Dunstable Road Primitive Methodist Church Luton

Dunstable Road Primitive Methodist church from Irving Rumbles' booklet

Dunstable Road Primitive Methodist church was built in 1905 and was originally part of the Luton III Circuit. The building used was the mission church which had previously formed Hibbert Street Primitive Methodist church prior to that congregation’s move to the new Mount Tabor in 1897.

A new church was built in 1924 on corner of Dunstable Road and Oak Road. The application to District Building Committees in 1923 [MB454/1] stated that the purchase price of the freehold for the site was £550 and that it extended 112 feet along Dunstable Road, 104 feet along Oak Road, 107 feet at the back and 115 feet against a motor garage. At that stage the membership of the church was 47 and the Sunday school had 12 teachers and 208 scholars. The cost of the new building was reckoned to be £3,750 and it was to have three hundred lettable and a hundred free seats.

In 1932 Primitive Methodism came together with Wesleyan and United Methodists to form the Methodist Church of Great Britain. The following year the Luton circuits were reorganised and Dunstable Road transferred to the new Luton Circuit.

In 1964 Dallow Road church closed and its congregation transferred to Dunstable Road which renamed itself Oakdale in recognition, the name coming from a combination of Oak Road and Dale Road, the former Dallow Road church having been on a corner with that road.

• MB677: Building Fund bank passbook: 1914-1931;
• MB454: material on the building of the chapel: 1923-1929;
• MB2353: Annual General Meeting minute book: 1930-1959;
• MB678: Building Fund bank passbook: 1931;
• MB456: specification for alterations and extensions: 1938;
• MB2352: Trustees’ minute book: 1949-1974;
• MB2993: names and addresses of trustees: c. 1950s;
• MB457: papers regarding planning application regarding adjacent land: 1950-1951;
• MB2987: Men’s Fellowship minute book: 1954-1959;
• MB2988: list of Men’s Circle meetings: 1954-1955;
• MB2356a: monthly newsletter: 1955;
• MB2356b: rebuilding of the schoolroom: 1955-1959;
• MB2989: grant of £250 towards a new schoolroom in Dunstable Road: 1956;
• MB2354: collection journal: 1956-1964;
• MB2356c: order of service of schoolroom dedication: 1957;
• MB2990: list of Men’s Circle meetings: 1957-1958;
• MB2355: Jubilee Committee minute book: 1958;
• MB2991: list of Men’s Circle meetings: 1959-1960;
• MB3169: Sunday School/Junior Church teachers’ meetings: 1959-1997;
• MB2992: letter appealing for money to pay off the debt incurred by building the schoolroom: c. 1960.