 80 by 80 ft (24.4 by 24.4 m) plot in 1863, and building work started almost immediately: Sir Francis Lycett, an important figure in 19th-century Methodism, placed the foundation stone on 11 November 1863. Architect R.K. Blessley designed the Decorated Gothic Revival
flint and stone building. Amid scenes of celebration, Pevensey Road Chapel was opened in July 1864; it cost £1,874.16s.7d (£ as of ), and the freehold of the site was acquired later for £150. The old chapel at Grove Road was sold to a Strict Baptist
congregation, who used it from May 1865 until 1880 when they opened the present Grove Road Strict Baptist Chapel nearby.
Congregations grew slowly—not helped by a scarlet fever
epidemic which killed many people in 1864 and frightened many visitors away from the town—but the Methodist community was fully established in the town by this time and began to expand its reach. A new Sunday school
was opened behind the chapel in 1869, and in the surrounding villages and the new suburbs of Eastbourne, several Methodist chapels were founded or became associated with the Eastbourne cause. This was helped by the creation in 1871 of a separate Eastbourne Circuit—a much smaller administrative area than its Lewes and Eastbourne predecessor.
Pevensey Road Chapel was declared structurally unsound in 1904, and more than £3,000 was available in the building fund. Another committee was formed in that year to oversee the demolition of the chapel and its replacement with a much larger church and schoolroom. Permission to knock the chapel down was granted in 1906, and on 1 April 1907 work began on the new buildings with the laying of the Sunday school foundation stone. Labour politician Arthur Henderson
, himself a Methodist, addressed a public meeting at Eastbourne Town Hall to commemorate the stone-laying, and people were encouraged to contribute to the building fund by laying a shilling on the stones. Services were not disrupted during the building works: after the old chapel was demolished, churchgoers worshipped in the former Sunday school hall.
By early 1908, the new Sunday school was finished, and work began on the church itself: the foundation stone was laid on 14 April 1908. Construction took five months and cost about £15,000 (£ as of ), leaving a debt of £11,600: some of the building fund had been used to establish new Methodist churches in outlying parts of Eastbourne. Rev. John Scott Lidgett
, the President of the Wesleyan
Conference at the time, opened the new Central Methodist Church on 16 September 1908. Carlos Crisford himself designed it, and the Eastbourne building firm Miller and Selmes constructed the church. The building had a tall corner tower topped with a spire; to celebrate the opening, a group of worshippers of all ages were hauled in a box to the top of the spire, where they ate breakfast.
Membership of Central Methodist Church grew from about 200 when it opened to 254 in 1917, and money continued to be raised slowly to pay the debt. The final payments were made in 1925; sources of the money included a wide variety of fundraising activities and the assistance of J. Arthur Rank, the Methodist industrialist. Other changes in the interwar period included the formation of several clubs and societies, funds to help people during the Great Depression
, and the installation of a war memorial to commemorate 18 church members who died during World War I. In 1934, a Methodist guest house was opened nearby; the Central Church held a dedication service for the new building, and many guests would worship at the church during their stay.
Central Methodist Church was involved in World War II in several ways. Its large space and central position made it a natural "reception centre", and thousands of evacuees from London
passed through on their way to their temporary host families. By 1940, Eastbourne was considered to be at high risk of attack, so thousands of residents and former evacuees were sent to the church before being evacuated out of the town. The church was classed as Eastbourne's "controlled zone", and about 35,000 people passed through in a few days in September 1940.
Many churches in Eastbourne were damaged (or in some cases destroyed) by bombs from late 1940 onwards, but Central Methodist Church survived unscathed—although on one occasion an unexploded bomb
landed nearby, threatening its destruction—and although the building was temporarily closed (because its central location made it vulnerable), services continued in the crypt
, which also served as a makeshift shelter. The Sunday school closed for a time as well.
Membership of the church continued to rise after the war, as Eastbourne recovered and began to grow again. The highest recorded figure (excluding summer visitors, who always boosted attendances significantly) was 486 in 1967, by which time youth clubs, women's groups and a choir had been established. Meanwhile, the Society of the People Called Methodists, founded in 1803 at Sea Houses, continued its unbroken history by meeting regularly at the church.
Central Methodist Church was listed at Grade II by English Heritage
on 13 August 1996; this defines it as a "nationally important" building of "special interest". As of February 2001, it was one of 100 Grade II listed buildings, and 109 listed buildings of all grades, in the borough of Eastbourne.
As of , a Baptist congregation shares the church premises. Ceylon Place Baptist Church, a brick and Bath stone
Early English Gothic Revival
building, was built on the road of that name in 1885 to replace a tin tabernacle
erected in 1871. It closed in the early 21st century and was converted for residential use. The congregation moved to Central Methodist Church temporarily while they sought a new place of worship. The community is now known as New Hope Baptist Church. The Church of God Worldwide Mission, a Pentecostal congregation, also use the church for services and prayer meetings.
building of grey stone rubble laid in courses
with some ashlar
. The roof is laid with pantiles, which are not original. Nikolaus Pevsner
wrote that its appearance was "entirely churchy"—resembling an Anglican
place of worship much more than typical Nonconformist chapels of the era (of which Eastbourne has several examples).
The church and its associated buildings stand on a corner site. The church itself is entered from Pevensey Road and faces southeastwards; its side façade faces southwest on Susans Road. Next to it on this road is the Sunday school and church hall, which also has a northwest elevation along Langney Road. The church entrance is in a canted
buttress
ed porch next to the tower, which stands at the southeast corner. There are two pairs of lancet window
s in the porch, each with trefoil
s above. A wide seven-light lancet window with tracery
and trefoils is above this. The double doorway in the porch has a carving of a verse from Psalm 100
: . The Susans Road façade is of five bays
, each with a gable
and arched windows at the upper (gallery) level. There is another porch at the northeast corner.
The tower has three levels, with crocket
ed buttress
es to the lower and middle stages. The upper level has a belfry with louvres
and trefoil
-headed windows. Above this, the spire is of stone and has lucarne
s (small dormers popular in Gothic architecture) and a weather-vane.
The original interior survives. A wooden gallery, supported on slender iron columns, runs round below the hammerbeam roof
. Other fittings dating from the church's opening include pews, a pulpit
and an organ case originally fitted with a three-manual
pipe organ
.
The church hall is a two-storey Decorated Gothic building of stone, with gable
s, cast ironwork and lancet window
s with tracery. The adjacent Sunday school, also of two storeys, has a Jacobean
appearance, with battlemented turrets in several places. There is a two-window range on the Langney Road side; each has prominent transoms
, mullion
s and pediment
s. The Susans Road façade has a four-window range, mostly with leadlight
s. Inside, a staircase with ornate cast ironwork survives.
, which has existed in its present form since 1871. It is, or has been, linked to or associated with several other Methodist churches in the town and in surrounding villages.
Greenfield Methodist Church, an Early English-style red-brick building, has served Eastbourne's Old Town area since 1898, although worshippers had met for ten years prior to that above a shop. Central Methodist Church's predecessor, the Pevensey Road Chapel, helped to found and pay for the new church.
In Eastbourne's poor East End, chapels were founded at Beamsley Road in 1886 and Ringwood Road in 1904. Another church, St Aidan's, was opened nearby in 1913, and the congregations merged and worshipped in that building after the Methodist Union
of 1932 brought together the denomination's different subgroups. St Aidan's Church survived until 2001, but was closed and demolished in that year.
The postwar housing estate of Hampden Park
gained its first church in 1960, after Central Church played a leading role in establishing a community of worshippers there. St Stephen's Church was opened on 23 July 1960 and was extended 11 years later. A few years later, Central Church was represented on the cross-denominational "Langney Church Sponsoring Committee", which sought to open a new united church in the greatly expanded suburb of Langney
. With support from all the major denominations, St Barnabas United Church opened in 1976.
Willingdon, an outlying village, was added to the Circuit in 1894 when a red-brick church was built for just over £400. Popular open-air services had been held in the area for some time beforehand. Trinity Church is now shared with United Reformed
and Baptist worshippers.
Churches in the nearby towns and villages of Hailsham
, Cross-in-Hand
and Gamelands (near Horam
) are also part of the Circuit. The minister of Central Methodist Church was also responsible for Blacknest (or Blackness) Chapel, a small brick chapel opened in 1891 in the parish of Westham
, which was closed and demolished early in the 21st century.
Methodism
Methodism is a movement of Protestant Christianity represented by a number of denominations and organizations, claiming a total of approximately seventy million adherents worldwide. The movement traces its roots to John Wesley's evangelistic revival movement within Anglicanism. His younger brother...
place of worship in Eastbourne
Eastbourne
Eastbourne is a large town and borough in East Sussex, on the south coast of England between Brighton and Hastings. The town is situated at the eastern end of the chalk South Downs alongside the high cliff at Beachy Head...
, a town and borough
Borough status in the United Kingdom
Borough status in the United Kingdom is granted by royal charter to local government districts in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The status is purely honorary, and does not give any additional powers to the council or inhabitants of the district...
in the English county of East Sussex
East Sussex
East Sussex is a county in South East England. It is bordered by the counties of Kent, Surrey and West Sussex, and to the south by the English Channel.-History:...
. The large town-centre building, with attached schoolrooms and ancillary buildings, is the successor to earlier Methodist places of worship in the area. Soldiers brought the denomination to the area in 1803, when an isolated collection of clifftop villages stood where the 19th-century resort town of Eastbourne developed. A society they formed in that year to encourage Methodism's growth and outreach survives. Local Methodist worshipper and historian Carlos Crisford designed the lavish church in 1907, and it has been used for worship ever since—even as several other Methodist churches in the town and surrounding villages have declined and closed. As of , it also provides a home for a Baptist congregation displaced from their church, which was sold for redevelopment. English Heritage
English Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
has listed Central Methodist Church at Grade II for its architectural and historical importance.
Origins of Methodism in Eastbourne
Until the early 19th century, the area now covered by the town of Eastbourne was mostly farmland punctuated by four small and entirely independent villages linked by a single track. Bourne (later known as Old Town) stood inland from the English ChannelEnglish Channel
The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...
coast and was based around the 12th-century parish church of St Mary the Virgin; Southbourne was a linear settlement on the road from Bourne to the sea; Sea Houses, further along this route, developed from the 14th century as a fishing village; and Meads stood on much higher land to the west, where the sheer cliffs around Beachy Head
Beachy Head
Beachy Head is a chalk headland on the south coast of England, close to the town of Eastbourne in the county of East Sussex, immediately east of the Seven Sisters. The cliff there is the highest chalk sea cliff in Britain, rising to 162 m above sea level. The peak allows views of the south...
rose from the coastline. The combined population of the four settlements in 1801 was 1,668, and all were served by St Mary the Virgin Church in the parish of Bourne. Prince Edward visited Sea Houses in 1780, but unlike nearby Brighton
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
this royal patronage failed to encourage tourism and residential growth—most likely because all the surrounding land was owned by two rich families (the Davies-Gilbert
Davies-Gilbert
The Davies-Gilbert family is one of Britain's most prestigious families.The Davies-Gilbert family are descendants of Sir Humphrey Gilbert, who was an older half-brother of Sir Walter Raleigh . In the 19th Century, they developed the towns of Eastbourne and East Dean in Sussex...
s and the Dukes of Devonshire
Duke of Devonshire
Duke of Devonshire is a title in the peerage of England held by members of the Cavendish family. This branch of the Cavendish family has been one of the richest and most influential aristocratic families in England since the 16th century, and have been rivalled in political influence perhaps only...
), who sought to control development.
Sea Houses grew in importance in the late 18th century nevertheless. A row of houses was built facing the sea in about 1790, and the area soon assumed strategic importance in the defence of the south coast against Napoleonic
Napoleon I
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
invaders. By the end of the 18th century, troops were sent to Hastings
Hastings
Hastings is a town and borough in the county of East Sussex on the south coast of England. The town is located east of the county town of Lewes and south east of London, and has an estimated population of 86,900....
, Bexhill
Bexhill-on-Sea
Bexhill-on-Sea is a town and seaside resort in the county of East Sussex, in the south of England, within the District of Rother. It has a population of approximately 40,000...
and Southbourne, and a chain of Martello tower
Martello tower
Martello towers are small defensive forts built in several countries of the British Empire during the 19th century, from the time of the Napoleonic Wars onwards....
s was built. Soldiers from the 11th Hussars
11th Hussars
The 11th Hussars was a cavalry regiment of the British Army.-History:The regiment was founded in 1715 as Colonel Philip Honeywood's Regiment of Dragoons and was known by the name of its Colonel until 1751 when it became the 11th Regiment of Dragoons...
(known by that time as the 11th Regiment of Light Dragoons) reached Eastbourne in July 1803, and a newspaper report of 5 October 1803 noted that "everything here is on the alert to receive the enemy: the whole of the 11th Light Dragoons have been ordered from their different outposts, and are stationed at Hastings, Bexhill and Southbourne [... and] the Sussex and Gloucester Militias [... made] entrenchments at Sea Houses".
These soldiers were almost certainly the founders of Methodist worship in the Eastbourne area. Local Methodist historian Carlos Crisford, who later designed Central Methodist Church, first made this claim, and subsequent research has found that there was no Methodist presence before 1803. The first Nonconformist
Nonconformism
Nonconformity is the refusal to "conform" to, or follow, the governance and usages of the Church of England by the Protestant Christians of England and Wales.- Origins and use:...
chapel in the Eastbourne area was the "Marsh Chapel", registered in the late 18th century to a group described simply as Calvinists: at the time this could refer either to Calvinistic Baptists
Reformed Baptist
Reformed Baptists are Baptists that hold to a Calvinist soteriology. They can trace their history through the early modern Particular Baptists of England. The first Reformed Baptist church was formed in the 1630s...
or to Methodists following Calvinist
Calvinism
Calvinism is a Protestant theological system and an approach to the Christian life...
theology, such as those who were aligned to the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion
Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion
The Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion is a small society of evangelical churches, founded in 1783 by Selina, Countess of Huntingdon as a result of the Evangelical Revival. For years it was strongly associated with the Calvinist Methodist movement of George Whitefield...
. The Marsh Chapel's later history proves that it had no Methodist connection, though: after a period of tension between different factions in the congregation, the church split into two: Independents stayed in the building, and Strict Baptist
Strict Baptist
Strict Baptists, also known as Particular Baptists, are Baptists who believe in a Calvinist or Reformed interpretation of Christian soteriology. The Particular Baptists arose in England in the 17th century and took their namesake from the doctrine of particular redemption.-Further reading:*History...
s moved elsewhere and founded a new church. The Marsh Chapel was therefore of Calvinistic Baptist character.
A group of these soldiers registered themselves as Dissenter
Dissenter
The term dissenter , labels one who disagrees in matters of opinion, belief, etc. In the social and religious history of England and Wales, however, it refers particularly to a member of a religious body who has, for one reason or another, separated from the Established Church.Originally, the term...
s, as was required by the laws of the time; this allowed them to establish a place of worship in one of the houses built in 1790 at Sea Houses, where they were stationed. In 1803, they founded the "Society of the People Called Methodists" to encourage the spread of their beliefs in the Eastbourne area. The house does not survive: the mid 19th-century buildings at 27 and 28 Marine Parade are on the site.
Many of the troops were posted away from Sea Houses in 1804. Their services had interested the local civilian population, though, and with the help of shopowner Henry Beck the Society and community continued to thrive after the soldiers' withdrawal. Beck moved from nearby Lewes
Lewes
Lewes is the county town of East Sussex, England and historically of all of Sussex. It is a civil parish and is the centre of the Lewes local government district. The settlement has a history as a bridging point and as a market town, and today as a communications hub and tourist-oriented town...
in 1804 and set up a shop in Sea Houses; he joined the Society and became an important member of the Methodist community: by 1813 he was one of the first recorded Methodist preachers in Sussex. In 1808, Rev. Robert Pilter, known as the "Apostle of Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
" for his Methodist missionary work in that county, became associated with the Eastbourne cause, and further helped its development.
Pilter used his experience of establishing a Methodist chapel at Brighton
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
to help the community acquire their first permanent place of worship. He was called to minister elsewhere in Sussex before he could buy a plot of land, but his successor was able to do so almost immediately: in September 1809 Rev. Robert Wheeler paid £145 (£ as of ) for the site in the Southbourne area, where the present Grove Road runs. The Anglican
Anglicanism
Anglicanism is a tradition within Christianity comprising churches with historical connections to the Church of England or similar beliefs, worship and church structures. The word Anglican originates in ecclesia anglicana, a medieval Latin phrase dating to at least 1246 that means the English...
Diocese of Chichester
Diocese of Chichester
The Diocese of Chichester is a Church of England diocese based in Chichester, covering Sussex. It was created in 1075 to replace the old Diocese of Selsey, which was based at Selsey Abbey from 681. The cathedral is Chichester Cathedral and the bishop is the Bishop of Chichester...
recorded the chapel's existence in its Records of Dissenting Chapels published on 9 March 1810, and it officially opened 19 days later. The cost of construction was £861 (£ as of ). In the chapel's early years, locals and the remaining soldiers were joined by increasing numbers of wealthy visitors who were attracted to the growing town of Eastbourne by its new reputation as a high-class resort; £8.10s.-
£sd
£sd was the popular name for the pre-decimal currencies used in the Kingdom of England, later the United Kingdom, and ultimately in much of the British Empire...
(£ as of ) had to be spent on extensions soon after it opened.
Difficulties soon arose though: in 1815, the Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
ended and all soldiers posted to Eastbourne left, depriving the chapel of some of its followers. In 1817, Henry Beck moved to Hastings
Hastings
Hastings is a town and borough in the county of East Sussex on the south coast of England. The town is located east of the county town of Lewes and south east of London, and has an estimated population of 86,900....
to evangelise that town, which had no Methodist place of worship. Debt was also a problem: the interest rate on the borrowings for the chapel's construction was 5%. The chapel's transfer from the Brighton Methodist Circuit
Methodist Circuit
The Methodist Circuit is part of the organisational structure of British Methodism,or at least those branches derived from the work of John Wesley. It is a group of individual Societies or local Churches under the care of one or more Methodist Ministers. In the scale of organisation, the Circuit...
to the much larger Lewes Circuit in 1825 caused disruption, storm damage in the 1840s meant services had to be held in the open air for a time, and the congregation reached a low point in 1860.
Pevensey Road Chapel
Nevertheless, most debt had been paid off by then, and members of the chapel decided to build a new church nearer the newly developed centre of the town. By 1860, the seafront area east of Sea Houses, with its new promenade, was the new focal point of Eastbourne, where increasing numbers of visitors and newly arrived residents congregated.The cause was helped by lay preacher Thomas Scott's efforts to secure a permanent resident preacher for Eastbourne's Methodist population. This was achieved in 1860, at which time the Lewes Methodist Circuit was renamed "Lewes and Eastbourne" to reflect the latter town's growing importance. Scott also contributed £25 (£ as of ) to the building fund for the proposed new church, and was instrumental in encouraging the idea.
Pevensey Road had just been laid out across the fields of a farm whose land was owned by the Duke of Devonshire and leased to tenant farmers. Eastbourne's Methodists acquired a 80 by 80 ft (24.4 by 24.4 m) plot in 1863, and building work started almost immediately: Sir Francis Lycett, an important figure in 19th-century Methodism, placed the foundation stone on 11 November 1863. Architect R.K. Blessley designed the Decorated Gothic Revival
Gothic Revival architecture
The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...
flint and stone building. Amid scenes of celebration, Pevensey Road Chapel was opened in July 1864; it cost £1,874.16s.7d (£ as of ), and the freehold of the site was acquired later for £150. The old chapel at Grove Road was sold to a Strict Baptist
Strict Baptist
Strict Baptists, also known as Particular Baptists, are Baptists who believe in a Calvinist or Reformed interpretation of Christian soteriology. The Particular Baptists arose in England in the 17th century and took their namesake from the doctrine of particular redemption.-Further reading:*History...
congregation, who used it from May 1865 until 1880 when they opened the present Grove Road Strict Baptist Chapel nearby.
Congregations grew slowly—not helped by a scarlet fever
Scarlet fever
Scarlet fever is a disease caused by exotoxin released by Streptococcus pyogenes. Once a major cause of death, it is now effectively treated with antibiotics...
epidemic which killed many people in 1864 and frightened many visitors away from the town—but the Methodist community was fully established in the town by this time and began to expand its reach. A new Sunday school
Sunday school
Sunday school is the generic name for many different types of religious education pursued on Sundays by various denominations.-England:The first Sunday school may have been opened in 1751 in St. Mary's Church, Nottingham. Another early start was made by Hannah Ball, a native of High Wycombe in...
was opened behind the chapel in 1869, and in the surrounding villages and the new suburbs of Eastbourne, several Methodist chapels were founded or became associated with the Eastbourne cause. This was helped by the creation in 1871 of a separate Eastbourne Circuit—a much smaller administrative area than its Lewes and Eastbourne predecessor.
The new Central Church
By 1896, the chapel had more than 250 regular members, and in summer there was not enough room to accommodate all the visitors who wanted to worship. By the end of the century, trustees of the chapel began to consider extending the building to add at least 200 more seats; and by 1902, a grander plan was announced to replace the chapel with a 1,000-capacity "central church", to act as the centre for Eastbourne Methodists' scheme of "aggressive evangelism" among tourists, the ever-growing permanent population and other chapels in the Eastbourne Circuit. Members of the church formed a committee in late 1902 to consider how best to proceed and to establish and look after a fund to pay for whatever work was decided on.Pevensey Road Chapel was declared structurally unsound in 1904, and more than £3,000 was available in the building fund. Another committee was formed in that year to oversee the demolition of the chapel and its replacement with a much larger church and schoolroom. Permission to knock the chapel down was granted in 1906, and on 1 April 1907 work began on the new buildings with the laying of the Sunday school foundation stone. Labour politician Arthur Henderson
Arthur Henderson
Arthur Henderson was a British iron moulder and Labour politician. He was the 1934 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and he served three short terms as the Leader of the Labour Party from 1908–1910, 1914–1917 and 1931-1932....
, himself a Methodist, addressed a public meeting at Eastbourne Town Hall to commemorate the stone-laying, and people were encouraged to contribute to the building fund by laying a shilling on the stones. Services were not disrupted during the building works: after the old chapel was demolished, churchgoers worshipped in the former Sunday school hall.
By early 1908, the new Sunday school was finished, and work began on the church itself: the foundation stone was laid on 14 April 1908. Construction took five months and cost about £15,000 (£ as of ), leaving a debt of £11,600: some of the building fund had been used to establish new Methodist churches in outlying parts of Eastbourne. Rev. John Scott Lidgett
John Scott Lidgett
The Reverend John Scott Lidgett, CH was a British Wesleyan Methodist minister and educationist. He achieved prominence both as a theologian and reformer within British Methodism, stressing the importance of the church's engagement with the whole of society and human culture, and as an effective...
, the President of the Wesleyan
Wesleyanism
Wesleyanism or Wesleyan theology refers, respectively, to either the eponymous movement of Protestant Christians who have historically sought to follow the methods or theology of the eighteenth-century evangelical reformers, John Wesley and his brother Charles Wesley, or to the likewise eponymous...
Conference at the time, opened the new Central Methodist Church on 16 September 1908. Carlos Crisford himself designed it, and the Eastbourne building firm Miller and Selmes constructed the church. The building had a tall corner tower topped with a spire; to celebrate the opening, a group of worshippers of all ages were hauled in a box to the top of the spire, where they ate breakfast.
Membership of Central Methodist Church grew from about 200 when it opened to 254 in 1917, and money continued to be raised slowly to pay the debt. The final payments were made in 1925; sources of the money included a wide variety of fundraising activities and the assistance of J. Arthur Rank, the Methodist industrialist. Other changes in the interwar period included the formation of several clubs and societies, funds to help people during the Great Depression
Great Depression in the United Kingdom
The Great Depression in the United Kingdom, also known as the Great Slump, was a period of national economic downturn in the 1930s, which had its origins in the global Great Depression...
, and the installation of a war memorial to commemorate 18 church members who died during World War I. In 1934, a Methodist guest house was opened nearby; the Central Church held a dedication service for the new building, and many guests would worship at the church during their stay.
Central Methodist Church was involved in World War II in several ways. Its large space and central position made it a natural "reception centre", and thousands of evacuees from London
Evacuations of civilians in Britain during World War II
Evacuation of civilians in Britain during the Second World War was designed to save the population of urban or military areas in the United Kingdom from aerial bombing of cities and military targets such as docks. Civilians, particularly children, were moved to areas thought to be less at risk....
passed through on their way to their temporary host families. By 1940, Eastbourne was considered to be at high risk of attack, so thousands of residents and former evacuees were sent to the church before being evacuated out of the town. The church was classed as Eastbourne's "controlled zone", and about 35,000 people passed through in a few days in September 1940.
Many churches in Eastbourne were damaged (or in some cases destroyed) by bombs from late 1940 onwards, but Central Methodist Church survived unscathed—although on one occasion an unexploded bomb
Unexploded ordnance
Unexploded ordnance are explosive weapons that did not explode when they were employed and still pose a risk of detonation, potentially many decades after they were used or discarded.While "UXO" is widely and informally used, munitions and explosives of...
landed nearby, threatening its destruction—and although the building was temporarily closed (because its central location made it vulnerable), services continued in the crypt
Crypt
In architecture, a crypt is a stone chamber or vault beneath the floor of a burial vault possibly containing sarcophagi, coffins or relics....
, which also served as a makeshift shelter. The Sunday school closed for a time as well.
Membership of the church continued to rise after the war, as Eastbourne recovered and began to grow again. The highest recorded figure (excluding summer visitors, who always boosted attendances significantly) was 486 in 1967, by which time youth clubs, women's groups and a choir had been established. Meanwhile, the Society of the People Called Methodists, founded in 1803 at Sea Houses, continued its unbroken history by meeting regularly at the church.
Central Methodist Church was listed at Grade II by English Heritage
English Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
on 13 August 1996; this defines it as a "nationally important" building of "special interest". As of February 2001, it was one of 100 Grade II listed buildings, and 109 listed buildings of all grades, in the borough of Eastbourne.
As of , a Baptist congregation shares the church premises. Ceylon Place Baptist Church, a brick and Bath stone
Bath Stone
Bath Stone is an Oolitic Limestone comprising granular fragments of calcium carbonate. Originally obtained from the Combe Down and Bathampton Down Mines under Combe Down, Somerset, England, its warm, honey colouring gives the World Heritage City of Bath, England its distinctive appearance...
Early English Gothic Revival
Gothic Revival architecture
The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...
building, was built on the road of that name in 1885 to replace a tin tabernacle
Tin tabernacle
Tin tabernacles were a type of prefabricated building made from corrugated iron developed in the mid 19th century initially in Great Britain. Corrugated iron was first used for roofing in London in 1829 by Henry Robinson Palmer and the patent sold to Richard Walker who advertised "portable...
erected in 1871. It closed in the early 21st century and was converted for residential use. The congregation moved to Central Methodist Church temporarily while they sought a new place of worship. The community is now known as New Hope Baptist Church. The Church of God Worldwide Mission, a Pentecostal congregation, also use the church for services and prayer meetings.
Architecture
Central Methodist Church is an elaborate Decorated Gothic RevivalGothic Revival architecture
The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...
building of grey stone rubble laid in courses
Course (architecture)
A course is a continuous horizontal layer of similarly-sized building material one unit high, usually in a wall. The term is almost always used in conjunction with unit masonry such as brick, cut stone, or concrete masonry units .-Styles:...
with some ashlar
Ashlar
Ashlar is prepared stone work of any type of stone. Masonry using such stones laid in parallel courses is known as ashlar masonry, whereas masonry using irregularly shaped stones is known as rubble masonry. Ashlar blocks are rectangular cuboid blocks that are masonry sculpted to have square edges...
. The roof is laid with pantiles, which are not original. Nikolaus Pevsner
Nikolaus Pevsner
Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner, CBE, FBA was a German-born British scholar of history of art and, especially, of history of architecture...
wrote that its appearance was "entirely churchy"—resembling an Anglican
Anglicanism
Anglicanism is a tradition within Christianity comprising churches with historical connections to the Church of England or similar beliefs, worship and church structures. The word Anglican originates in ecclesia anglicana, a medieval Latin phrase dating to at least 1246 that means the English...
place of worship much more than typical Nonconformist chapels of the era (of which Eastbourne has several examples).
The church and its associated buildings stand on a corner site. The church itself is entered from Pevensey Road and faces southeastwards; its side façade faces southwest on Susans Road. Next to it on this road is the Sunday school and church hall, which also has a northwest elevation along Langney Road. The church entrance is in a canted
Cant (architecture)
Cant is the architectural term describing part, or segment, of a facade which is at an angle to another part of the same facade. The angle breaking the facade is less than a right angle thus enabling a canted facade to be viewed as, and remain, one composition.Canted facades are a typical of, but...
buttress
Buttress
A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall...
ed porch next to the tower, which stands at the southeast corner. There are two pairs of lancet window
Lancet window
A lancet window is a tall narrow window with a pointed arch at its top. It acquired the "lancet" name from its resemblance to a lance. Instances of this architectural motif are most often found in Gothic and ecclesiastical structures, where they are often placed singly or in pairs.The motif first...
s in the porch, each with trefoil
Trefoil
Trefoil is a graphic form composed of the outline of three overlapping rings used in architecture and Christian symbolism...
s above. A wide seven-light lancet window with tracery
Tracery
In architecture, Tracery is the stonework elements that support the glass in a Gothic window. The term probably derives from the 'tracing floors' on which the complex patterns of late Gothic windows were laid out.-Plate tracery:...
and trefoils is above this. The double doorway in the porch has a carving of a verse from Psalm 100
Psalm 100
Psalm 100 is part of the biblical Book of Psalms. It may be used as a canticle in the Anglican liturgy of Morning Prayer, when it is referred to by its incipit as the Jubilate or Jubilate Deo...
: . The Susans Road façade is of five bays
Bay (architecture)
A bay is a unit of form in architecture. This unit is defined as the zone between the outer edges of an engaged column, pilaster, or post; or within a window frame, doorframe, or vertical 'bas relief' wall form.-Defining elements:...
, each with a gable
Gable
A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of a sloping roof. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system being used and aesthetic concerns. Thus the type of roof enclosing the volume dictates the shape of the gable...
and arched windows at the upper (gallery) level. There is another porch at the northeast corner.
The tower has three levels, with crocket
Crocket
A crocket is a hook-shaped decorative element common in Gothic architecture. It is in the form of a stylised carving of curled leaves, buds or flowers which is used at regular intervals to decorate the sloping edges of spires, finials, pinnacles, and wimpergs....
ed buttress
Buttress
A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall...
es to the lower and middle stages. The upper level has a belfry with louvres
Louver
A louver or louvre , from the French l'ouvert; "the open one") is a window, blind or shutter with horizontal slats that are angled to admit light and air, but to keep out rain, direct sunshine, and noise...
and trefoil
Trefoil
Trefoil is a graphic form composed of the outline of three overlapping rings used in architecture and Christian symbolism...
-headed windows. Above this, the spire is of stone and has lucarne
Lucarne
A lucarne is a small dormer window that is built on a spire or roof during the Gothic and Romanesque time period....
s (small dormers popular in Gothic architecture) and a weather-vane.
The original interior survives. A wooden gallery, supported on slender iron columns, runs round below the hammerbeam roof
Hammerbeam roof
Hammerbeam roof, in architecture, is the name given to an open timber roof, typical of English Gothic architecture, using short beams projecting from the wall.- Design :...
. Other fittings dating from the church's opening include pews, a pulpit
Pulpit
Pulpit is a speakers' stand in a church. In many Christian churches, there are two speakers' stands at the front of the church. Typically, the one on the left is called the pulpit...
and an organ case originally fitted with a three-manual
Manual (music)
A manual is a keyboard designed to be played with the hands on a pipe organ, harpsichord, clavichord, electronic organ, or synthesizer. The term "manual" is used with regard to any hand keyboard on these instruments to distinguish it from the pedalboard, which is a keyboard that the organist plays...
pipe organ
Pipe organ
The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air through pipes selected via a keyboard. Because each organ pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ranks, each of which has a common timbre and volume throughout the keyboard compass...
.
The church hall is a two-storey Decorated Gothic building of stone, with gable
Gable
A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of a sloping roof. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system being used and aesthetic concerns. Thus the type of roof enclosing the volume dictates the shape of the gable...
s, cast ironwork and lancet window
Lancet window
A lancet window is a tall narrow window with a pointed arch at its top. It acquired the "lancet" name from its resemblance to a lance. Instances of this architectural motif are most often found in Gothic and ecclesiastical structures, where they are often placed singly or in pairs.The motif first...
s with tracery. The adjacent Sunday school, also of two storeys, has a Jacobean
Jacobean architecture
The Jacobean style is the second phase of Renaissance architecture in England, following the Elizabethan style. It is named after King James I of England, with whose reign it is associated.-Characteristics:...
appearance, with battlemented turrets in several places. There is a two-window range on the Langney Road side; each has prominent transoms
Transom (architectural)
In architecture, a transom is the term given to a transverse beam or bar in a frame, or to the crosspiece separating a door or the like from a window or fanlight above it. Transom is also the customary U.S. word used for a transom light, the window over this crosspiece...
, mullion
Mullion
A mullion is a vertical structural element which divides adjacent window units. The primary purpose of the mullion is as a structural support to an arch or lintel above the window opening. Its secondary purpose may be as a rigid support to the glazing of the window...
s and pediment
Pediment
A pediment is a classical architectural element consisting of the triangular section found above the horizontal structure , typically supported by columns. The gable end of the pediment is surrounded by the cornice moulding...
s. The Susans Road façade has a four-window range, mostly with leadlight
Leadlight
Leadlights or leaded lights are decorative windows made of small sections of glass supported in lead cames. The technique of creating windows using glass and lead came is discussed at lead came and copper foil glasswork...
s. Inside, a staircase with ornate cast ironwork survives.
Associated churches
Central Methodist Church is the principal church in the Eastbourne Methodist CircuitMethodist Circuit
The Methodist Circuit is part of the organisational structure of British Methodism,or at least those branches derived from the work of John Wesley. It is a group of individual Societies or local Churches under the care of one or more Methodist Ministers. In the scale of organisation, the Circuit...
, which has existed in its present form since 1871. It is, or has been, linked to or associated with several other Methodist churches in the town and in surrounding villages.
Greenfield Methodist Church, an Early English-style red-brick building, has served Eastbourne's Old Town area since 1898, although worshippers had met for ten years prior to that above a shop. Central Methodist Church's predecessor, the Pevensey Road Chapel, helped to found and pay for the new church.
In Eastbourne's poor East End, chapels were founded at Beamsley Road in 1886 and Ringwood Road in 1904. Another church, St Aidan's, was opened nearby in 1913, and the congregations merged and worshipped in that building after the Methodist Union
Methodist Union
For English Methodists, Methodist Union refers to the joining together, in 1932, of several of the larger groups of English Methodists. These were the Wesleyan Methodists, the Primitive Methodists, and the United Methodists.-Methodist Union:...
of 1932 brought together the denomination's different subgroups. St Aidan's Church survived until 2001, but was closed and demolished in that year.
The postwar housing estate of Hampden Park
Hampden Park, East Sussex
Hampden Park is a suburb of Eastbourne. It is notable for its unique railway station, where local trains on the East Coastway Line stop twice, and is thought to be the busiest level crossing in the country. This station, now known as Hampden Park station, was once named 'Willingdon...
gained its first church in 1960, after Central Church played a leading role in establishing a community of worshippers there. St Stephen's Church was opened on 23 July 1960 and was extended 11 years later. A few years later, Central Church was represented on the cross-denominational "Langney Church Sponsoring Committee", which sought to open a new united church in the greatly expanded suburb of Langney
Langney
Langney is a distinct part of Eastbourne, East Sussex and is on the eastern side of the popular seaside resort. The original village and priory have now been amalgamated with the main town of Eastbourne, and Langney was identified as a single self-contained polling ward within the borough of...
. With support from all the major denominations, St Barnabas United Church opened in 1976.
Willingdon, an outlying village, was added to the Circuit in 1894 when a red-brick church was built for just over £400. Popular open-air services had been held in the area for some time beforehand. Trinity Church is now shared with United Reformed
United Reformed Church
The United Reformed Church is a Christian church in the United Kingdom. It has approximately 68,000 members in 1,500 congregations with some 700 ministers.-Origins and history:...
and Baptist worshippers.
Churches in the nearby towns and villages of Hailsham
Hailsham
Hailsham is a civil parish and the largest of the five main towns in the Wealden district of East Sussex, England. Mentioned in the Domesday Book, the town of Hailsham has had a long history of industry and agriculture...
, Cross-in-Hand
Cross In Hand
Cross In Hand is a small village outside of Heathfield town to its west, in the Wealden District situated in East Sussex. It is occasionally referred to as Isenhurst.-The village:...
and Gamelands (near Horam
Horam
Horam is a village and civil parish in the Wealden District of East Sussex, situated three miles south of Heathfield. Included in the parish are the settlements of Vines Cross and Burlow.-History:...
) are also part of the Circuit. The minister of Central Methodist Church was also responsible for Blacknest (or Blackness) Chapel, a small brick chapel opened in 1891 in the parish of Westham
Westham
Westham is a large village civil parish in the Wealden District of East Sussex, England. The village is adjacent to Pevensey five miles north-east of Eastbourne. The parish consists of three settlements: Westham; Stone Cross; and Hankham...
, which was closed and demolished early in the 21st century.