Atherton Primitive Methodist Chapel

Atherton is now part of The Wigan Borough

The Mission Hall used by the Prims before building the church and hall in Alma Street
Atherton Evangelical Church
The date stone from the front of the demolished chapel
Peter Wood
The former Hall / Sunday School, now Atherton Evangelical Church
Peter Wood

The Chapel was situated on the east side of Alma Street near to the junction with Mealhouse Lane.

The chapel was demolished in the 50’s but the hall remained when the chapel closed the congregation went to Central Methodist Church Atherton. The hall is now used as a chapel by Atherton Evangelical Church.

The date stone shows the date 1886 but I understand that Primitive Methodists came to Atherton some years before that first meeting in a house in the Howe Bridge area of the town and later moved into a mission Hall at the end of Bag Lane.

Downloads

An aerial picture of the area showing the location of the chapel to the right of the number 1.

Comments about this page

  • An examination of old maps shows that what is today the Evangelical Church was the first P.M. Chapel on the Alma Street site, becoming the Sunday School/Hall when the second (now demolished) chapel was built adjacent to it, some time between 1906 and 1927. The foundation stone referred to therefore probably belonged to the demolished Mission Room on the south side of Mealhouse Lane at its corner with Alma Street. You can see more on this on my website entry https://www.churches-uk-ireland.org/towns/a/atherton.html – the Evangelical Church entry.

    By Steve Bulman (13/02/2024)
  • Further to the pics and info already on this site, the attached document is an aerial photo showing the church – it’s to the right of the number 1. The smaller building to its right is the existing Atherton Evangelical church, which was previously the church hall of the big church. The church fell into disuse as it was too big, used as a funeral parlour and finally sold for £1 (word-of-mouth info – I don’t know who it was sold to. Demolished in the 50s or 60s a pair of bungalows now stand on the site.

    By Frances Raftery (19/05/2021)
  • The photograph of the “Mission Hall” is rather misleading. The Primitive Methodist Chapel was on the other side of the street and was a far more substantial and, to my mind, impressive building. Try as I might, I cannot find any photographs of the Chapel but would be very grateful if anyone has an image, or architectural plans of the building.

    By Anthony Mitchell (19/04/2021)
  • The opening of this chapel at what it calls Chowbent is reported in the Primitive Methodist magazine of February 1887. They had tried for thirty years to mission the town, but three years previously they took a room, formed a society and established a Sunday school. And then they built the chapel.

    By Christopher Hill (20/08/2020)

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