Netherton Primitive Methodist chapel 1851
Noah's Ark Primitive Methodist chapel
The Primitive Methodist Magazine for January 1852 contains an account by T Batty of the recent opening of three Primitive Methodist chapels – at Blackheath, Cinder Hill and Netherton. “The mining district of South Staffordshire has proved a fruitful soil for Primitive Methodism. (The area includes) Dudley … with more than forty Primitive Methodist chapels within six miles of her lofty castle.”
Netherton “is about two miles from Dudley and has an extensive population”. The society had been renting a small chapel for twenty years. In May 1851 it was replaced by a new building, 36’ x 42’ and 27’ from floor to ceiling, with a gallery on three sides. Overall cost was expected to be about £700, with £190 and a mortgage of £500 already raised.
Opening sermons were preached by John Britain (Stockport) and his son Ebenezer, J Bywater (Hull) and Miss CM Buck (Leicester). Congregations were much improved and Mr and Mrs Golding were singled out for particular thanks.
When creating this page I asked where was the chapel and does the building still exist? See Matthew Davis’ comment below and learn more about what happened to it here.
Reference
Primitive Methodist Magazine for January 1852 p.53
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The Geograph website says of the former Noah’s Ark chapel in Cradley Road, Netherton, “Chapel building refurbished for other use. This was once Noah’s Ark chapel built in 1925 for the Primitive Methodists and which replaced a previous 1850 chapel which had succumbed to mining subsidence.”
Although I can’t confirm whether this building is the 1851 chapel or a successor, it is the former Noah’s Ark Methodist Church, registered for marriages simply as “Noah’s Ark” on 22 February 1894. Its registration was cancelled on 19 October 2004 and the building, and the Sunday School lying perpendicular to it facing Griffin Street (and with foundation stones dated 5 October 1896), have been converted into flats. The location is 52.488866, -2.082595. In the Methodist Statistical Returns of 1940 it appears as “Netherton (Noah’s Ark)”, one of 28 chapels in the Dudley Circuit of the Wolverhampton and Shrewsbury District. The capacity was 450 (on pews) and there was a Sunday School and 5 other rooms. The Sunday School (or its predecessor) are referred to elsewhere on the site here: https://www.myprimitivemethodists.org.uk/content/subjects-2/education-subjects-2/sunday-schools/netherton
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