St Weonards, Herefordshire
something of a mystery?
The date over the door of this chapel is hard to read. It certainly begins with 186, and may well be 1861 or 1864. The chapel stands at the bottom of a hill just outside St Weonards, on the main road towards Hereford. There is however, for me at least, a mystery attached to it.
Before I retired, I used to drive up and down this road fairly often, and I was sure the noticeboard on the wall said “Baptist Chapel” (or “Church”). Then the chapel disappeared behind the trees which grew between it and the road, though if you pushed your way through the trees, the door was open and you could go in – though the building was empty.
In February 2014 I drove past it again, and the trees have been cut down, and the building put into its present state, shown on the photographs (kindly taken for me by the man running the village post office and shop). The inscription over the door is Primitive Methodist Chapel. So did the chapel pass into the hands of the Baptists, or am I imagining the noticeboard I thought used to be displayed on the wall?
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The List of places of meeting for public religious worship certified to the Registrar-General, 1867 (page 184) reveals that there were two PM chapels in the parish of Llanwarne: Wynmill Hill,and Sandy Way. A recent search of the Herefordshire Archives catalogue reveals Wynmill Hill to be now known as Harewood End (Herefordshire Archives C12/1). In view of the information from the National Gazeteer it is interesting that there was no Wesleyan chapel registered, though it certainly existed by the time of the 1873 Returns of Accommodation.
It is called Sandyway PM Chapel and is in the Parish of Llanwarne Herefordshire. It is called a PM Chapel on the first edition OS Maps. The National Gazetter in 1868 states a WM Chapel in the Parish which is at Turkey Tump but has no mention of the PM Chapel at Sandyway which should be earlier than the Gazetter.
Its NGR is SO 4960 2609 and on my visit in 2000 it was very much closed. No other information is known.
Broadmoor Common. Not to be confused with Broadmoor.
I’ve seen this one for the first time today right on the old road from Hereford to Monmouth. My reading of the date is 1864. On passing to the Baptists, the chapel in the woods on Broad Marsh common at Woolhope was sold recently by the Baptist church, so that definitely had passed into the hands of the Baptists
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