The Primitive Methodist magazine of June 1894 tells us that the memorial stones of a new chapel have been laid at Hoole in the Preston First station.
The 1893 Ordnance Survey map shows a Primitive Methodist chapel on what is now Liverpool Old Road. By the 1909 map it is labelled as disused and disappears from the 1931 map. There is late Twentieth Century housing on the site in 2019. Given that the survey for the map was carried out in 1891, this must be the predecessor to the chapel recorded in the 1894 magazine. I cannot see another chapel, so the new one may well have been built on the same site or be an enlargement.
Hoole in the Preston District crops up in two earlier sources. The 1851 Census of Places of Public Religious worship include a return from a Primitive Methodist preaching place at Much Hoole. The 1876 list of registered preaching places in Lancashire records Primitive Methodists meeting in “a building” in Little Hoole. Are these the same society?
Reference
Primitive Methodist magazine June 1894 page 477
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There is more information and a photo of the ‘rather austere building’ at Little Hoole (the boundary between Little and Much Hoole is only yards away – but makes my comment below incorrect) in Betty Gilkes and Stan Pickles book ‘Traipsing from a Lancashire Toll Bar’.
The chapel was built in 1854. There is a mention of records showing the development of musical accompaniment for services – first a bass fiddle, bought in 1864 for £1, two years later a harmonium costing £17, and finally an organ in 1875 for £26 11s 6d. The same year they also added new carpets and mats.
The replacement building was erected on Moss House Lane Much Hoole in 1882 with a later addition of a School Room in 1913. It became uneconomical to repair and the current society meets in the adjacent Burial Ground chapel
The chapel on Old Liverpool Road in Much Hoole has disappeared as mentioned, but there is still a graveyard on the same plot (among the modern houses) with a sign saying ‘Methodist Burial Ground’.
There’s another Primitive Methodist chapel shown on the 1909 map at Walmer Bridge just to the north, which is in the parish of Little Hoole.
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