Kirkby Stephen Primitive Methodist Chapel 1902

Market Street

Peter Barber 21.04.12

1902 Kirkby Stephen Primitive Methodist Chapel, Fletcher Hill, in 1991

Keith Guyler 1991

Kirkby Stephen Primitive Methodist chapel

Tim Macquiban August 2020

Organ & Pulpit at Fletcher Hill Chapel , Kirkby Stephen , 1979.

Andrew Souter

Situated in Market Street, this former PM Chapel is currently a Youth Hostel. The date stone on the front says ‘1902’, but this was presumably the date when the original Chapel was extended.

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Kirkby Stephen PM Chapel Boiler Explosion 1892 (53 KB Adobe Acrobat document, opens in a new window)

A transcription of an investigation report into a boiler explosion at Kirkby Stephen PM Chapel in 1892

Author

By Jill Barber

Page added

21/04/2012

Comments about this page

The 1903 Primitive Methodist magazine (page 499-500) reports that “splendid premises consisting of church, schools, lecture hall and caretaker’s house have lately been opened at Kirkby Stephen. … …
The expenditure will amount in all to £2,200 and about £1,000 has been raised, an excellent result for a society of less than seventy.”
The chapel seated 250 and they were concerned it would not be big enough.
By Christopher Hill (16/01/2023)
I have added a transcription of a report of a boiler explosion at the chapel in 1892 provided by Vicky Green
By Geoff Dickinson (29/10/2020)
The 1877 Primitive Methodist magazine (page 699) records the laying of the memorial stones for a new Primitive Methodist chapel at Kirkby Stephen in the Brough circuit. We are told nothing more.
By Christopher Hill (17/05/2020)
Fletcher Chapel was a new build, the chapel built in 1865 still stands , the Masonic Hall & is at the other end of town near Silver Street.
By Andrew Souter (06/10/2018)
Kirby Stephen, Fletcher Hill, PM Chapel, Westmorland
Kirby Stephen Chapel was built in 1865 at a cost of £613.7.1d. By 1884 £57.18.3 had been spent on improvements to the premises and there were 200 lettable and 60 free sittings. A school was added in 1878 at a cost of £704.6.0. The chapel received loan of £30 from the District Sites and Loans Committee in 1903, probably to help fund the alterations commemorated in the 1902 date stone. In 1940 the chapel had 210 sittings in pews. There were also two schoolrooms and one other room. In 1979 the two Methodist congregations in Kirby Stephen merged, concentrating their activities on the Centenary (ex Wesleyan) site.
Sources
Cumbria Archive Service, Kendal, WDFCM1/10/16-17 Annual chapel schedules 1865-6, 1884-7.
Carlisle Library, 1A287, Kirby Stephen Methodist Church, Cumbria, 1839-1889
Carlisle Library, 1A287, Methodist Property Statistics 1940, 1980
John Rylands Library, Manchester, Methodist Church Archives, Carlisle and Whitehaven PM District Sites and Loans Committee accounts, 1908-1920
By GW Oxley (01/12/2017)
The first PM chapel to be built was in 1865 , now the Masonic Hall. It is said that the minister at that time, Rev James Warnes, who lived at Brough, made a name for himself by coming each day to give a hand in the actual building work. Fletcher Hill chapel closed in 1979
By andrew souter (19/04/2014)