Tealby Wesleyan Reform chapel

6, 7 and 8 Kingsway are  on the site of the former Wesleyan Reform Chapel. Hugh Nott has traced the title deeds between 1731 and 1910 relating to 6, 7 and 8 Kingsway, Tealby, including the Wesleyan Reform Union Chapel.

• 1841 census showed that William Brooks, 70, an agricultural labourer, his wife Elizabeth, 65 and their grandson, Charles Bray, 3 lived there.  Elizabeth died in 1849, aged 74
• In 1851 William Brooks, 81, widower and retired labourer, was still living there.  His 13-year-old grandson, Charles Bray was still living with him. The other half of the building was unoccupied.

In November 1852, 126 square yards of the garden was sold for £21 by William Brooks the younger, yeoman, of Tealby, to Robert Widdowson (a joiner and builder who had purchased South View, Front Street in 1849) and nine other trustees from Tealby, North Willingham and Normanby-by-Spital. The new owners built and paid for a Wesleyan Reform Chapel in 1853 on the land now occupied by 8 Kingsway.

Hull Advertiser and Exchange Gazette of Friday 19 November 1852 tells us that:

TEALBY. -Wesleyan Reform.—The foundation-stone of new reform chapel was laid at Tealby. On Thursday. the 11th inst by Mr. W. Shephard, of Middle Rasen; after which an address delivered on the ground Mr. Youngman, late of Evesham circuit.

The Chapel was about thirty feet long, was built of brick and had a pantile roof.  Robert Widdowson gave them a mortgage of £70 in 1859 on condition that the Chapel was insured for at least £50.

1865 Robert Widdowson and eight others conveyed the Chapel to James Dent (a Methodist preacher from Market Rasen) and ten other trustees from Tealby, Market Rasen, Walesby, Bleasby and Little Grimsby for £73/10/0.   It is interesting to note that Robert Widdowson purchased two cottages and a garden next to his house in Front Street in 1855 for £140.  The United Methodist Free Chapel was built in the garden of South View Cottage in 1857 – see here.  By 1865 Robert had moved to Derby and had become a shopkeeper.