The return from the Primitive Methodist society in Sherborne to the 1851 Census of Places of Public Religious worship tells us they were meeting in a chapel built in 1832. The return was completed by John Silas Brown, the minister. On Census Sunday 24 attended in the afternoon and 33 in the evening. The chapel held 56 people.
The census form tells us that the chapel was located in Acreman Street, but I cannot see a chapel on Nineteenth Century Ordnance Survey maps.
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Old 25 inch OS maps confirm the location of the Sherborne Primitive Methodist chapel as described by Henry More.
On the 1903 map it is marked as ‘Chap’ and on the 1928 map as ‘Ch’ at the southern side of the junction of Lower Acreman Street and Horsecastles.
The chapel probably closed in the 1930s, sometime between the Methodist Union of 1932 and 1940 as it is not included in the return of Methodist Church buildings taken then. The congregation then would have gone to the former Wesleyan church on Cheap Street which was, and still is, a substantial building in the town.
Concerning the PM chapel at the bottom of Acreman Street in Sherborne… In about 1958-1960 timeframe, the old chapel was used as a carpenter’s shop owned by a Mr Osment who taught me carpentry at Sherborne Preparatory School. At that time driving south on Acreman Street and arriving at the junction of Acreman Street with (left) Trendle Street, (ahead) Lower Acreman Street and (right) Horsecastles, the chapel was directly ahead on the corner of Horsecastles and Lower Acreman Street. It was directly ahead because Lower Acreman Street was extremely narrow (about a car width) and bounded on the east side by the existing houses there. So Lower Acreman Street was noticeably offset from Acreman Street. That junction was quite impossible and it was no surprise when the chapel was demolished and the roads widened. I am afraid I do not know when the chapel was demolished nor do I know when the chapel was originally built and consecrated or when it was de-consecrated.
Sincerely yours,
HM
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