PLYMOUTH
DATA
www.plymouthdata.info

The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History

Click here to return to the Home page      Click here for more information about this website       Click here to go to the A - Z Contents page       Click here to go to the Links page       Click here to go to the Disclaimer page       Click here to link to the Can you help? page


CHURCHES, CHAPELS AND PLACES OF WORSHIP  |  METHODIST CHAPELS

KER STREET WESLEYAN CHAPEL

Updated:  05 July 2011 

The Ker Street Wesleyan Chapel was situated 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]

Ker Street Wesleyan Chapel.jpg

Ker Street Wesleyan Chapel, Devonport.
©  City of Plymouth Museum & Art Gallery.

 

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]

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.

©  Brian Moseley, Plymouth, UK

Any problems viewing this webpage should be notified to the webmaster at plymouthdata dot info