Loughborough Swan Street Primitive Methodist chapel

Swan Street LOUGHBOROUGH LE11 5BG

Swan Street Primitive Methodist chapel was opened in 1849 and enlarged in 1870 to accommodate 600 people.   It replaced the previous chapel in Dead Lane and occupied a large site which by the time of its closure included schoolrooms and cottages.

After closure the congregation joined with the former Wesleyan chapel in Leicester Road and then became founder members of the new society at Trinity.

When the building was demolished – by Collington and Son of Leicester – they discovered that the Woodbrook flowed directly underneath the building, covered only by floorboards.  The foreman commented that in periods of heavy rain the noise must have disturbed services.

Comments about this page

  • I remember attending the Cygnets at Swan Street with my brother Austin Harland. Our father was Arthur Harland who ran the Boys’ Brigade there for many years and was mainly associated with Knightthorpe Methodist Church. I remember the”Green Room” at the back of the Hall.

    Sadly both Austin and my father have passed away.

    By MAGGIE MELVILLE (19/06/2021)
  • My parents met at the Sygnets, which was the Swan Street youth group.

    By Gary Wood (25/12/2020)
  • Swan Street Primitive Methodist Chapel 1870 to replace The Rushes Chapel. There was a school behind the chapel and the whole cost £1000
    The school was added in 1886. The foundation stones for the school extension were laid in May 1885. The plan was to retain the existing assembly hall and link it to the new building by a corridor while the lower schoolroom was to be altered to fit in with the new building which would house classrooms. The Architects were Hodson, Price and Hodson of Loughborough, the builder Arthur Faulks and the joiner J. Sills. The whole was expected to cost about £700.
    In 1901 a new choir gallery and rostrum were installed, a new heating apparatus and heating chamber were acquired and the premises were cleaned and redecorated at a cost of £419.8.1d The architects for the work were Messrs Barrowcliff and Alcock of Loughborough whose fees were £32.18.8d A new organ was bought from the builders, Hardy & Son, of Penny Lane, Stockport. The old organ was sold to Whitwick Chapel for £30 In 1940 the chapel measured 50 feet by 40 feet and seated 150. There was a gallery at the back and on the two sides which seated a further 100. All the seating was in pews. The schoolrooms measured 80 feet by 25 feet and 40 feet by 25 feet and there were ten vestries or classrooms.
    Sources
    W White, History, Gazetteer, and Directory of Leicestershire and Rutland, 1877, p 503
    John Rylands Library University of Manchester, DDPD1 Methodist Church Buildings: Statistical returns including seating accommodation as at July 1st 1940/697 (Loughborough Circuit)
    Souvenir Programme of the centenary Camp Meeting, Windmill Hill, Woodhouse Eves, Sunday July 21 1907
    Site visit 17.4.2019
    Melton Mowbray Mercury and Oakham and Uppingham News, 28.5.1885

    By G W Oxley (19/11/2020)
  • Mr Hill Thank you for talking to me this morning, if you would like to meet up to see any information I might have about Swan Street, or memories please do so.  Alfred very kindly mentions my parents and I can tell you more.  Regard’s Enid

    By Enid shepherd (09/09/2017)
  • Greetings Christopher,

    It is over twelve months since I looked at the page and I didn’t realise that you had replied to my original email, or comment. I am more than happy for you to have used my sketch of Swan Street and the one for Nottingham Road Chapel too. Sorry about the coffee stain.

    Swan Street was the force behind the setting up of the Duke Street Mission in the lower story of a Factory and out of that venture came Nottingham Road Chapel in 1892. (The Factory building I always thought was the building used is to be redeveloped in the next few months, if it hasn’t started already.

    The Lady who wrote to you after me was the daughter of Mr Bramwell Sharpe who when I was a youngster was the Sunday School Super, he was one of the founders if not the Founder of the 1st Loughborough Boys Brigade Company and also one of the founders of The Methodist Association of Youth Clubs as well as being the motivating force behind the Trinity Methodist Church whose 50th Celebration you attended. He was one of those people that you only meet the like of once or twice in a lifetime.

    Whilst The Primitive Methodist Church in effect ceased to exist with the union in 1932, the ethos carried on for many years, and though I was born in 1942 I would claim to be a ‘Prim’.

    If you would like reminiscences then I am sure both Mrs Shepherd and I would be pleased to offer them. 

    You have my Email address, if I could help any further please get in touch via that channel

    Kindest regards

    Alfred  Mosley

    By Alfred Mosley (17/05/2017)
  • I attended Swan Street from a baby in 1945, my parents were very involved for many many years.

    I am Enid Shepherd, nee Sharpe

    By Enid Shepherd (19/02/2017)
  • Thanks for this Alfred.  I have corrected the location on the map; in terms of current land use, it is the row of shops to the north-west of Wilkinson’s store.

    I have also added your credit to the sketch.  I hope you are content for it to be on this site.  When I saw it at the Loughborough Trinity 50th Anniversary celebrations I didn’t know who had drawn it and who to ask for permission.

    By Christopher Hill (04/02/2016)
  • I attended Swan Street from the age of three, and I am the person who created the sketch, some years ago now.

    Indeed one could hear the brook when it was full and one could also hear the  Salvation Army in full swing 100 yards further along the culvert.

    The location of the Church according to the map is in correct, if you were to blow up the map a little you will see Brookside, well the Church was directly opposite.

    Swan Street was the Circuit Church for the third Circuit in Primitive Methodism and the Circuit stretchedv as far as Nuneaton in the south and the river Trent in the North

    If I can help further in any way get in touch.

    Alfred Mosley

     

    By Alfred Mosley (03/02/2016)

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