Brightlingsea Primitive Methodist Chapel, Essex
'Gooseberry Chapel'
The first chapel in Brightlingsea was replaced by a larger building in Ladysmith Avenue in 1902.
Opened during the year that Edward VII was crowned, the church was nicknamed ‘Coronation church’. However, it was apparently always known by local people as the ‘Gooseberry Chapel’, because one of the members sold gooseberries to raise money for the building.
Unfortunately, the chapel was built over underground springs and subsidence meant that the church members were continually raising funds for structural repairs.
The ‘Gooseberry Chapel’ closed after Methodist Union in 1932, when the Prims joined the Wesleyans in their premises in Chapel Road.
Source
Bill Francis, Cheltenham, Methodist Recorder, 31 May 2013
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The cause was ‘amalgamated’ with the Chapel Road Society (originally Wesleyan) following a Special Meeting of the Trustees April 1943
This chapel is also referenced on our Message Board – see the message from David Tonks dated 11 October 2012.
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