Princes End is an area of Tipton, West Midlands, England, near the border with Coseley, which was heavily developed during the 19th century with the construction of factories.
Princes End Primitive Methodist chapel was opened in 1841. R Jukes describes the occasion in the Primitive Methodist magazine
“Princes End.—This chapel is ten yards by nine, built high enough for a gallery. It has a boarded floor, and pews up the middle, and a large one on each side the pulpit.
The opening sermons were preached on Sundays June 20 and 27, 1841, by R. Jukes, E. Grice, E. Thomas, our circuit steward, and Mr. P. Turner, Wesleyan local preacher. The collections were liberal. The debt remaining on the chapel is two hundred pounds.”
Ordnance Survey maps show two Methodist chapels on High Street, Princes End, neither of which exists on Street View in 2009. There was a Wesleyan chapel towards the eastern end (labelled Gospel Oak Methodist church on a post war OS map) and another chapel further west opposite Queen Street (labelled High Street Methodist church on the same post-war OS map). On none of the maps is High Street chapel identified as belonging to the Primitive Methodists (or any other variety of Methodist). However, the 1940 inventory of Methodist buildings lists High Street, Princes End, as a former Primitive Methodist chapel.
See the story in the comments at the foot of this page linking Clive Davies to this chapel right from its start. Clive has also contributed two further pieces to the jigsaw of life at High Street chapel.:
- “Photo taken in 1961 showing the pulpit and organ at High Street Methodist church. The pulpit was constructed by my grandfather GH Parkes and had been set in place a couple of years before this photo was taken. The “minister” is my uncle Cliff who, in 1961, was ordained as a minister of the United Church of Canada and who spent a month just after the ordination visiting the UK seeing family. He preached at the church on one Sunday. The communion table (and chairs) are the ones to which the plaque I sent earlier were attached – you can just about see the plaque on the table.”
- “Local newspaper transcript celebrating the first marriage ceremony conducted under the High Street Methodist Church’s own licence for weddings. This wedding took place on 16 May 1942 and involved my own mother and father”
First Bride To Wed At a Princes End Methodist Church
High-street Methodist Church, Princes End, Coseley, was recently licensed for marriages, and when the first wedding took place there on Saturday the bride was presented with a Bible to commemorate the occasion.
She was Miss Lillian Louise Parkes, eldest daughter of Mr. & Mrs. GH Parkes, of Princes End. Bridegroom was Mr. Walter Clement Davies, only son of Mrs. and the late Mr. A Davies, of Rough Hay, Darlaston.
Bridegroom is assistant superintendent of the church Sunday school, where the bride is a teacher. Given away by her father, who has been sanitary inspector at Coseley for over 14 years, the bride wore a dress of white-figured satin with flowing veil. Bridesmaids were Misses S. Parkes, J. Parkes (sisters of the bride) and E. Davies (sister of the bridegroom).
Service was conducted by Rev. Percy Jackson, and Mr J. Rickhuss was best man.
Reference
Primitive Methodist magazine January 1842 page 20
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I’ve added a photograph of the brass plaque from the communion table at the former Princes End High Street Methodist church, given by the family of Mr & Mrs Edward Allen in 1953. The picture was provided by Clive Davies, great grandson of Edward Allen.
Clive provides a family story told by his mother about her grandfather who, she said, was blinded in a mining accident sometime around 1878, but helped with the building of the chapel by pushing a wheelbarrow full of bricks – led by a little boy! Clive’s great grandfather was born in 1856 and blinded in 1878 which does not fit with the chapel opening in 1841; however, successful early Primitive Methodist societies often built larger chapels later in the Nineteenth century so it is quite likely that the 1841 chapel was replaced or rebuilt after 1878.
Can anyone clarify?
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