Wesleyan Methodist Church, Nantwich
Encyclopedia
Wesleyan Methodist Church (Great Britain)
The Wesleyan Methodist Church was the name used by the major Methodist movement in Great Britain following its split from the Church of England after the death of John Wesley and the appearance of parallel Methodist movements...
church on Hospital Street, Nantwich
Nantwich
Nantwich is a market town and civil parish in the Borough of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. The town gives its name to the parliamentary constituency of Crewe and Nantwich...
, Cheshire
Cheshire
Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...
, England (at ). Built in 1808, a new façade was added in 1876. The church then seated over a thousand, and was the largest 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:...
place of worship in the town in the 1880s. It is listed at grade II. The church closed in 2009, after the congregation moved to the former Methodist schoolrooms opposite.
History
Early visits from NonconformistNonconformism
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:...
preachers were not welcomed in Nantwich. In 1753, John Wesley
John Wesley
John Wesley was a Church of England cleric and Christian theologian. Wesley is largely credited, along with his brother Charles Wesley, as founding the Methodist movement which began when he took to open-air preaching in a similar manner to George Whitefield...
was "saluted with curses and hard names", while that same year, George Whitefield
George Whitefield
George Whitefield , also known as George Whitfield, was an English Anglican priest who helped spread the Great Awakening in Britain, and especially in the British North American colonies. He was one of the founders of Methodism and of the evangelical movement generally...
was met by angry crowds who tried to drive a bull into his audience, but were foiled when the animal fell into a pit. A Methodist
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...
congregation was in existence by 1777. Members originally worshipped in a chapel on Barker Street, which later became a Baptist chapel. Wesley preached there twice, on 6 April 1779 and 17 May 1781. In 1789, the congregation numbered only 23.
Rapid growth happened in the subsequent few decades, with the congregation reaching 200 by 1806. The society then purchased a site on Hospital Street for £700, on which they built a church and two preachers' houses, at a cost of £3,300. The Wesleyan Methodist Church opened on 13 November 1808, and seated a congregation of around 900. Originally included in the Chester
Chester
Chester is a city in Cheshire, England. Lying on the River Dee, close to the border with Wales, it is home to 77,040 inhabitants, and is the largest and most populous settlement of the wider unitary authority area of Cheshire West and Chester, which had a population of 328,100 according to the...
Methodist circuit, in 1808 Nantwich became the centre of a circuit which included Alsager
Alsager
Alsager is a town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, to the north-west of the city of Stoke-on-Trent, and east of the railway town of Crewe...
, Bickerton
Bickerton, Cheshire
Bickerton is a village and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, about eight miles north of Whitchurch in Shropshire. The parish also includes the small settlement of Gallantry Bank, with a total population of over 200...
, Buerton and Winsford
Winsford
Winsford is a town and civil parish within the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. It lies on the River Weaver south of Northwich and west of Middlewich, and grew around the salt mining industry after the river was canalised in the...
, and, until 1869, the new town of Crewe
Crewe
Crewe is a railway town within the unitary authority area of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. According to the 2001 census the urban area had a population of 67,683...
.
In 1835, a split occurred and several congregation members were expelled; they formed the Wesleyan Methodist Association, which met on Castle Street. In the mid-19th century, the several other Nonconformist places of worship in the town also included a Primitive Methodist Chapel
Primitive Methodist Chapel, Nantwich
The Primitive Methodist Chapel is a former Primitive Methodist church on Welsh Row in Nantwich, Cheshire, England . Built in 1840, it is listed at grade II. The chapel closed in 2001, and the building has been partially converted to residential use....
on Welsh Row, a Unitarian Chapel on Hospital Street, an Independent or Congregational Chapel
Congregational Chapel, Nantwich
The Congregational Chapel, also known as the Independent Chapel, is a former Congregational or Independent church in Nantwich, Cheshire, England. It is located on Monks Lane , now a pedestrian walkway, opposite the Dysart Buildings and immediately north east of St Mary's Church. Built in 1841–42,...
on Monks Lane, a Baptist Chapel on Barker Street, and a Friends' Meeting House on Pillory Street.
In 1858, the church was improved with the addition of vestries
Vestry
A vestry is a room in or attached to a church or synagogue in which the vestments, vessels, records, etc., are kept , and in which the clergy and choir robe or don their vestments for divine service....
at a cost of £400. A new Sweetland organ was purchased for £300 in 1859. The church was substantially altered and enlarged in 1876 at a cost of around £2,300, with the addition of a new façade and new pews on the interior; it then seated over a thousand. (The total population of Nantwich in 1871 was 6,673.) In 1883, it was the largest chapel in the town. A new organ was installed in 1911.
An elementary day school was constructed in 1840 on Hospital Street, opposite the church, which also doubled as the Sunday school; by 1873 it was teaching both boys and girls to read. On 3 January 1908, the school burned down and was replaced with the existing building, which opened on 27 September 1909 at a cost of £2,000, raised by the local circuit. The new building was used as a Sunday school rather than a day school.
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:...
in 1932, the Hospital Street church became one of several Methodist places of worship in Nantwich. In 1966, it merged with the Pillory Street Methodist Chapel and the Wood Memorial Chapel on The Barony to form the Central Methodist Church of Nantwich, which worshipped at the Hospital Street church. In 2000, the Welsh Row Chapel also merged into the Central Methodist Church to form Nantwich Methodist Church.
The congregation moved to the former Methodist schoolrooms opposite in 2009. As of 2010, the former church stands empty; conversion of part of the building into offices has been approved.
Description
The former Wesleyan Methodist Church is a two-storey building in red brick, which is set well back from the street. The front façade is gableGable
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...
d, with stone dressings, and is flanked with tall brick pilaster
Pilaster
A pilaster is a slightly-projecting column built into or applied to the face of a wall. Most commonly flattened or rectangular in form, pilasters can also take a half-round form or the shape of any type of column, including tortile....
s. This face has a recess at ground level containing two adjacent doorways, which have stone surrounds with pilasters and decorative keystone
Keystone (architecture)
A keystone is the wedge-shaped stone piece at the apex of a masonry vault or arch, which is the final piece placed during construction and locks all the stones into position, allowing the arch to bear weight. This makes a keystone very important structurally...
s, and semi-circular arched heads with fanlight
Fanlight
A fanlight is a window, semicircular or semi-elliptical in shape, with glazing bars or tracery sets radiating out like an open fan, It is placed over another window or a doorway. and is sometimes hinged to a transom. The bars in the fixed glazed window spread out in the manner a sunburst...
s; the doorways are flanked by two narrow windows. Above the doors is another large arched recess, faced in stone, which contains two large arched windows flanked by pilasters, with a smaller circular window above. There are two stone string courses and a stone cornice
Cornice
Cornice molding is generally any horizontal decorative molding that crowns any building or furniture element: the cornice over a door or window, for instance, or the cornice around the edge of a pedestal. A simple cornice may be formed just with a crown molding.The function of the projecting...
. The façade is flanked by circular bays, which have two small windows with semi-circular heads.
Sources
- Hall J. A History of the Town and Parish of Nantwich, or Wich Malbank, in the County Palatine of Chester (2nd edn) (E. J. Morten; 1972) (ISBN 0-901598-24-0)
- Lamberton A, Gray R. Lost Houses in Nantwich (Landmark Publishing; 2005) (ISBN 1 84306 202 X)
- Simpson R. Crewe and Nantwich: A Pictorial History (Phillimore; 1991) (ISBN 0 85033 724 0)