Warwickshire: congregations without a chapel

There were a large number of places in Warwickshire where outreach Primitive Methodist activities were held. In many I have not found evidence of a well-established congregation (and I expect there were other places that I have missed).

• In the Leamington Circuit, outreach activities or services were held in Bishops Tachbrook, Bubbenhall, Flecknoe, Hunningham, Kenilworth, Kineton, Ladbrook, Lighthorne, Upper Boddington, Wasperton and Whitnash: Warwickshire County Record Office, CR 1688/46-48.
• The Rugby Circuit had services in New Bilton, and Hillmorton (in a Baptist chapel): Northamptonshire County Record Office, DRMC/35, 1861 circuit plan.
• The Stratford circuit held outreach meetings in the following places (sometimes only for a year or two): Admington, Armscott, Bishopton, Claverdon, Darlingscott, Halford, Henley in Arden, Ilmington, Langley, Long Marston, Lower Pillerton, Shipston on Stour and Tiddington: Shakespeare Centre Library and Archive, DR 147/2/1-36.

In the following places there is evidence of a well-established congregation.

Coventry, Hill Field

appears in the Coventry circuit Preachers’ Plan for 1852-3 with a Sunday afternoon service. Preachers G. Middleton and C. Fernyhough lived in Hill Field. It is not recorded in the 1851 religious census and appears never to have had a chapel. Source: Michael Harris, Preachers’ Plan Coventry Primitive Methodist Circuit 1852-3.

Churchover

No congregation was recorded in the 1851 religious census. Churchover is mentioned in Rugby circuit records between 1861-1903 as having services but no chapel or Sunday School. Sources: Northamptonshire County Record Office, DRMC/35, ML 3306.

Gaydon

Regular services were held in a rented house; there was a Society Steward and in 1859 plans to build a chapel that never materialized. Sources: Warwickshire County Record Office, CR 1688/46-48, Leamington circuit minutes, 1852-73.

 Monk’s Kirby

There is no record of a congregation in the 1851 religious census. It is mentioned in Rugby circuit records from 1861–1902, and accounts for 1863 survive. Meetings and services were held there, but not a Sunday School. They were going to try to borrow the Baptist Chapel in 1882, and were recorded as meeting in a cottage in 1894. The congregation ceased to exist after 1903. Sources: Northamptonshire County Record Office: DRMC 639 accounts 1863; ML 3309 circuit minutes, 17 June 1861, June 1866; ML 3310 minutes Sept. 1882; ML3316 minutes 1894. Christine Green personal communication.

Newbold on Avon

Newbold was missioned from Loughborough in the 1830s and they met in John Flavell’s Newbold smithy. The group moved to Long Lawford and thence to Rugby. Newbold on Avon was in the Rugby circuit. A small Primitive Methodist chapel is recorded here in White’s Warwickshire trade directories of 1850 and 1874 but no other trade directories (and this appears to have been a mistake presumably because the meeting place was well-established and referred to locally as a chapel). A congregation does not appear in the Religious census of 1851, there is no sign of a Primitive Methodist chapel on Warwickshire Ordnance Survey maps from the 1880s or 1900s and no evidence that a chapel was ever built in Newbold on Avon. Baptism records suggest that they used the nearby Long Lawford chapel. Sources: White’s Trade Directory for Warwickshire 1850 p. 661, 1874 p. 878; Rugby Primitive Methodist Circuit Baptisms 1851-1915, Eureka Press, High Wycombe 2016; M. Turner ‘Newbold-on-Avon Methodist Church 1879-1979’ pp. 6-7; Warwickshire Ordnance Survey maps.

Willoughby

A local historian writes in 1828 that the Primitive Methodists were meeting here in a room in a private house (said by a local to be known later as ‘Church House’). There is no mention of Primitive Methodists here in the 1851 religious census. Later they were reported to be meeting in a ‘mud-walled barn near the Vicarage gate’. The Rugby circuit had plans for a Primitive Methodist chapel in Willoughby in 1870 that seem to have come to naught. The Historic Environment Record gives the site of a Primitive Methodist Chapel, but there is no sign of this on Warwickshire Ordnance Survey maps nor mention of it in local trade directories. Sources: T. Deacon History of Willoughby, 1828, p. 34; Northamptonshire County Record Office: DRMC/34, Grandborough Chapel Centenary Celebration leaflet 1956; ML 3309, Feb. 1870, Rugby Circuit minutes Feb.1870; Warwickshire Historic Environment Record, MWA 3072.