Oswestry

Oswestry is nowhere mentioned in John Wesley' Journal, but his Diary shows that in March 1789 he paused long enough to take tea there while on his way to Holyhead.

The Primitive Methodists met at first in a building in Oakhurst Road, which soon became too small. A separate PM Circuit was formed from Prees Circuit as early as 1833. But their first chapel, called Ebenezer, was not built until 1840 at the junction of Castle Street and Chapel Street, with a schoolroom added in 1868, replaced by a new schooloom on an adjoining site in 1891. In 1898-99 both chapel and schoolroom were demolished and replaced on the same site.

The 1840s were a period of dissension, n which several local preachers, influenced by 'erroneous doctrines', left the PM society, some of them joining the Independent Methodists.

The Welsh Calvinistics built their first chapel, Zion, in Castle Street in 1836. This was replaced by a new chapel in Park Avenue in 1868, with an extension at the rear in 1893.

Sources
  • David M. Young, The Primitive Methodist Mission to North Wales (2016)

Category: Place
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