Quorn Wesleyan Reform Chapel was originally a house which was converted into a chapel in 1850. It was replaced by a nearby chapel built by the Wesleyans and sold it to the Free Methodists for £120 in 1880. In 1924 the (replacement) chapel seated 100 and there was, a schoolroom and a vestry. By this time the chapel was on the verge of closure. Rev R H Osborne wrote that it had been weak for twenty years and
“It has not had a school and therefore the source of supply has been wanting. It is in a residential part where Methodism does not seem to have a chance. The Primitives have sold out, and the Wesleyans are as weak as they can be. It ought to have been closed ten years ago”.
The chapel had closed by 1940.
After closure the first chapel probably reverted to residential use and cannot now be identified. The second chapel was shown on OS maps but no sign of this building could be seen in April 2018. It may well have stood on what is a now a gap between the front houses giving access to recent development on back land.
[This is the best reconstruction of events which can be made from the scanty sources available and is subject to change if more information becomes available. In particular the reference to the Wesleyans is puzzling because there is no other mention of their having had a building in Meeting Street.
NB The meeting to which the street name refers was a dissenting chapel on the other side of the road, an impressive building still in use as a place of worship].
Sources
The National Archives HO129/416/2/2/8 1851 Ecclesiastical census
John Rylands Library University of Manchester, MAC Lawson, Methodist Church Buildings: Statistical returns including seating accommodation as at July 1st 1940 No 697, Loughborough Circuit
Leicestershire etc. Record Office, N/M/207/392, 95-8 UM property returns, 1924 and correspondence about the closure of the chapel
Site visit 21.04.2018
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The chapel in Meeting Street was the first home in Quorndon for the Wesleyan Reform movement.
On 31st March 1851 Jabez Jarratt, local preacher, reported that the Wesleyan Reform Chapel in Meeting Street Quorndon had been converted from a dwelling house into a place of worship on October 25th, 1850. It could seat 60, and on the previous day, Sunday 30th March 40 had attended morning worship and 43 in the evening. Their average attendance since opening had been 40 in the morning and 35 in the evening. Jabez Jarratt was born in Hathern in 1809 and baptised a Wesleyan. He is listed on the 1845 Preaching plan for the Loughborough Wesleyan Circuit. He lived in Loughborough, on Leicester Road (moving to Bedford Street, where he died in 1862), and was an assessor of taxes and rate collector.
No one has been unable to discover exactly where in Meeting Street the Wesley Reformers met, but they moved to School Lane in 1855. The chapel marked on maps in Meeting Street at SK557163 was the Primitive Methodist chapel.
The story of Wesley Chapel, Quorn may be found on this page.
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