Newbiggin-by-the-Sea Primitive Methodist Chapel Northumberland
This chapel was bombed during the second World War and demolished.
Keith Guyler 1999
June Walker
The Primitive Methodist chapel was built in Simonside Terrace. Date of building is unknown likewise date of closure but presumably in the 1940s. What happened to the congregation?
A church hall (see photos) was built on the bombed site and this was used and presumably still is by the church on Front Street close by. This church is St.Andrew’s and St. Mark’s – Methodist and United Reformed built in 1912. We do not know if it was originally Methodist.
Photos taken January 2015
OS Map Ref:81:NZ310879
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I’ve added a 1923 picture of the Newbiggin by the Sea Primitive Methodist football team, provided by June Walker. The picture was sourced by John Walley
Visiting the Maritime Museum, John Walley found a poster by John Robinson telling the story of Methodism in Newbiggin by the Sea. It said that Newbiggin by the Sea Primitive Methodist chapel in Simonside Terrace opened in 1909 and was closed after bomb damage in 1942. It was restored and reopened in 1958 as Simonside Hall; its main use was as a recreation facility.
I lived in Newbiggin-by-the-Sea during WW2 and saw the bomb damage to the Primitive Methodist Chapel. It wasn’t a direct hit, but it blew out all the windows and badly damaged the roof. The congregation joined with the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel nearby, which became St. Andrew’s Methodist Church – neither Wesleyan nor Primitive. The old Primitive Chapel was repaired with the help of a grant from the War Damage Commission and reopened in 1959 as Simonside Hall, used by St. Andrew’s. Later, St. Mark’s URC Church closed and the congregation moved to St. Andrew’s which is now the Church of St. Andrew and St. Mark – Methodist and URC.
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