Chris Wells has put together the story:
Tranmere is an area on the Wirral banks of the Mersey immediately south of Birkenhead. According to the 1850 Bagshaw Directory for Cheshire, page 695, ‘It [Tranmere] is pleasantly situated on high ground, and commands a delightful view of the Mersey. Extensive tracts of land, which a few years ago was a barren waste, is now covered with elegant mansions, terraces, and handsome villa residences. … The township contains 1,130 houses and about 6,700 inhabitants. Population in 1801, 353; in 1831, 1,168; in 1841, 2,554.
Three Tranmere Primitive Methodist chapels have been found:
- Grosvenor Street, South Tranmere
- Queen Street, Lower Tranmere
- Mount Tabor, Holt Road, North Tranmere.
Chris has pieced together the following tentative history for Grosvenor Street from a number of sources.
Grosvenor Street used to be a side road off the (Old) Chester Road, lying east-west about halfway between St Paul’s Road and Bedford Road (see 1872-75 map). Rock Ferry Primary School (CH62 2BL) now stands on the site of the chapel.
No Tranmere societies are mentioned in the 1923 booklet when it refers to an 1849 Liverpool (and Birkenhead) Circuit Preaching Plan, and no Tranmere PM chapels are mentioned in the 1850 Bagshaw Directory for Cheshire. However, this chapel did already exist:
1846: According to the 1851 Census Return for Places of Worship for this chapel, it was erected in 1846. It had 80 ‘Free sittings’, 80 ‘Other sittings’ and Standing Room for 30.
1851: The same Census return gave attendances at services on 30 March 1851 as 35 [adults] and 30 scholars in the morning and 50 [adults] and 12 scholars in the evening. The minister was Rev William Inman and he lived at 24 Duke Street (this road lay north-south across the west end of Grosvenor Street). He was based in the Liverpool Circuit from 1848 to 1851.
1857: The 1857 Post Office Directory for Cheshire, page 243, states that there is a PM chapel in Tranmere but doesn’t give its location (it probably is this chapel).
1859: A society called ‘South Tranmere’ appears on the 1859 Q2 Liverpool Preaching Plan. There were services at 11.30 and 6 on Sundays and at 7.30 on Mondays.
1864: The 1864 Morris’s Directory of Cheshire, page 482, lists a PM chapel in Grosvenor Street.
1867: The 1867 Register of [non-C of E] Buildings for Public Worship: Cheshire lists as no. 71: South Tranmere, Grosvenor Street.
1869: The 1869 Q3 Preaching Plan for the Birkenhead Circuit (a copy of which was put in a time capsule under the foundation stone of Grange Lane chapel) showed the following Places: Camperdown Street (by implication the head of the circuit), South Tranmere (this chapel), Lower Tranmere (Queen Street), Beckwith Street, Poulton, Bebington, Seacombe and Saughall. There were two Sunday services at South Tranmere, at 10.30 and 6, led entirely by lay preachers apart for two quarterly visits from each of the two circuit ministers, Rev T Swallow and Rev W Thornley, and a Monday(?) evening meeting at 7.30, alternating between a service led by the minister and a Prayer Meeting. The chapel had two classes (there were 19 in the whole circuit). For a description of PM Classes see here.
1872-5 and 1874: The chapel is labelled ‘Met. Cha. (Primitive)’ on an 1872-5 map and on an 1874 map; the latter shows ‘Seats for 150’. The chapel is on the south side of the road at the west end, attached to a terrace of six houses. The footprint scales at about 24ft wide x 38ft deep.
1878: The 1878 Post Office Directory for Cheshire, page 362, lists for Places of Worship, Primitive Methodists, in Tranmere: Grosvenor Street and Queen Street, various ministers.
By the time of the 1883 Slater Directory, Birkenhead section p. 64, the only Tranmere chapel mentioned is Holt Hill (Mount Tabor, built in 1879).
1899: An 1899 map shows the chapel but it is now labelled St Barnabas’s Church (a Church of England Mission Room).
I conclude that this chapel was in use by the Primitive Methodists from 1846 until it was sold in around 1880 when Mount Tabor became established.
No Comments
Add a comment about this page