Copthorne Methodist New Connexion Chapel

Thomas Brocas (1787-1861) was the son of one of the most prominent early Methodists in Shrewsbury. In the early 1830s he joined the Methodist New Connexion and was very active, being a Local Preacher and representing the Shrewsbury Circuit at Conference in 1836 and 1855.  He had a chapel added to the west wing of his home, Copthorne House (or Hall). The return sent to the Registrar General in 1851 states that it opened in 1833, seated 200 and on 31st March 1851 forty adults and ten children attended the evening service.

The chapel is described as being neat by Samuel Bagshaw in his history of the county (1851), and on the ground floor in the description of the property when it was put up for sale in 1869.  It does not appear to have been registered for public worship in 1867, and when the property was sold is described as a former chapel, so we must assume that it ceased to be used between the death of Thomas Brocas in December 1861, and that of his wife in 1868. The house and estate are now occupied by the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital

Brocas was also responsible for the building of Ebenezer chapel in Shrewsbury and for the chapel in the neighbouring village of Bicton Heath.

Sources

TNA HO 129/360/33

Bagshawe, Samuel History, gazeteer and directory of Shropshire (1851)

Shrewsbury Chronicle 15 January 1869

Baggaly, William. A Digest of the Minutes, Institutions, Polity, Doctrines, Ordinances and Literature of the Methodist New Connexion.  London: William Cooke, 1862