Unusually for a chapel, but typical of the New Forest, the walls were mud; the roof was slate and the building measured 35′ x 21′.
The cost was £40, but much work was done by the members and preachers. George Waite tells us about it in the Primitive Methodist magazine
At the time of the 1851 Census of places of public religious worship, Sway was part of the extensive parish of Boldre. It later became a separate parish.
On the 1909 Ordnance Survey map, a Primitive Methodist chapel is shown on Manchester Road. Is that this chapel or a later one?
Reference
Primitive Methodist magazine 1847 page 310-311
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The chapel appears in the same place on the 1867 6 inch Ordnance Survey map, and on subsequent maps until 1938.
Hampshire Record Office hold the Meeting House certicate of 18 January 1844 when the property was acquired (21M65/12/7/44). They also hold the Minute book of the new Methodist chapel in Middle Street and details of the sale of that property.
It would appear that there was a Primitive Methodist society which met from 1844 to 1936. According to the Hampshire Record Office catalogue it was in the Romsey Circuit from 1847 to 1933, then transferred to the New Forest Mission. A new Methodist chapel was built elsewhere in the village, but that closed in 1976.
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