Methodist Chapel

The Wesleyan Methodists had a chapel at Week Orchard (built pre-1800), and the United Methodist Free Church had a chapel in the Churchtown built in 1844.

The Bible Christians built the current Zion chapel within the village in 1843, and another at Bakesdon in 1833.

William O'Bryan, born in 1778, who met John Wesley as a boy, felt led to become a preacher but experienced conflict with chapel leaders which led to his itinerent evangelist career. As an independent preacher he conducted what proved to be the first service of a new Methodist denomination - "Bible Christians" - at Week St. Mary on 1st October 1815.

He linked with 22 friends and formed a society on 9th October 1815. An Annual Conference was established, a pattern of circuits evolved and in 1831 the Week St. Mary Circuit came into being.


The year 1907 saw the demise of the title "Bible Christian Society" when it combined with the "United Methodist Free Church" and the "Methodist New Connexion" to form "The United Methodist Church". This union and the later on in 1932, when "United Methodists", "Weslyans" and "Primitive Methodists" formed "The Methodist Church" produced little real change.


At Week St. Mary the two chapels (Week St. Mary Bible Christian and Week Green United Methodist Free Church) continued their respective societies following the 1907 and 1932 amalgamations until 1934 when the Week Green chapel was closed and the premises converted for use as a caretaker's bungalow.

Renovation to the Chapel

Spring 2010

Dramatic changes have taken place to the chapel seating and organ area - the organ was lowered and the pews removed to be replaced with loose chairs. The flooring has been carpeted and a new sound system installed to complement a digital projector and screen. New wooden doors have replaced the old allowing far more light into the chapel and the access has been improved by lowering the granite step into the ground at an angle.

50º 45'03.84N  4º 30'01.39W      OS: SX 237977      Elevation: 142m

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