Centenary Wesleyan Methodist Church
The following source list was originally available only on paper in one of the West Yorkshire Archive Service offices. It may have been compiled many years ago and could be out of date. It was designed to act as a signpost to records of interest on a particular historical subject, but may relate only to one West Yorkshire district, or be an incomplete list of sources available. Please feel free to add or update with any additional information. |
Also known as Daisy Hill Methodist Church and then Central Methodist Church.
John Wesley preached at Dewsbury Moor in 1742 and later visited Dewsbury on a number of occasions. The society was established by John Nelson, 1746, using the house of Simon Thornback for meetings and services [the house was on the site for the later Central library in Wellington Road]. The chapel at Dawgreen was built 1763 - 1764 and John Wesley preached in it on a number of occasions. A new chapel was built at the foot of Webster Hill in 1784 and again John Wesley preached in it in 1786. It became known as the High Chapel. Dewsbury Circuit formed out of Birstall Circuit in 1785 and a Sunday School was established c1787 - 1788. The Sunday School used various premises including the old Wheelwright School and Solomon Hindle's warehouse. The High Chapel at Webster Hill was the subject of dispute between its trustees and the Methodist Conference in 1788 - 1789. The trustees of the High Chapel broke with the Methodists in 1789 and chose John Atlay to be their preacher. The Methodist congregation used a room in the Roundabout house for services between 1788 - 1790 when a new chapel was built in Westgate at the corner with Oates Street and opened by John Wesley in 1790, it was known as Low Chapel. A Sunday School was built on the north side of Wellington Road between 1825 - 1826. A new centenary chapel was built in Daisy Hill, 1838 - 1840 and the Sunday School enlarged in 1864. The Sunday School then moved from the building in Wellington Road, c1950 - 1960's and the building was later used as a warehouse. The chapel was altered by the insertion of a suspended ceiling at the level of a gallery in c1976 and closed in 2007.