Ripley Wood Street Primitive Methodist chapel

The 1921 Christian Messenger tells us about the origins of the Wood Street chapel.

“Wood Street, our second Ripley church, was made as the result of the great Mission of 1875-6.  370 Converts were recorded, and many of them are in active service to-day.  …

The afore-mentioned mission called into existence the Wood Street Society, in which the Walters, the Greens, the Jepsons and other families took a leading part. They were the new converts of the Revival and they bound themselves together, took a Temperance Mission Hall at the other end of the town and formed a new society. The building was soon renovated and enlarged, and we now possess a suite of buildings worth £3,000, free from debt. The society have never lost its early fervour, For years the members did the work of the Salvation Army, speaking in the market-place on the Saturday nights and missioning the streets on the Sabbath. The present membership is over one hundred-and-twenty.”

A little more detail comes from the 1892 Primitive Methodist magazine which reports the renovation of the mission hall and the building of Sunday school premises.  The foundation stones had just been laid.

Ripley Methodist church is currently on the site. It occupies a much smaller footprint than that marked on the earlier OS maps. being well set back from the road. It underwent a complete rebuild in 2009.

Reference

Christian Messenger 1921/202

Primitive Methodist magazine November 1892 page 701