Sandpits Primitive Methodist chapel
New Road, Ludlow SY8 2NY
The Primitive Methodist magazine for February 1872 contains an account by Charles Temperton of the opening of Sandpits Primitive Methodist chapel in the Ludlow circuit.
Mr Weale, a local preacher and property developer had build a estate of around 30 houses, one of which was used for services. When this became too small he gave land and bricks to build a chapel.
The new chapel seated 170 and cost £150 of which £75 had been raised by the opening.
Opening preachers were Charles Temperton, Miss Bennett (Chester) Colour Sergeant Mason, although Mr Temperton gives no date for the opening.
On the 1886 Ordnance Survey map, the chapel is shown on New Road, to the west of the Ludlow Union workhouse. It is still there, in residential use.
Reference
Primitive Methodist magazine, February 1872 p. 121
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I think it was a combination of events really. Both the Primitive & Wesleyan chapels were “old” by 1870, one built c. 1835 & the other built 1800. I think they both wanted to build impressive, bigger, “modern” chapels to attract more members. In addition, the suburb of Sandpits was only just being developed in the 1870s & the population was increasing in that part of town. The local Primitive Methodits were obviously keen to serve the local population.
What was going on here Janice?
There was something remarkable about Methodism and Ludlow & its suburb Sandpits in the 1870s. First of all the main Primitive Methodist chapel in the town, in Old Street, was rebuilt & opened in April 1871. Then the first of the two P.M. chapels in Sandpits was opened in New Street August 1871 which was followed by the opening of another P.M. chapel in Sandpits in New Road in May 1879. Then, to cap it all, the Wesleyan Methodist rebuilt their chapel in a more prominent situation, in Broad Street, which opened in July 1879. Three of these chapels were large & impressive buildings. I don’t think that there was any other town in Shropshire which had such a chapel building decade in the whole of the 19th century.
There were, in fact, two Primitive Methodist Chapels in Sandpits, both built in the 1870s. On built in New STREET was erected in 1871 & opened on 6th August 1871. The other P.M. chapel in New ROAD opened on 4th May 1879.
They were only a stone’s throw away from one another, as large scale 19th century O.S. maps show. Both these chapels co-existed for many years afterwards. I haven’t yet managed to find out why this was the case!
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