Wesleyan Methodist Church, Nantwich

The Wesleyan Methodist Church, also known as the Wesleyan Chapel, is a former Wesleyan Methodist church on Hospital Street, Nantwich, Cheshire, England (at SJ6531052249). Built in 1808, a new façade was added in 1876. The church then seated over a thousand, and was the largest Nonconformist place of worship in the town in the 1880s. It is listed at grade II. The church closed in 2009, after the congregation moved to the former Methodist schoolrooms opposite.

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. A Methodist congregation was in existence by 1777. Members originally worshipped in a chapel on Barker Street, which later became a Baptist chapel. Wesley preached there twice, on 6 April 1779 and 17 May 1781. In 1789, the congregation numbered only 23.

Rapid growth took place in the subsequent few decades, with the congregation reaching 200 by 1806. The society then purchased a site on Hospital Street for £700, on which they built a church and two preachers' houses, at a cost of £3,300. The Wesleyan Methodist Church opened on 13 November 1808, and seated a congregation of around 900. Originally included in the Chester Methodist circuit, in 1808 Nantwich became the centre of a circuit which included Alsager, Bickerton, Buerton and Winsford, and, until 1869, the new town of Crewe.

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