Kirtling Primitive Methodist chapel

The Chapel, Chapel Lane Kirtling NEWMARKET CB8 9PF

Kirtling Primitive Methodist chapel
Keith Guyler 1987

Kirtling Primitive Methodist chapel was opened in 1870 and served for over 100 years, holding its last service in 1975.  It accommodated 80 worshippers. 

A key element in the closure was the decline in population of the parish.  The population of the parish in the 1801 census was 1,458, and proceeded to fall to 909 in 1851, below 800 in 1880, 600 in 1910, 500 in 1930 and to 300 in 1971. 

At the time of Keith Guyler’s photograph in 1987 it served as a store.  Google Street View has only found it once, in 2008, largely because it is at the end of a narrow, winding no through road.  It has however by this time been converted into a very small but neat bungalow with what appears to be the larger part of the L shape building retaining its roll-over door, perhaps as a garage.  It has lost its surrounding hedges and is waiting for landscaping; what is it like now?

Given how isolated the chapel is, you appreciate how different the way of life was when the chapel was established, compared to how it is now.  

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