Bournheath Primitive Methodist Chapel, Bromsgrove, Worcestershire

Opened 1837

Bournheath Methodist Church, 1998

This chapel was opened in July 1837 and cost £120. There were “150 sittings – all free”. The chapel was enlarged and a gallery installed, probably in the 1850’s.

The first Primitive Methodist Chapel at Bournheath was built by William Ince in 1826. His brother Henry Ince became an ardent campaigner for the rights of the nailmakers of Bromsgrove District and held many meetings with the nailmakers and nailmasters in an attempt to improve the pay and working conditions.

The chapel  later became Bournheath Methodist Church.

The church sadly closed its doors in September 2015 after 178 years of continuous Methodist worship in Bournheath village.

For more information, please click on the attached file.

Editor’s note (CH 05/2020)

David Tonks has transcribed an account of the opening of what it names as Bourne Heath Primitive Methodist chapel from the Primitive Methodist Magazine, 1838

“We have had a society in this place for some years; but its progress has been retarded for want of a more convenient place of worship.  We have at length erected a neat little chapel, twenty-six by eighteen feet outside, seventeen feet high, with a gallery in one end.  It was opened July 16,1837, when Mr. H. Bourne preached morning and night, and the Rev. Mr. Ashwell (Independent) of Bromsgrove, in the afternoon.  The congregations were large, numbers could not get in.  The collections were liberal, and services powerful.  Had the work been done and the materials purchased at the regular trade price, it would have cost about one hundred and fifty pounds, but we shall not have more than one hundred pounds debt upon it.  It is well attended, and settled on the Connexion.”

Source

Primitive Methodist Magazine, 1838.  Pages 71-72

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Comments about this page

  • My thanks to Christopher Hill for locating the additional information for this chapel. This provides valuable resource to add to the chapel’s history. 

    By Trevor@Bournheath (26/05/2017)
  • It’s a pleasure!  It will be worth looking at the actual account in the Magazine for further detail.

    By Christopher Hill (26/05/2017)
  • The Primitive Methodist magazine for April 1851 (p 247) includes an account by J Huff of the re-opening of the chapel in 1850. It explained that the congregation had been having problems because of a spring of water under floor of the first chapel; so a new floor was installed.

    By Christopher Hill (24/08/2016)
  • This page was updated on 26 September 2015.

    By Jill Barber (26/09/2015)

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