Holt United Methodist Free Church, Norfolk

Holt’s Wesleyan Reformers were expelled from the Wesleyan Society in 1850. They temporarily used the former Wesleyan chapel of 1813, at the time being let as a British School room. Court action by the Wesleyans in 1851 to recover the building, and eject Reformers as trustees, failed.

Their own chapel (extant) – the impressive Gothic building on Norwich Road – was erected under the auspices of the United Methodist Free Churches (United Methodist Church from 1907).

Foundation stones were laid on 6th June 1862. The opening took place on Good Friday (3rd April) 1863, with the Revd Marmaduke Miller of Darlington as guest preacher.
Robert Skinner of Dereham built it to a design by Thomas Jekyll of Norwich who, in the same year, designed the gates of Sandringham House. Originally, it had seating for 500. Among many noted features is the polygonal apse and spired turret.

Circuits: Holt United Methodist Free; Holt United Methodist from 1907; and Cromer, Sheringham and Holt post-union (1932).

This Grade II listed building has long served as Holt’s only Methodist Church. It continues to do so, and is now a member of the Central Norfolk Circuit.

Sources 
Census of Religious Worship (Norfolk) 1851: Ed by J Ede & N Virgoe 1998
Norfolk News 14th June 1862
Norfolk News 11th April 1863
Free Methodist Manual 1899
Methodist Church Buildings: Statistical Returns 1940