Primitive Methodist?

Handsworth (Staffordshire)

The picture and postcard collection at Englesea Brook Museum of Primitive Methodism contains a number of pictures of chapels where we don’t know as much as we would like.  In particular, we are not sure whether each chapel was a Primitive Methodist chapel or whether it comes from another denomination.

Can you help? Please add comments below if you know any of them. We’ve resolved Pipegate and West Camel – both were Wesleyan – but still need to find out conclusively about Handsworth.

The note on the card says "Handsworth Staffordshire Mission chapel" - but was it the Wesleyan Overand St Mission Hall (Handsworth, West Bromwich)? See Dorothy Graham's and Howard Richter's comments below to start unscrambling the mystery. We'll get there in the end!
Englesea Brook Museum picture and postcard collection

Comments about this page

  • The chapels at Pipegate and West Camel which were originally included on this page are now identified as Wesleyan. A new page for each of the chapels has been created on the My Wesleyan Methodist Ancestors site. You could add your comments on those pages.
    Click on the links here to go to the new pages.
    West Camel chapel – https://www.mywesleyanmethodists.org.uk/content/chapels/somerset/west-camel-wesleyan-methodist-chapel
    Weymouth chapel (Pipegate) – https://www.mywesleyanmethodists.org.uk/content/chapels/shropshire/pipegate-weymouth-wesleyan-methodist-chapel

    By Christopher Hill (14/11/2018)
  • Howard Richter gives additional information about the Handsworth picture:
    “The building was a Mission Room put up in about 1900. It was, I strongly suspect, the forerunner of St. Andrew’s Church (CofE), round the corner on Oxhill Road. The Room, is now part of a Sports and Community Centre for St. Andrew’s
    http://www.standrews-handsworth.org.uk/Sports/index.html

    On historic Ordnance Survey maps, neither building is shown in 1890. The Room is present in 1904, but St. Andrew’s is not yet built. The Room and St. Andrew’s are both present in 1917
    http://www.old-maps.co.uk/#/Map/404580/290680/12/101153

    St. Andrew’s is Listed Grade I: according to the listing it was put up in 1907-9).
    We can’t yet be absolutely certain that the Room was CofE from the very beginning, but I would be very surprised were that not so.”

    By Christopher Hill (10/10/2018)
  • Thank you John.

    By Christopher Hill (12/06/2016)
  • The West Camel Chapel was a Wesleyan chapel but in 1908.

    By John Anderson (11/06/2016)
  • Having looked at the ‘Handsworth, Staffordshire’ picture I’ve been trying to track it down – not very successfully!  However, the PM had a mission branch at Handsworth, West Midlands district and 1928 it had 151 members.  The horse drawn tram/bus has Handsworth Wood on it, so I guess it must be this suburb of Birmingham.  It was then quite an affluent area (now very multi-cultural) and Handsworth WM Theological College was nearby. 

     However, the main reason for this email is that today I received notification that Trinity, 321 Rookery Road, Handsworth (A4040) is having its final service on 15th May 2016, so it might be worth checking to see if they have any history and/or old pictures.  Birmingham Reference Library has a good collection of pictures of Birmingham and might be able to identify it.

    In the Statistical Returns 1940 there is listed a PM Handsworth (Chapel Lane).  I don’t know if this is the same one.

    To muddy the water further the Bible Christians/United Methodists had a chapel at Farcroft Road in the same area!

    I’m not sure if this information will be helpful or not, but thought I’d pass it on.

    With best wishes,

    E. Dorothy Graham

    By E. Dorothy Graham (17/04/2016)
  • Thank you for your very helpful email about the Handsworth chapel.  The information and suggestions you make do feel like a step forward.  Mind you when I first saw the picture I thought of Handsworth in Sheffield, which would make it even more complicated.

    Any further information you can track down through Trinity in Rookery Road, or the Birmingham Museum picture archive would be very welcome.

    By Christopher Hill (17/04/2016)
  • Rev. Michael Parrott has identified, with the help of friends in the old Newcastle under Lyme Circuit, where he used to be stationed, that Weymouth Chapel was situated in the village of Pipegate, Shropshire. The chapel closed in the 1960’s.

    Reference to the 1941 Statistical Return identifies that the Weymouth Chapel was ex-Wesleyan.

    By Geoff Dickinson (04/03/2016)

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