Northampton Park Avenue Primitive Methodist Church

Is this the present church which was built in 1925?

postcard belonging to Revd Steven Wild
Park Avenue Primitive Methodist Chapel. general view, 3.8.2019
G.W. Oxley
Northampton, Park Avenue Primitive Methodist Chapel. chapel facade, 3.8.2019
G.W. Oxley
Northampton, Park Avenue Primitive Methodist Chapel. modern entrance, 3.8.2019
G.W. Oxley
Northampton, Park Avenue Primitive Methodist Chapel. schoolroon, 3.8.2019
G.W. Oxley
Northampton, Park Avenue Primitive Methodist Chapel. original chpel doorway, 3.8.2019
G.W. Oxley
Northampton, Park Avenue Primitive Methodist Chapel. new use for original chapel doorway, 3.8.2019
G.W. Oxley
Northampton, Park Avenue Primitive Methodist Chapel. modern doorway, 3.8.2019
G.W. Oxley
Northampton, Park Avenue Primitive Methodist Chapel. tower and spire, 3.8.2019
G.W. Oxley
Northampton, Park Avenue Primitive Methodist Chapel. south side of chapel, 3.8.2019
G.W. Oxley
Northampton, Park Avenue Primitive Methodist Chapel. south side of rooms to rear of chapel, 3.8.2019
G.W. Oxley
Northampton, Park Avenue Primitive Methodist Chapel. north side of rooms to rear of chapel , 3.8.2019
G.W. Oxley
Northampton, Park Avenue Primitive Methodist Chapel. west side of rooms to rear of chapel, 3.8.2019
G.W. Oxley
Northampton, Park Avenue Methodist Chapel. memorial stones on rooms to rear of chapel i , 3.8.2019
G.W. Oxley
Northampton, Park Avenue Methodist Chapel. memorial stones on rooms to rear of chapel ii, 3.8.2019
G.W. Oxley
Northampton, Park Avenue Methodist Chapel. memorial stones on rooms to rear of chapel iii, 3.8.2019
G.W. Oxley
Northampton, Park Avenue Methodist Chapel. notice board, 3.8.2019
G.W. Oxley

Comments about this page

  • This church and its associated hall was actually designed by Reginald Palmer Baines son of George Baines.

    By Graham Ward (17/03/2023)
  • The land for Park Avenue Primitive Methodist Chapel was bought in 1912 for £800. The chapel and school which had cost £20,521 opened in September 1925. Mr W J Arnold paid for the organ (£1500) and Mr J C Pearse for the furmishings, carpets, linoleum, etc. The main contractor was A Glenn and Son of Northampton.
    A newspaper report of the opening provides a good description of the interior:
    The church has been designed with a wide nave with open timbered roof of hammer beam construction, double transepts on each side, and a semi octagonal apse for the choir with organ chamber behind and the pulpit in the centre of a spacious platform. The seats are semi-circular on plan all radiating from the pulpit so that every hearer directly faces the preacher, and are of wax polished oak to match the joinery. Seating accommodation is to be provided for over 600 people. The floor of the church is slightly amphitheatre in form for the facilities of sight and hearing.
    The vestries are arranged on one side of the apse with doors opening into the corridor and thence into the church. In front a large doorway leads into a spacious vestibule and inner lobbies and another doorway in the tower leads up to a fireproof staircase to the end gallery and also into the front vestibule. Cloakroom and lavatory accommodation is provided near the front entrance.
    The schools consist of a fine entrance and vestibule, a large hall with transepts on each side, each forming two separate classrooms divided from each other by partitions, making the hall 50 feet wide when opened up. At one end there is a spacious platform recess with two doors from corridors in the rear of the building leading to a kitchen, storeroom and two large classrooms on each side, each divisible into two by swivel partitions when required. In front of the main hall are two seniors’ rooms opening by swivel partitions into the main hall. Cloakrooms and lavatory accommodation is provided in suitable positions.
    Space is reserved at the rear of the site for a minor hall and additional classrooms when required
    In 1941 the premises consisted of the chapel, two halls, and nine other rooms. They are fine example of the trend which emerged towards the end of the nineteenth century of designing and building a full suite of premises from the start rather than piecemeal as needs demanded and finances permitted. This project speaks volumes of the ambition of the Primitive Methodists and of the resources at their disposal in the1920s.. Like many Methodist buildings from the first half of the twentieth century much of interest is to be found in the detail. The entrance to the tower, for example, is a curious mixture of styles but the timber doors with their distinctive ironwork and glazed panels are a gem.
    It may be that the buildings on the north side of the site were the later additions mentioned at the end of the press report. The glazed structure between the chapel and the hall is a more recent addition
    Sources
    Northampton Chronicle and Echo, 6.1.1925
    Northampton Mercury, 11.9.1925
    Northamptonshire Record Office, NMC191-2, Second, later Kettering Road, Circuit Trust schedules, 1910/11 -1931/2
    John Rylands Library University of Manchester, MAC Lawson, Methodist Church Buildings: Statistical returns including seating accommodation as at July 1st 1940 No 681 (Kettering Road Circuit)
    http://www.methodist-churches-northampton.org.uk/index.php/our-churches/slideshow Site visit 3.8.2019

    By G W Oxley (03/12/2020)
  • A website devoted to the architect George Baines includes Park Avenue PM, Northampton in it’s list of Nonconformist Church buildings designed by him https://georgebainesarchitect.wordpress.com/building-index/

    By Tim Banks (26/02/2020)
  • George Baines and sons were the architects

    By Colin Dews (28/02/2018)
  • Yes it is. The church is still thriving and the chapel interior remains unchanged.

    By Tim Woolley (05/04/2017)

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