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Maltby Wesleyan Methodist Chapel
Background.
The first reference to Methodism in the Parish of Maltby is in a directory entry of 1832 which notes a chapel at Hooton Levitt. It is possible that Hooton was chosen because it was far enough away from the likely disapproval of the owner of the Maltby Hall Estate, the Rev George Rolleston, Vicar of Maltby , who was appointed Vicar of Maltby in 1816 by the 6th Earl of Scarbrough (Patron of the Living ). Nearby settlements (e.g. Dinnington) have chapel’s dating from the 1830s. Prior to the building of chapels it is likely that Methodist Societies met in the homes of leading members.
c1840 The Maltby Tithe Map and Schedule indicate that the site of the chapel was part of a small field called Herring Meadow (numbered 201) which had frontages on both Blyth Road and Millindale and which backed on to a larger parcel of land called Calf Close. (Herring is a local family name). The area of the whole parcel of land is recorded as 1rood 25 perches (just over ¼ acre ). The owner was Francis Clayton and the tenant Jas.(?) Thompson. Estate papers in the Lumley Archive at Sandbeck Park reveal Francis Clayton to have been a stonemason and quarryman. Either he or his father is the likely builder of Abbeyfield House on Blyth Road but Francis also owned The Grove with its adjacent stone quarry. He does not appear to have been resident in the parish in 1840. It remains to be discovered if Clayton or any of his tenants were of Methodist persuasion.
c1850 The first Edition of the 6” Ordnance Survey (survey date 1850-1) is the earliest map to mark the Wesleyan Chapel. (Thus the chapel must have been built after 1840 but before 1851.) The building indicated is rectangular with (to the NE) a small attached squarer rear schoolroom(?)porch(?) which extended roughly half way across the back wall of the chapel.
1851-1890 The First Edition of the 25” Ordnance Survey (!809-1 survey date) shows the chapel at a considerably larger scale. By this time the rear square feature had been extended across the whole of the rear wall of the original building but the two sections are marked as divided from each other by a wall. (May be the bits were of different height or roofing material) A path is marked from Millindale to the rear of the chapel suggesting a separate Sunday School entrance (the door next to the two small windows on the E wall of the attached building).
c1912 The southern extension (refronting of the chapel) dates to the period of early colliery production which led to a very rapid increase in Maltby’s population, when incomers came to work the coal. Dennis Bulleyment recently pointed out a foundation stone bearing the initials of a member of his mother’s family, the (incoming) Altons. 1911-12 are the most likely dates and the extension cannot be later than 1914. (Date stone?)
c1961 Another 25” map indicates service buildings in the rear yard. A 1995 photograph shows these to have been of red brick. 1920’s (at a guess).( Coalhouse, lavatories?)
This also shows the former Calf Close developed. Levelling for this would explain the need for the rear retaining wall on what must formerly have been a gently sloping site. Also indicated is The Methodist (Centenary) Hall. The Centenary name was quoted to me in the early 1980s and makes sense in terms of the dating of the original chapel and the early 1950s date of the Methodist Hall. (The celebration may, of course have been delayed because of the Second War and the subsequent post-war building restrictions.)
©Alice Rodgers October 2005
Maltby Community Development Trust, The Wesley Centre, Blyth Road, Maltby, Rotherham, S66 8JD
Telephone: 01709 811118 Fax: 01709 811119 Email: ian.cruddas@maltbycdt.org.ukA company limited by guarantee: Registered in England and Wales Number: 4710789
