Blandford Forum Albert Street Primitive Methodist chapel

Albert Street BLANDFORD FORUM DT11 7HY

Blandford Forum Albert Street Primitive Methodist chapel
Keith Guyler 1993

Blandford Forum Albert Street Primitive Methodist chapel was opened in 1877 in the new suburb east of the railway station.  The chapel seated 300 and a Sunday school was added in 1894. That is recorded in the 1894 Primitive Methodist magazine – with the approving comment that, unusually, the mayor and mayoress attended the stone laying. Half the cost had been raised.

By the time of Keith Guyler’s picture in 1993 it was in use by Blandford Evangelical church.

Mark Churchill provides more detail:

The Blandford Express newspaper published from 1859-1895 is a great source of information on the nonconformist churches of the town. The first mention of Primitive Methodists is in 1871 when the emerging congregation took over a building from The Brethren. Known as The Iron Room or Iron Chapel it was on the boundary of the current site in Alexandra Street and was eventually demolished in the 1960s or 70s to make way for a domestic building. One local resident told me that it was converted and used as a home for several years before being demolished.

The congregation bought the Iron Chapel 2 years later. The paper reports ‘A series of special services commencing Sunday May 25th 1873’ was to be held. A Bazaar was held in the Town Hall the following Wednesday then a tea and evening meeting – all towards fundraising for the purchase of the Iron Chapel. In December they started a Sunday School.

It was not long before the building became too small and in January 1876 they decided to build a ‘new sanctuary’ rather than extend the chapel. In September they advertised for sealed tenders and an interesting note says ‘The Trustees do not pledge themselves to accept the lowest or any Tender’. Henry Mayor’s tender for £650 was accepted and the ground had cost £150. A further £200 for schoolroom and vestries was mentioned but as Christopher Hill has recorded, this was not completed until 1894. Henry Mayor was a Blandford builder, a Christian prominent in the temperance movement and for some years was Secretary of the Dorset branch of the National Agricultural Labourers Union founded by Primitive Methodist Joseph Arch who spoke in the town on a number of occasions.

Foundation stones were laid in May 1877, including one by the town mayor, and the opening services took place on Thursday October 17th of the same year. A tea was held in the Corn Exchange presided over by the mayor and an evening ‘Platform Meeting’ was held in the same place. The paper headlined a column “Cathedral of the Poole Circuit”.

There were Methodists in Blandford during the lifetime of John Wesley but the first chapel was not built until 1834 in Doctors Close. The following information comes from a booklet published in 1985 to commemorate the 150th Anniversary of that first Wesleyan chapel in Blandford. Obviously though, the writer did not know about the Iron Chapel as he said that services were held in homes until the building of the chapel in !877.

In the Spring of 1833 Richard Davies, superintendent of the Motcombe circuit of Primitive Methodists, came into the area and a “Blandford Branch” was formed. Within three years it had given birth to the Poole Mission which thrived and rapidly became a circuit incorporating Blandford. Despite the union of Methodism in 1932, and the combination of the Wesleyan and Primitive circuits, the two communities continued to attend their separate chapels until 1976 during the ministry of the Rev Robert Higginson (1975-1980) when the two congregations merged in the Wesleyan premises. The Primitive chapel was sold to Blandford Evangelical Church in 1977.

The Evangelical church is still a thriving congregation in 2021.

Reference

Christian Messenger 1919/200

Primitive Methodist magazine 1879 page 700

Primitive Methodist magazine February 1894 page 155

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