Newcastle upon Tyne, St Anthony's Primitive Methodist chapel
In an 1870 Primitive Methodist magazine article updating on the development of the Connexion in Newcastle circuit, WR Leighton tells us about the recent opening of four chapels.
Included amongst them was St Anthony’s Primitive Methodist chapel. The new chapel held 330 people and had a schoolroom for 200 scholars. It cost £800. This was very similar to another of the four chapels, the one at Walker.
David Tonks has identified that the 1912 revision of the O.S. 25″ map gives a Grid Reference for a Primitive Methodist Chapel at Ropery Walk, St Anthony’s, just west of its junction with Pottery Bank (NZ287631).
In 2019 the area is a managed green space.
When John Walley sent in the OS map and the picture of the location in 2020, he commented, “If you look at the number of Beer Houses / Public houses in the immediate vicinity and another dozen or so within a short walk, it might be the reason that this chapel was set up. The area was shipyard, tar works, pottery and clay quarry, a ropery, leadworks etc, the housing was almost basic hovels, husbands spending wages on beer, they needed help. “
Reference
Primitive Methodist magazine 1870 page 697
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The Openstreetmap pin puts the chapel to the south of its actual location, which is at NZ 28811 63103. This is just north of what was then a railway track along the riverside.
Ropery Walk was exactly what it says, the rope works at the top of the long straight lane and the “walk” used in the rope construction. The 1907 OS map states the chapel had a capacity of 250 people.
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