Teignmouth, Devon

The town was missioned in 1812 by local preachers from Torquay to the south. By 1819 there was a chapel in what came to be known as Chapel Street. The arrival of the railway in 1843 and the growth of the resort led to relocation of the society to Somerset Place in 1845. There were alterations and extensions to the new chapel in the 1860s; galleries were added in the 1870s and a new schoolroom built in 1878, with further extensions in 1884 to both schoolroom and chapel. Further alterations in the 20th century were followed by a major redesign of the interior in 1967, following the union of the WM and PM societies.

PM arrived in September 1859, when a room was hired and two members were reported. By 1860 there were twenty members. The work spread to Shaldon and Bishopsteignton. The first chapel was built in 1876 in Willey Lane. Damaged by bombing in 1942, this was eventually reopened in January 1947. Meanwhile a site for a new chapel had been bought in 1911 in Bitton Street, but this was never built and the site was sold in 1931.

In 1965 the Willey Lane chapel was sold under a Compulsory Purchase order in connection with the central redevelopment scheme and the two societies united in the Somerset Place premises. Teignmouth was the last circuit of Francis B. James in 1944-1948, whose family retained a continuing link with the town.

The Teignmouth and Newton Abbot circuits joined to form a single circuit in 2011.

Sources
  • Gillian M. James, In Every Generation: the story of the development of Methodism in Teignmouth (1994)