Primative Methodist Chapel

The Primitive Methodist Church movement began in 1807 and was successful in attracting agricultural and industrial communities as followers. Its history as a separate church ran until 1932, when it joined with the Wesleyan and United Methodists to form the Methodist Church of Great Britain.

The small Tasburgh Chapel at the bottom of Church Hill is simply built and was regularly used. Records of the Tasburgh Quaker meetings show that they used a different system of naming the days and months. This was because they didn't want to use names from pagan gods - such as January from Janus. A snippet of information like this shows how the Quakers here were not afraid to separate themselves from the mainstream, or to challenge accepted ways of life.

In the 1930s, there were two Sunday services, a Sunday School, a weekly Christian Endeavour meeting and a fortnightly Women's meeting. Records show that William Lant Duffield, of the milling family, was born in Tasburgh and baptised in the chapel on 26 January 1869.

The 1881 census recorded that Mrs Elizabeth Chatten, a Methodist preacher, lived in Lower Tasburgh although she married her husband, James, in the Anglican St Mary's Church, Tasburgh in 1856.

The chapel Steward in the 1940s was Robert Clark, who was also gardener at 'The Grange'. His wife, Kate, played the chapel organ. At the end of its service as a Chapel, in 1973, the building was acquired by the owners of 'The Beeches', a neighbouring house.

Currently (early 2019) there are plans to convert the building, which has not been used for decades, into a small dwelling.

Page last updated on 16 April 2019 by NP