Countesthorpe Primitive Methodist chapel
Wigston Street Countesthorpe Leicester LE8 5RQ
Keith Guyler’s notes date the first chapel in the village to 1841; it seated 150. The Primitive Methodist magazine for September 1853 includes an account by Joseph Ward of the re-opening of the chapel on July 17 1853 after its capacity was enlarged by 60 seats. The preacher was E Morton of Hinkley. The evening service had to be held in the Baptist chapel as the Prim one was not large enough
The 1841 chapel was replaced by the chapel in the photograph in 1888. The church hall, on the far side of the picture, was added in 1925.
The laying of the foundation stones for the 1888 chapel is recorded in the Primitive Methodist magazine. It tells that “real Christian union exists among the churches” – the local vicar lent a local day school for services whilst the chapel is being built and the local Baptists lent their building for the stone laying services. “Kindly regard thus manifest is worth heaps of dissertation on the desirability of Christian union.”
The Victoria County History for Leicestershire quotes a lovely story which pre-dates the 1841 chapel. It concerns three youths who were convicted in 1837 for disrupting worship by standing at the door singing in ‘a tone of mockery’. The Rector of Blaby was one of the presiding magistrates and took the opportunity to comment from the bench that the singing of the Primitive Methodists themselves was so loud that it disturbed him at his desk in Blaby, and his curate had been forced to find alternative lodgings. In response, the Primitive Methodist minister roundly criticised the Rector through the local press for his ‘indecorous attack’.
The chapel is still in use.
Reference
The Victoria County History for Leicestershire accessed February 6th 2015
Primitive Methodist magazine September 1853 p.556
Primitive Methodist magazine October 1888 page 635
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