OLD DEVONPORT . UK
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©  Brian Moseley, Plymouth
Webpage created: February 19, 2016
Webpage updated: March 04, 2021

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KER STREET WESLEYAN METHODIST CHAPEL

The Ker Street Wesleyan Methodist Chapel was situated at the top end of Ker Street, behind the Town Hall.

Ker Street Wesleyan Chapel.jpg

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

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 the congregation was started.

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 Chapel on at least three occasions.

Originally there was a small house next door in which the minister lived but by 1919 this had become the caretaker's residence.

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 Wesleyan Methodist Chapel.

It was later used as a Territorial Army drill hall until it was demolished in 1961.

 

  Photograph - "Wesleyan Methodist Church: Conference Handbook and Souvenir: Plymouth 1913", printed by Messrs William Brendon and Son Limited, Plymouth, 1913, courtesy of the Reverend John Haley of Ridgeway Methodist Church, Plympton, and and Mr Chris Crouch, the Property and Facilities Officer at the Circuit Office, Devonport.