The return from the Primitive Methodist preaching place in East Orchard to the 1851 Census of Places of Public Religious worship records the society meeting in a farm house. On Census Sunday 50 people attended services in the afternoon and evening. There was no Sunday school.
That preaching place must have been replaced, because the 1900 Ordnance Survey map shows a Primitive Methodist chapel at Grid Reference ST 83135 17497. Street View shows that building still exists in residential use as Keybrook House, and although it still carries the outline of a date tablet, that is impossible to read.
David Tonks tells us that the man who signed the 1851 form was William Tucker, a farmer of 100 acres employing seven men. Swainscombe Farm can be seen on the 25″ O.S. map of 1900, only 620 yards away from the chapel as the crow flies.
Comments about this page
I’ve added pictures of the chapel kindly supplied by Nick and Judith Rogers, June 2022
Add a comment about this page