Herefordshire Through Time
Herefordshire Through Time
Historic Environment Record reference no. 33582, Ordnance Survey grid reference: SO 3470 3290
A chapel which dates from 1833.
HER no. 30804, OS grid ref: SO 6695 5595
A Mission Church not shown on the 1st Edition OS maps.
HER no. 30805, OS grid ref: SO 6667 5533
A Methodist Chapel situated on the Bromyard Downs. It is not shown on the 1st Edition OS maps.
HER no. 35770, OS grid ref: SO 3755 4865
A Wesleyan Methodist Chapel at Eccles Green, which is shown on the 1891 OS map but not on the most recent one.
HER no. 35769, OS grid ref: SO 3610 4858
On a road leading south-east from Kinnersley to Norton Canon is Norton Wood Chapel. It is of red and blue bricks with circular windows and a slate roof. On the front of the chapel is engraved "Ebenezer Primitive Methodist Chapel 1864" with the date in Roman numerals (MDCCCLXIV), which is rare for chapels in this area.
In March 1862 the Weobley Quarterly Meeting decided that the friends of Norton Wood should be allowed to build a chapel there. By October 1863 land had been secured. A chapel was built that held 120 people and cost £200. The building was opened the following year. It received its certificate of worship in 1865. There were two services held every Sunday, at 2.30pm and 6pm.
The membership of the Norton Wood Chapel remained relatively steady over the next 50 years:
| 1884 | 16 members |
| 1906 | 19 members |
| 1912 | 17 members |
| 1916 | 23 members |
| 1931 | 12 members |
In 1888 the Quarterly Meeting Minutes report problems of neglect at Norton Wood. These seem to have been sorted out as in 1912 the Quarterly Meeting Minutes of the Weobley Circuit show that at the Sunday School Anniversary the chapel was "full and overflowing".
In the 1940s travelling preachers ministered there, many walking or riding several miles to do so, with members of the congregation supplying them with meals.
The chapel was still in use up until 1963, when the Border Commission said that it should centralise with Eardisley Chapel. The chapel was later sold and was used as a shed for grass seed and corn.
(Information taken from Fred Bluck, Methodism in the Marches)