Hetton le Hole Primitive Methodist Chapel

County Durham

This chapel, opened on Saturday 22nd May, 1858, and known as the “Big Chapel”, is still open for worship in the town of Hetton le Hole.

Originally built without a gallery or organ loft, the chapel had a plaster ceiling resulting in poor acoustics with preachers being unable to be heard. This was remedied in 1865 when the gallery was added which also increased seating to over 1,000.

The organ was added in 1878 at a cost of £335. Built by P Conacher & Co. of Huddersfield, it was considered “one of the best of its day”. Overhauling, cleaning and regular tuning has continued so that it remains an enhancement to the chapel.

Comments about this page

  • An interesting chapel, when reading some background I found this article in the Primitive Methodist magazine 1831 page 274.

    This was the scene of one of the earliest fatalities on railway lines, the “Hetton Wagonway Disaster” of Saturday 26 February 1831. Two Primitive Methodist Ministers were walking along the wagonway to Hetton when they saw some wagons approaching on the line on which they were walking. They moved to the adjacent line but had not seen wagons approaching from the other direction. John Hewson was killed outright, John Branfoot died a few hours later.

    This was a very common accident, most pits had gravity assisted rope haulage, one set of waggons going downhill full, pulling the empties back to the pit. Tended to be pitmen walking home in the dark after visiting a local alehouse, the track was the quickest route.

    A few versions of why the village got its French sounding name, the one that sounds feasible is that the land was owned by the Le Heptons, the village originally had two areas, Hetton on the Hill and Hetton in the Hole (sheltered valley).

    There is also a mention in a local history newsletter which confirms the dates given by Chris Hill.

    Services and Class Meetings were held in members’ homes, chiefly around the Bleach Green and Bog Row areas, until the first Primitive Methodist Chapel was built. The chapel, the third building from the railway in Barnes Street (close to the site of the present ‘Big Chapel’), opened on October 24th 1824, at a cost of £326, with a seating capacity of 300.

    Barnes Street is what is now the backlane for the Union Street Chapel, which itself straddles both of the streets; was the new 1858 chapel built on the site of the 1824 chapel?

    By John Walley (30/01/2023)
  • I have a memory of being taken as a child to the Good Friday concerts at Union Street. Performances such as Handels Messiah and Handels Oratorio. This would have been late 40’s and 50’s.
    The names I remember were Joan Sutherland , Gwen Catley and Kathleen Ferrier.

    By Margaret Willis (24/05/2022)
  • Tyne and Wear Archives :
    ref He/4, Hetton le Hole Methodist, built as a Primitive Methodist Chapel in 1858, documents 1875-1932, 1933-1971, to include also ref. MC.Su5 for pre-1863 baptisms, ref. MC.He-l/1-6, & He/9-1-3 for baptisms post-1863.

    By Raymond E. O. Ælla (09/03/2022)
  • I’ve added a transcript of the return from the 1851 Census of Places of Public Religious Worship. You can see why they needed to build a big chapel!

    By Christopher Hill (19/02/2020)
  • Further detail is given by John Lightfoot in the Primitive Methodist magazine of September 1858 (pages 556-558). The first society was established in 1823 by Brothers Cook and Daker and a chapel was opened on 24 October 1824. Hundreds were converted in 1827. Nicholas Wood of Hetton Hall laid the foundation stone for a new chapel on July 17th 1857.

    The new chapel, designed by Martin Greener of Sunderland,  was “Anglo Italian” in character, measured 55′ x 49′, and held 750. There was a school holding 600 underneath which had “the apparatus for tea meetings”

    Opening services were held from May 22nd 1858 and included tea for 1,100 people. Preachers included Alderman Bramwell, Rev Petty (Hull), JA Bastow and J Wilson (Durham, J Lightfoot and E Hall (Sunderland) and Messrs Fawcett, Cook and Greener. Later services and another tea meeting, this time for 600, were addressed by Rev C McKechnie (Wolsingham), Messrs Gibson, Hopper Earl, George Cockburn, with J Halcro in the chair for one meeting.

    Contributions in kind came from N Wood Esq and the Hetton Coal Company  (worth £550) and G Elliott of Houghton Hall (worth £50); best ground plate glass was supplied at reduced prices by James Hartley and Co.. Total cost was £1,600 of which £1,200 had been met.

    By Christopher Hill (20/01/2018)

Add a comment about this page

Your email address will not be published.