Coxhoe Central Primitive Methodist chapel
Front St, Coxhoe, DH6 4HF
The opening of Coxhoe Primitive Methodist chapel (Thornley circuit) known as Central chapel is recorded in the Primitive Methodist magazine of 1866. The final services to celebrate the opening of the chapel were held on May 27th 1866, but it took them a long time to get there. James Morrison gave a site and the foundation stone of the chapel was laid a year earlier, on July 22nd 1865, but the contractor – a poor but hardworking man – had to deal with many difficulties, including a major storm at the end of the year which destroyed all the work to date. The trustees shared the extra cost with the contractor, since it wasn’t his fault.
Preachers at the opening services included Revs J Laverick, J Waite (who wrote the magazine article), JA Bastow; Messrs W Robson, T Archer, Capt McCulloch and Mrs Hall. Donors included Capt McCulloch and G Leeman MP
A Sunday school building was added in 1871.
The Coxhoe Local History group gives a broader account including some pictures of Primitive Methodism in Coxhoe:
- in 1838 Primitive Methodists purchased two cottages at Foundry Row for worship and as a day school, although they had existed before this date. This is the chapel recorded in the 1851 Census of Places of Public Religious Worship
- the early closure of the village’s coal mines affected the village’s population. Primitive Methodist Chapel membership in 1873 was 126 – in 1879 it was 28.
- Central Methodist Chapel closed when the society amalgamated with the former Wesleyan society at St. John’s to form St. Andrews Church in 1964. This was replaced with a new building in 2008.
On Google Street View in 2016 the chapel and adjacent Sunday school are used by Franks carpets
Reference
Primitive Methodist magazine January 1866 pages 45-46
Primitive Methodist magazine October 1866 page 626
Coxhoe Local History group website accessed 02/04/2019 at http://www.coxhoehistory.org/CoxhoesReligiousHeritage.html
Comments about this page
Thanks for that page – if you go to the Coxhoe Local History Group under ‘Religion’ you will find a link to a substantial history of Coxhoe PMs that I wrote up in 2007. Going to https://sites.google.com/site/jyresearches/pms-at-coxhoe will find the paper directly.
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