Primitive Methodist Chapel, Nantwich

The Primitive Methodist Chapel is a former Primitive Methodist church on Welsh Row in Nantwich, Cheshire, England (at SJ6460252372). Built in 1840, it is listed at grade II. The chapel closed in 2001, and the building has been partially converted to residential use.

Early visits from Nonconformist preachers were not welcomed in Nantwich. In 1753, John Wesley was "saluted with curses and hard names", while that same year, George Whitefield was met by angry crowds who tried to drive a bull into his audience, but were foiled when the animal fell into a pit.

William Clowes, one of the founders of Primitive Methodism, came to Nantwich with John Wedgewood and preached at The Barony in 1817. A building on Marsh Lane was purchased in 1826 for £100 and was used as a chapel until 1840, when the chapel on Welsh Row was built by Thomas Bateman. The Welsh Row site, donated by George Wilbraham, was a former cloth merchants' hall. Opening on 21 October 1840, the Welsh Row chapel seated a congregation of 600. It originally fell within the Burland Primitive Methodist circuit, but in 1844 a minister was appointed in Nantwich and the town became the centre of the circuit. The several other Nonconformist places of worship in the town in 1850 also included a Wesleyan Methodist Church and a Unitarian Chapel on Hospital Street, an Independent or Congregational Chapel on Monks Lane, a Baptist Chapel on Barker Street, a Friends' Meeting House on Pillory Street, and a Wesleyan Association Chapel on Castle Street. A second Primitive Methodist chapel, the Wood Memorial Chapel, was built in 1881 at The Barony by John Wood.

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