West Lutton Primitive Methodist chapel
West Lutton, Ryedale YO17 8TD
[For some reason we originally had two pages for West Lutton Primitive Methodist chapel in Ryedale. They have been combined on this page.]
The Yorkshire returns to the 1851 census of Places of Public Religious Worship tells us that West Lutton Primitive Methodist chapel was opened in 1848 and that on Census Sunday 60 people attended both the afternoon and evening services. Robert Bett(?) the steward completed the return.
The 1848 chapel was replaced in August 1863. In the 1864 Primitive Methodist magazine there’s an account of the opening of a new chapel. The old chapel became a day school (“for which a competent master has been obtained”) and a Sunday school.
“West Lutton, in the Driffield Circuit.—A new Primitive Methodist Chapel has recently been opened for Divine worship in this village, which is situate in the Dale Towns, ten miles from Driffield. The building is 39 feet in length, by 35 in width, and 24 feet high from the floor to the ceiling. It is surrounded by a handsome gallery, and a semi-circular orchestra.
The chapel which is a very substantial structure, affording accommodation for three hundred persons, was opened on Friday, August the 14th, when two excellent and powerful sermons were preached by the Rev. W. Jackson of Thirsk. In the interval of worship a tea was provided in the old chapel, which was numerously attended by friends from various parts of the circuit.
On the following Sabbath, the opening services were continued, when two impressive sermons were preached to large congregations by the Rev. J. T. Shepherd, of Winterton.
The total costs of the erection amount to six hundred pounds, three hundred pounds of which have been obtained or promised by means of a Bazaar, Tea Meetings, donations, and the opening services. The remaining three hundred pounds have been borrowed on note at four per cent.
The old chapel is now occupied as a day school, for which a competent master has been obtained, and also for a Sunday school-room, and thus the wants of the children who are the hope of the Church, are being mentally and spiritually provided for. The new chapel with its capacious day and Sunday school-room by its side now forms one of the most conspicuous ornaments of the Dale Towns. J. R. Parkinson.”
Thanks to Pay Donnor for the pictures of Chapel Cottage, on the site of the former chapel. Pat suspected that it contained elements of the former chapel with the old brickwork of the original Prim Chapel seen behind the modern one storey extension at the front of the house.
However, Ian Dodgson added a comment in April 2021 to tell us that:
“(Chapel Cottage) is not the old Primitive Chapel. The building is Chapel Row which was originally a row of three cottages which were situated behind the old chapel building. They were converted into one dwelling in the 1970’s when my in-laws lived there, with the extensions added later by the current occupiers. There is nothing remaining of the old chapel which was situated roughly where the large Willow tree is in the photos, and had been completely demolished long before.”
The Ordnance Survey map surveyed in 1888 and published in 1890 confirms that the Primitive Methodist chapel, whilst on the same site, was closer to and directly facing the road.
Reference
Primitive Methodist magazine 1864 page 182
Comments about this page
John Wane and Ian Dodgeson are correct. I live in the Old Methodist Chapel on the Main Street in West Lutton. This was a Wesleyan chapel, built in 1815 and rebuilt 1830. It is a small, modest building, nothing like the Chapel shown in the photographs. Chapel House (next door to me) was not a Chapel, not was Chapel Cottage (just down the road, around where Chapel Row used to be).
I can provide pictures and there is one already on the internet, showing the chapel as a private home. That picture is by David Smith.
John,
The building that you refer to as the “replacement Methodist Chapel” was a Wesleyan Methodist Chapel.
Many thanks for the picture of the PM chapel from 1910.
I have lived in West Lutton for the past 31 years, just around the corner from the site of the original Methodist Chapel site and the school buildings mentioned previously. l am not aware of any remnants of the Chapel being retained in the present Chapel Cottage, but I will have a chat with the present owners of the Cottage to see if they can shed any more light on the history. I am aware, however of a small brick bridge, which crosses the Gypsey Race, which runs along the northern side of the old chapel site. The Gypsey Race, the most northerly chalk steam in the UK, rising in Wharram-le-Street it runs intermittently along the Great Wolds Valley, eventually into the sea in Bridlington. It also happens to be a protected environment for Water Voles. I do have a 1910 photo of the original Methodist Chapel which I will attempt to send to you via email. Incidentally the replacement Methodist Chapel still stands in the village but was sold and converted into a private home several years ago and I have an original picture of that as well.
Thanks for the information Andrew.
This chapel was in the village near to where I live, my father often used to speak about it. It was demolished many years ago as it was lightly built and had become unsafe. I am 59 and have no recollection of the 1864 chapel at all, however the above description aligns with what my father told me about it.
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