Limbury Wesleyan Methodist Church

The proposed Limbury Wesleyan chapel [MB716]

The Wesleyan Methodist church in Limbury was built 1845 on the island site bounded by Neville Road, onto which the chapel fronted, Neville Road Passage and Black Swan Lane. Today two semi-detached houses stand on the spot. The chapel was part of the Luton Wesleyan Circuit.

Edwin Welch researched the history of registrations in Bedfordshire for Bedfordshire Historical Records Society Volume 75 Bedfordshire Chapels and Meeting Houses [published in 1996] and found that the chapel was registered with the Archdeaconry of Bedford between 18th and 23rd September 1846 by John Crofts of Luton [ABN1/2, ABN2/392]. It was again registered on 6th February 1854 by Wright Shovelton of Chapel Street church, superintendent minister. The registration was cancelled on 12th March 1913

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 Limbury was compiled by chapel steward Thomas Partridge:

• Chapel opened 1845;
• 50 free seats, 48 other seats;
• General congregation in the afternoon – 34, with 23 Sunday scholars;
• General congregation in the evening – 43;
• He commented: “Thinner attendance on wet Sundays and during the winter months”.

In 1880 Limbury was transferred to the newly created Wesleyan Waller Street Circuit. By the 1890s the chapel was no longer viable – falling numbers and a low population in the surrounding area (it is difficult to believe it now but Limbury was then a very rural hamlet). In 1893 the chapel was closed and was sold in 1897 to George Maidment of Biscot for £40 [MB714].

And that was that for the history of Wesleyan Methodism in Limbury, except for an abortive attempt to begin a new church. The picture at the head of the page is an artist’s impression of the intended new chapel. It is the cover of a leaflet designed to raise funds following the purchase of a site in 1913 [MB716]. The leaflet reads as follows: “The accompanying sketch is the Plan of a New Wesleyan Church, which it is proposed to erect on a site that has been purchased in the Icknield Road”.

“For many years Limbury was on the Plan of this Circuit, but owing to a declension of the Cause, and the scant population, the services were discontinued in 1893, and the building was eventually sold”.

“During the last few years however, the neighbourhood has developed to such an extent that it is felt Wesleyan Methodism ought again to be represented in the midst of the growing population, and a considerable number of Methodist families are taking up their residence in the neighbourhood”.

“The present site is about half-a-mile from the old Chapel, and in the centre of a district that is being covered with houses”.

“The building it is proposed to put up will cost about £1,000 and provide accommodation for 250 adults and 200 children, the transept to be used for a while for the purposes of a Sunday School”.

“You are earnestly asked to help us in this very necessary effort, and contributions to the Building Fund will be thankfully received”. The earnest plea fell on largely deaf ears and the site, in Norton Road [MB1694] remained undeveloped. The amount raised never seems to have risen as high as £30 and in 1932 the site was sold to a P. R. Hill for £450 [MB717]. In that year the Wesleyan Methodists came together with the Primitive and United Methodists to form the Methodist Church of Great Britain. The Norton Road site project was finally killed off by the fact that there was a former Primitive chapel about a mile away in Marsh Road and plans for a new chapel in Montrose Avenue were in the pipeline. At least the trustees received about twice as much for the site as they hade paid for it in 1913.

Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Records Service has the following records relating to Limbury:

• MB411: chapel account book: 1845-1898;
• MB714: agreement to purchase the chapel by George Maidment: 1897;
• MB715: Committee and Trustee minute book regarding the new chapel which was never built: 1910-1932;
• MB716: artist’s impression of proposed church: 1912;
• MB717: papers regarding sale of the abortive church site: 1932;
• MB1694: Impact! A history of Methodism in Luton: 1750-1962.