John Wesley preached three times at Faversham towards the end of his life, but the number of Methodists remained small until the early 19th century. As early as 1770 there are references to a chapel 'situated at the lower part of Great Quay Lane, opposite the Two Brewers, but this seems to have been no more than a room provided with a reading desk and forms. The members attended the parish church for the sacrament, but were sometimes the only ones to do so. By the mid 1770s decline in numbers through deaths led to the chapel being given up., but in 1787 the cause revived and meetings began in an upper room in Cripple Court, and then in an auction room in West Street, with the encouragement of a young local preacher named Edward Gibbons from Canterbury.

The first Wesleyan chapel, built in Georgian style, was opened in March 1809 in Preston Street by Joseph Benson. This served until the present gothic-style church replaced it in 1861 (enlarged in 1870). In the 1980s the interior was modernised, with the ground floor being used as the church hall and available for hire, with a worship area on the new floor above. In the meantime, a union in 1974 of the Newton Road Congregationalists/URC with the Methodists had formed the Faversham United Church, located in the Preston Street premises.

Faversham was in the Canterbury Wesleyan Circuit until it became the head of a separate circuit in1843. The two circuits were reunited in1960.

Category: Place
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