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PLYMOUTH
CHURCHES | METHODIST
CHAPELS
KER STREET METHODIST CHAPEL, DEVONPORT
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The Ker Street Wesleyan Chapel was located at
the top end of Ker Street, behind the Devonport Town Hall.
It was the first place of worship for the
Wesleyans in Plymouth Dock when it was opened in 1787. It bore a stone carved with
the date of 1785, which appears to be when it was started. [1]
The site was hewn out of
the side of what was at that time called Windmill Hill and it was at
first known as the Windmill Hill Chapel. John Wesley is said
to have preached at the Ker Street Chapel on at
least three occasions. [1]
Originally there was a small house next door in which the minister
lived but by 1919 this had become the caretaker's residence.
[1]
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Ker Street
Wesleyan Chapel, Devonport.
© Plymouth City Museum & Art Gallery. |
The building was sold as part of a scheme
started in December 1924 to reorganise Methodism in Devonport. It was at that time
that some Americans sought to purchase the pulpit from which John Wesley had
preached. Fortunately there were problems over the shipment of it to the United
States and it was placed in the
Devonport
Methodist Central Hall in Fore Street,
which replaced both this Chapel and the
Morice
Street Methodist Chapel. [2]
It was later used as a Territorial Army drill
hall until it was demolished in 1961. [3]
Sources:
[1] "Wesleyan
Methodist Church: Conference Handbook and Souvenir: Plymouth 1913",
printed by Messrs William Brendon & Son Ltd, Plymouth, 1913,
courtesy of the Reverend John Haley of Ridgeway Methodist Church,
Plympton, and and Mr Chris Crouch, the Property & Facilities Officer
at the Circuit Office, Devonport.
[2] Power, W J
J, "A Layman's
View of Some Plymouth Churches", 2 volumes, December 1977.
Not published: only
available in the Plymouth Local Studies Library.
[3] Moseley,
Brian, "Vanishing Plymouth", B S Moseley, Plymouth, 1981.
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