The 1904 Primitive Methodist magazine celebrates expansion in the Holmwood Society in the Clay Cross Circuit. At that point they were meeting in an iron chapel but a “beautiful stone structure” was nearing completion. Veteran minister Rev John Shepherd lead the development.
The 1910 Christian Messenger tells us: “HOLMWOOD is a village of recent growth. Mr. W. Dunkley and a few other Primitive Methodists attracted to the new colliery took a cottage, opened a Sunday School and held preaching services. Land was secured and an iron chapel placed thereon. In 1905 splendid new premises were opened valued at about £1,800. The Church Extension Fund made this possible. We are greatly indebted to the Hardwick Colliery Co., etc., for the position we hold. The Trustees, members and adherents by their gifts and labours have made themselves a credit to any church or Circuit. The debt is being reduced £50 per year. Much more might have been written. Such prosperity demands our gratitude to God and calls for renewed consecration. Great things have been done and still greater need to be. The present ministers are Revs. H. Jones and W. Brown, together with forty-seven local preachers who are carrying the Gospel to congregations assembling in our fourteen chapels week by week. May the future be more glorious than the past.”
Holmewood as a settlement – and it’s Primitive Methodist and Wesleyan Methodist chapels – appears on Ordnance Survey maps between 1898 and 1914. The Prim cahepl was located on Heath Road, almost opposite the end of Hunloke Road, but a little further east.. There is housing on the site in 2008
Reference
Christian Messenger 1910/249
Primitive Methodist magazine 1904 page 997
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