Rushden Research Group: Raunds Methodist Church

Based on the Centenary Booklet 1974

Raunds Wesleyan Methodist Church

Before the steps and frontage were altered.
The doors are now windows.

Methodism in the area was at first under the Bedfordshire Circuit in the 1780s. By 1813 the Raunds records were included in the Higham Ferrers Circuit. The first chapel meetings were held in Thorpe Street, in William Nichols' yard. When the first chapel was built in 1812, on a parcel of land in Brooke Street, the old chapel was converted into two cottages. The new chapel cost £1,200 and the land £90. It could accommodate 500.

In 1848 a Day School was founded and in 1854 a farm and barn, behind two cottages, was purchased for £160 from Mr W Nichols. A new building with a master's house was completed in 1861. George Lee was the first master and he stayed until 1910. His son took over until the school closed in 1914, when the new school was opened in Park Street.

The first church on this site was built in 1812. Memorial stones were laid as the rebuilding took place in 1873. It reopened on 8th May 1874.	Wesleyan Methodist Chapel A D MDCCCLXXIV
	This Memorial Stone was laid by Master Thomas William son of Thomas Nichols Esq August 4th 1873.	This Memorial Stone was laid by Master Richard Ekins son of Samuel Brown Esq August 4th 1873.
	This Memorial Stone was laid by Henry Wale Esq of Narborough Leicester August 4th 1873.	This Memorial Stone was laid by Master John Henry son of John K Nichols Esq August 4th 1873.

Trustees at the time of the rebuilding in 1873
George	Bass	Shopkeeper	John Herbert	Nichols	Clicker
Henry	Brawn	Baker	John Knighton	Nichols	Shoe manufacturer
Samuel	Brown	Farmer	Thomas	Nichols	Farmer
Ralph	Dearlove	of Higham Park, farmer	Thomas	Sanders	of Higham Ferrers, currier
John	Horrell	Accountant	Andrew	Walker	saddler
John	King-Smith	Shoe agent	Thomas	Webb	Farmer
Thomas Nicholas	Knighton	Clicker

A church organ was installed in 1911 - the gift of Mr Clark Finding - it had formerly been in home of Church Trustee John King-Smith.

Wesleyan Chapel
Sunday School Established 1812
Day School Established 1848
Reorganized in 1861
Enlarged in 1870 and in 1895

Harvest Festival 1928

By the steps leading to the new entrance is a stone charting the changes during the 1800s. Behind the building is an extensive burial ground.

The burial ground

Six former ministers are buried here:
Rev W L Spiers 1863
Rev Buckley Yates 1896
Rev Samuel Wesley & wife & daughter
Rev J Stembridge 1900
Rev J Hankin Hardy & wife & son
Rev Baldwin H Owen 1951

Inside the church in 1957 - in Brook Street - for a Methodist Circuit Rally

In the pulpit are: (l-r) Rev B Newbold, Second Minister Paradine Frost (father of Sir David Frost),
Mr Piggott from the methodist Recorder and Rev Donald Soper

When the Primitive Methodist Church closed in 1966 the congregation joined
the Wesleyan Methodists.Their building in Marshalls Road was sold and the
funds used to refurbish the schoolrooms in 1970.

In 1973 the church was completely re-decorated and cost £2,600, in
readiness for the Centenary.

The front access was changed and the entrance
moved to the rear and the interior rotated.

The Wesleyan burial ground is 118 years old. The first interment was in 1813, the year after the old chapel was erected. The tombstone of a member of the Ekins family, “Thorpe House,” Raunds, can be seen today, sculptured with a weeping willow and the setting sun, in the Ekins row in the centre of the ground. Just before the present chapel was built in 1874, the Trustees secured some adjoining land, and enlarged it to double the size but is now practically closed. There is space for a few more years for Methodist adherents and family relations at the bottom of the new ground, south side of the path, to correspond with the other side, which is filled down to the back of the chapel. [extract from a 1932 report]

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