Buckingham Primitive Methodist chapel

Moreton Road, BUCKINGHAM, MK18 1JZ

Buckingham Primitive Methodist chapel - formerly Baptist, later Salvation Army
Keith Guyler 1997
Return from Buckingham Primitive Methodist chapel in the 1851 Census of Places of Public Religious Worship
Provided by David Tonks

The chapel building in Keith Guyler’s picture was opened in 1842 for a group of Baptists. In time it became a Primitive Methodist chapel (shown on the 1898 Ordnance Survey map) and in due course a Salvation Army citadel (1921 map). Google Street View in May 2011 shows it still used by the Salvation Army.

When the Return from Buckingham Primitive Methodist society in the 1851 Census of Places of Public Religious Worship was completed by John Wright, the minister, the society was based in Prebend End, a mile away from the Chapel shown in the picture – see Ed Grimsdale’s comment below.

It had taken the society quite a while to find a home for themselves in Prebend End: previously they had met in a temperance hall in Buckingham but they could not afford it and had to leave and met in a cottage.  In the end they bought a plot of  five cottages and 900 sq feet of land for £105. This provided enough land for a  18′ x 21′ chapel and a burial ground.

The 1844 Primitive Methodist magazine reports the opening of the chapel in Prebend End on July 16th/17th 1843 ; preachers included Messrs Pullen & Foizey and Rev WH Carryer (Baptist Minister). Donors included WD Harris, Mr Cherry, H Holland, G Elborough – and Baptist friends.

The 1887 Primitive Methodist magazine tells us that “on the Buckingham mission the building of a small school-chapel has been commenced. A place for worship and work for our small and struggling cause in the little country town is much needed., and a suitable site having been secured, this want is going to be to some extent supplied”

How does that relate to the Moreton Road chapel?

Reference

Primitive Methodist magazine 1843 page 485-486

Comments about this page

  • Thanks for the additional information Ed. I have amended the page to take it into account.

    By Christopher Hill (01/12/2020)
  • It’s lovely to see the Religious Return from the Buckingham Primitive Methodist Chapel (1851) but it is a shame that group of Methodists were based in Prebend End, a mile away from the Chapel shown in your image which was created in 1842 by ‘Squire Harris’, who lived nearby, as an Ebenezer Baptist Chapel. It, too, reported its congregations on 30.03.1851 as 81(am) and 69(pm). A little later, one Baptist ‘Pastor’ denied the Divinity of Jesus Christ and a schism from Hell broke loose. During the chaos, a group of Primitive Methodists were allowed to worship in the Moreton Rd Chapel, but they never owned it and… eventually, had to be turned out like squatters… hence your 1887 observation!

    By Ed Grimsdale Local Historian at the Old Gaol museum, Buckingham (30/11/2020)

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