From my Postcard Album
This series showing MNC Methodist New Connexion churches
This is Christ Church, Methodist New Connexion, Abbey Rd,
Barrow in Furness Lancashire
The first meeting-house of the sect in Barrow was a room in Hindpool, where some 35 members were wont to assemble. Their numbers steadily increased, and in 1873 the Conference appointed the Rev. R. S. Chambers as their minister. On a plot of ground in Abbey Road, given by the Duke of Devonshire, they have erected a church and schools at a cost of over £4,000. The Gothic style has been adopted. Above the principal entrance is a large window filled with tracery and tinted glass. On one side of the west end is a small spire, and on the other a turret rising some 70 feet from the ground. The interior is beautifully fitted up, and presents a remarkably light and elegant appearance. The building is of red sandstone, with York stone dressings. The architect was W. Hill, F.R.S. and B.A., of Leeds, under whose superintendence the work was carried out. The entire accommodation is about 900. Adjoining is a school for 400 children, but it is not used for secular instruction. The minister now in charge is the Rev. E. J. Hope. (from Mannex’s directory of Furness & Cartmel, 1882)
The congregation was established in 1872, initially meeting in the Hindpool Hotel and being largely supported by workers moving from Dudley and South Staffordshire [according to the Jubilee Booklet, 1935]. A new building opened 9 Sept 1875. The church was almost totally destroyed in an air raid on 16 April 1941.
The congregation then moved temporarily into a schoolroom, but it subsequently used its remaining assets to purchase a fresh site on a new housing estate and to relocate as the new Beacon Hill (Christ Church) Methodist Church, at the end of Holyoake Avenue (near Rating Lane) which opened in October 1956
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I purchased a medal today ‘FOR RECORD ATTENDANCE – CHRISTIAN HERALD. CHRIST CHURCH U. M. SUNDAY SCHOOL BARROW-IN-FURNESS. Presented to MR W. W. TRUMAN for 42 years service.’
I belive this may have been Walter W Truman who died in 1942 age 74.
By 1901 the estate consisted of a chapel, a schoolroom, a house and a manse. The land buildings and enlargements had cost £11,800 and the organ a further £350. There was seating for 750 in the chapel and for 670 in the schoolroom. In 1940 the chapel had 850 sittings on pews and there was a schoolroom and seven other rooms. It was destroyed by enemy action shortly afterwards. The organ was sold for £200 in 1946-7. Its successor was built at Beacon Hill, qv. The remains of the chapel and school were sold in 1952-3 for £2000.
Sources
Leicestershire Record Office 16D60/31 Methodist New Connexion /Return of Trust Estates/as presented in / Special Schedules, January 1901 Leicestershire RO 16D60/31 Methodist
Cumbria Archives Service, Kendal WDFCM7 Synod Minutes 1937-1974 [NB inconsistencies in the description and reporting of works may mean that some projects are entered twice]
Carlisle Library, 1A287, Methodist Property Statistics 1940
Carlisle Library, 1A287 Diamond Jubilee Souvenir, 1875 – 1935 and other leaflets relating to Christ Church Abbey Road and Beacon Hill
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