Blackpool, Lancashire

Blackpool is a vibrant Lancashire holiday seaside town on the headland of the Fylde peninsula, facing the Irish Sea. The town's growth from the early nineteenth century derived from the popularity of sea bathing.

Wesleyan meetings began in Blackpool in 1830, on the initiative of James Roskell. A chapel was built on Adelaide Street in 1835, enlarged in 1862 and later renamed Central Methodist Church. The Victorian building was replaced in 1976. Other chapels were built on South Shore (Ebenezer, 1869, replaced by Moore Street in 1889), North Shore (1888, replaced in 1907), and Raikes Parade (1886, replaced in 1909). Ebenezer, in Rawcliffe Street, was donated by Francis Parnell (1799-1884).

Primitive Methodist chapels were opened in Chapel Street (1862, rebuilt 1875 and 1938), Egerton Street (Ebenezer, 1900), and Grasmere Road (1908).

There were also Methodist New Connexion chapels in Blackpool, in Springfield Road (1889) and Newton Drive (1909) and an Independent Methodist chapel on Central Drive (1925).

Sources
  • John Taylor, The apostles of Fylde Methodism (London: T. Woolmer, 1885).
  • John Dolan, The Independent Methodists. A History (Cambridge: James Clarke & Co, 2005).
  • 'Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, Blackpool', Blackburn Standard, 9 September 1835, page 8.
  • 'Methodist New Connexion', Methodist Times, 29 July 1886, page 20.
  • 'Blackpool Primitive Methodist New Schools', Fleetwood Chronicle, 5 January 1877, page 5.
  • 'New Wesleyan Church at Blackpool', Manchester Evening News, 8 June 1909, page 4.
  • W. Hargreaves Cooper, 'Methodism in the Fylde: "Breezy Blackpool"', Methodist Recorder, 2 July 1903, pages 13-14.

Entry written by: DHR
Category: Place
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