Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, Victoria Street, Rashcliffe

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This page is a bare-bones entry for a location which appears on an historic Ordnance Survey map. More detailed information may eventually be added...

Details

  • also known as: Victoria Street Methodist Church, Rashcliffe United Methodist Free Church, Rashcliffe Christadelphian Hall
  • location: Victoria Street, Rashcliffe
  • status: still exists
  • category: church or chapel

The building later became a Christadelphian Hall, which closed at the end of 2008.[1] The Christadelphians had previously used a dedicated hall on Lockwood Scar.

Linked Locations

Extracts

The History of Lockwood and North Crosland (1980) by Brian Clarke:

The earlier years of this group were entwined with the group that finally built Bentley Street Chapel. By 1850 the Methodists living at the Rashcliffe end of the town, preferring to worship nearer home, commenced holding prayer meetings at the home of a Mrs. Buckley in Victoria Street. Eventually these premises were not large enough and so in 1866 the newly built Town Hall in Swan Lane was hired at £15 per annum for Sunday use. At the same time a fund was started to finance the building of a church. Rashcliffe was the poorest part of the town and the group leader Mr. John Kaye and the other fifty members had a hard time raising funds. It was also around this time that a dispute arose as to which faction of the Methodist movement they should be allied to and this resulted in the Wesleyans leaving to form their own group in 1877. A site for the new church was acquired in Victoria Street and, with the sponsorship of Brunswick Street United Methodist Church, a building to seat 300 people was erected. Built on a ground plan in the shape of the letter 'T' the chapel in the upright section was 50' x 25½' with the school in the cross section, 40' x 22½'. The building had a small spire and was constructed of galvanised iron sheeting. Opened on 5th February 1878 the building fund was continued so that a 'proper' chapel might one day be built. This hope came to fruition in 1904 with the opening of a stone-fronted church on the same site. A church hall was added in 1929 and this completed the building as seen today. In common with many other churches declining congregations and rising overheads forced the church to close, the last service being held in January 1941. Today, the building is used by the Christadelphian Church.

CHRISTADELPHIAN CHURCH.
The compiler of this book has not been able to obtain any information from this body regarding its history. In the period 1937 to 1953 the church was located in Lockwood Scar, near Barcroft Road. In 1954 the Church moved into premises in Victoria Street, Rashcliffe, originally built as a United Methodist Church in 1904, with Assembly Rooms added in 1929.

Gallery

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Location

Notes and References

  1. "Church to close doors due to cost of upkeep" in Huddersfield Examiner (29/Dec/2008).