Newcastle on Tyne Copland Place United Methodist Free Church

The Society began in the early 1830s as a Wesleyan Reform group and their first chapel was built on Gibson Street in 1837. By December 1859, it was felt that the premises were expensive and inconvenient and so the decision was taken to build a new chapel at the junction of Copland Place and Henry Street. (it may be that the building still standing on the corner of Gibson Street and Buxton Street was the original chapel)

Foundation stones for the Copland Place chapel, capable of seating 800, were laid on Tuesday 3rd December 1861 and the building was to include class rooms and vestries on the ground floor, a Sunday School for 200 children on the first floor and the galleried chapel above. Following the stone-laying ceremony, there was a public tea for 500 people at the New Town Hall in Newcastle. There was a Day School attached to the chapel though this closed in about 1896.

The church is sometimes referred to as Henry Street UMFC and also appears on Circuit Plans as Shieldfield chapel. The chapel closed in 1905 and the congregation transferred to the Sandyford Road UMFC which opened in 1907.