Chatteris Primitive Methodist chapel
Chapel Street, Bridge Street PE16 6RJ?
The Primitive Methodist Magazine (1851: pp 110-111) contains an account by Henry Alderslade of the opening of the first Primitive Methodist chapel in Chatteris on the afternoon of Thursday December 12th 1850.
Previously the society had met in an old barn which they had kitted out for the purpose so the chapel was a clear step forward. It was built of white brick with a slate roof and measured 38′ long, 26′ wide and 18′ high “to the roof plate”. It seated 250 and cost £281/9/6. When at the last of a series of opening services “the balance sheet of the accounts of the undertaking was read, all eyes sparkled and every heart was delighted.” They had collected £80 towards the total.
Mr Alderslade does not specify where the chapel was, but on the Ordnance Survey 1:2,500 map of 1888, a Primitive Methodist chapel is located on Bridge Street, at the junction with Chapel Lane (although it is not clear from the maps which side of the road it was on). It is still there in 1902 but has disappeared by 1926.
On Google Street View in October 2014 there is an impressive but unused building that looks as if it could have been a chapel, but it does not fit the description of the 1850 building, or have quite the same footprint. Was it enlarged/rebuilt as Prim chapels often were as the Society grew? See Ian Graham’s comment below for more information.
Can you help explain this?
Reference
Primitive Methodist Magazine (1851: pp 110-111)
Comments about this page
Good morning, Christopher
I am now many miles from Chatteris, in the Swansea Valley, so I can only amplify what I said before. I don’t know about the physical persistence of the building. But the close “en- wrapping” of the site by the Lanes/yards (as I remember it – and I had distant family connections with an old couple who lived ’round the back’ there), and indeed the persistence of the name Chapel Lane, albeit now applying to modern buildings, might be thought to imply some strong continuities. Maybe the chapel was smaller than the garage, but had some ground around it ?
Sincerely
Ian G.
Does the current building contain remnants of the chapel?
Using overlays, the current building appears not to be in quite the same location or have exactly the same footprint as the chapel marked on old Ordnance Survey maps. It would be good to know, Ian.
Hallo, if there’s anyone there !
I happened on this while looking stuff up in the course of recalling my own upbringing within the society of the ‘other’ Chatteris Methodist chapel, the formerly Wesleyan one on New Street/Road. Now also gone.
The Prim chapel was on the west side of Bridge Street- ie left-hand side going towards Doddington and March. In my childhood (50’s-60’s) the site was occupied by the Eastern Counties bus garage, but I don’t know if that was the actual chapel, gutted and adapted. What I do recall is that it was closely hemmed by lanes/yards, some at least still in domestic occupation.
If you look on some of the Facebook community pages associated with Chatteris, you may find more recent comment about the site – concern about neglect surfaces from time to time.
Add a comment about this page