Oulton Street Wesleyan Reform Chapel

Oulton Street is a hamlet in the parish of Oulton, near Aylsham.

The ecclesiastical census of 1851 gives a Wesleyan Reform chapel in a building of 1837, with seating for 96. This was probably a converted carpenter’s workshop on New Road that Reformers were still using until opening their next chapel on the same plot.

This opened on Thursday 21st September 1911, and seated 80. Of brick, with stone dressings, it was built by Marshall Howard of Cawston. He was also a brickmaker, although it’s not certain if he made the bricks for this chapel.

As a member of the Cawston Wesleyan Reform Circuit, it was affiliated to the Wesleyan Reform Union. Unlike the United and Primitive Methodists, they did not participate in the union with the Wesleyans which formed the Methodist Church of Great Britain in 1932.

The chapel closed around the turn of the C21st and is now a dwelling. A stone plaque on the front gable is inscribed: 1911 Wesleyan Reform Chapel.

Sources include
Census of Religious Worship 1851 (Norfolk) Ed. J Ede and N Virgoe 1998
Norfolk News 10th June 1911
Downham Market Gazette 30th September 1911