Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands

The Royal Town of Sutton Coldfield is eight miles north east of Birmingham and seven miles south of Tamworth.

Methodist preaching started in Sutton Coldfield in 1765 when Francis Asbury held services in a cottage at Hill Hook, the home of Edward Hand, a self-employed cordwainer. Opposition to the Methodists continued through the 1770s and 1780s, with occasional violence and attempts to evict the Hand family.

A chapel was opened in Belwell Lane in 1799 and sold in 1853. A growing congregation in the 1880s led to the building of a new chapel, designed by Thomas Guest of Birmingham, on the corner of Newhall Street and The Parade in 1887-88, with a Sunday School in South Parade, built in 1926-27. The chapel was purchased by the town council in 1935 and a new chapel was opened in South Parade in 1936.

The closure of the Four Oaks racecourse in 1899 led to extensive housing development. Local Wesleyans bought a site on the corner of Lichfield and Walsall Roads and the Four Oaks chapel, designed by Crouch and Butler of Birmingham, was built in two phases - the nave in 1902-03 and the transepts, chancel and vestries in 1908-10.

Sources
  • 'New Wesleyan Chapel', Lichfield Mercury, 12 August 1887, page 6.
  • 'New Wesleyan Chapel at Sutton Coldfield', Warwickshire Herald, 8 September 1887, page 5.
  • 'Four Oaks', Walsall Observer, 25 October 1902, page 7.
  • 'Four Oaks Wesleyan Church', Tamworth Herald, 3 October 1908, page 2.
  • 'New Church. Dedication Service at Sutton Coldfield', Birmingham Weekly Mercury, 18 October 1936, page 9.
  • Donald H. Ryan (ed.), Celebrating Fifty Golden Years of the Wesley Historical Society - West Midlands (West Midlands Methodist Historical Society, 2016), page 64 and following.

Entry written by: DHR
Category: Place
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