Swan Village Primitive Methodist chapel
West Bromwich circuit: how many chapels does a place need?
The Primitive Methodist magazine for February 1852 contains an account by R Cordingly of the opening of Swan Village Primitive Methodist chapel in the West Bromwich circuit. He tells us that the opening services started on December 7th 1851 and sermons were preached by E Britain, P Pugh, E Thomason and G Peak.
However, he spent most of his account considering whether there were too many chapels in a small area. They had built 6 chapels in addition to the existing one (which became a Sunday school) and rented two more.
When I wrote this page in January 2017, I asked “Does anyone know where this chapel was and what happened to it?” Howard Richter has responded with the following:
This was the situation in 1890
https://www.old-maps.co.uk/#/Map/398266/292309/12/100599
It’s not clear on that map exactly where the text is pointing, but see the later maps such as:
https://www.old-maps.co.uk/#/Map/398300/292300/13/100765
from which it is clear that the chapel was set back from the south side of Great Bridge Street at SO 983 923
This building is visible across the background on Streetview in August 2018
https://www.google.com/maps/@52.5288445,-2.0264642,3a,75y,181.35h,98.76t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sua_g2ECHHS97Zpd17znhOw!2e0!5s20180801T000000!7i13312!8i6656
The National Archives here
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/c/F214548
show that the Sandwell Archives in Smethwick hold some recent records of this chapel.
Whether the extant building – in situ since no later than 1890 – is the one opened in August 1852 has yet to be established
Reference
Primitive Methodist magazine February 1852 p.113
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Thanks to Howard Richter for sterling detective work to track down the chapel in Swan Village, which I have added to the page. Whether it is the chapel in the 1852 Primitive Methodist magazine is a question still to be answered.
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