Methodists in Cople

Cople fell within the Ampthill Circuit of the Wesleyan Methodist church.  The proximity of the Wesleyan Chapel on the Cople Road in Cardington (built 1823) rendered the building of a chapel for Cople’s Methodists unnecessary. The Methodist Magazine noted of Cardington’s chapel at its opening that it was ‘so situated as to accommodate also the adjoining village of Cople’.

On Sunday 30th March 1851 a census of all churches, chapels and preaching-houses of every denomination was undertaken in England and Wales. The local results were published by Bedfordshire Historical Records Society in 1975 as Volume 54, edited by D.W.Bushby. The return for Cople included a Primitive Methodist meeting in a cottage, obviously a large one as it could accommodate about 50 people. The local preacher from Bedford, John Simonds Gostling reported that 53 people attended in the evening and that the average for the previous three months had been 50.