On his way from Canterbury to Dover on Wednesday 4 December 1771 John Wesley preached in the preaching house which was newly fitted up. Wesley wrote that it was well filled with attentive hearers. He also said that Ashford was one of the pleasantest towns in Kent.

Wesleyan Methodists

There was a preaching house in Ashford by 1771. In 1810 there was a Society meeting in an old lodge, probably a shooting or hunting lodge. They moved to the Assembly Rooms which they tried but failed to buy. The Society acquired Jeremiah Chittenden’s house in Hemsted Lane, later renamed Hempstead Street, converting the house into a chapel, which was opened on Christmas Day 1810. In 1811 the Ashford Circuit was formed. When Mrs Elizabeth Betts (nee Hayward Ladd) (1796-1844), a loyal Wesleyan, came to live in Ashford she suggested that the Wesleyans needed a better chapel. She persuaded her husband William Betts (1790-1867), a railway contractor, to pay for the chapel and he laid the foundation stone for the new chapel on the site of the previous building in Drum Lane on Wednesday 26 July 1843. The chapel opened on Thursday 14 March 1844, but sadly Elizabeth Betts died in the previous January, before the chapel was completed. With the coming of the railway in 1842 and the opening of the railway works in 1847 the population of the town began to increase. By the 1870s a new and larger chapel was needed. Plans were drawn up for a chapel in Tufton Street which would connect to the old buildings. The Connexional officers said that the chapel should be in a more prominent area of the town. The Bank Street site was leased for 15 guineas a year. The foundation stone for a new chapel to seat 1000 people was laid on 16 July 1873 by William M’Arthur, M.P. On Wednesday 8 July 1874 the new George Street chapel was opened. The preachers were Rev. William Arthur (1819-1901) and Rev. Richard Roberts (1823-1909). The chapel in Hempstead Street became the Sunday school but the urgent need for money meant that in December 1875 the trustees sold the old chapel to the Unitarians. The Sunday school then moved into the basement of the new chapel. During World War 2 in the Lower Hall the church people ran a Forces canteen. Wesley Hall was requisitioned to house the Ashford Employment Exchange when its premises were destroyed by bombing. Shortly after the war ended the trustees were able to clear the church debt and buy the land freehold for £300. In 1970 the Society joined with the Congregationalists to form the United Church, Ashford.

Francis Road Wesleyan Church

Land was bought in Francis Road, South Ashford in the autumn of 1903. A temporary iron chapel seating 200 was opened on Wednesday 14 October 1903. It closed in 1932, after Methodist Union, and members joined the South Ashford Methodist Church. The chapel was demolished and the Francis Road Evangelical Church is now on the site.

Bible Christians

On 18 June 1867 the trustees bought for £260 land on the corner of Lower Denmark Road and Torrington Road, South Ashford. They received financial support from the South Eastern and Chatham Railway. While the chapel was being erected a fierce storm on 18 April 1868 caused the front wall to collapse. The chapel was eventually opened later than planned on Wednesday 19 August 1868. The chapel was in the Ashford and Tenterden Circuit. When the Bible Christian Connexion became a constituent partner in the union with the Methodist New Connexion and the United Methodist Free Churches in 1907 the chapel became known as the United Methodist Chapel, South Ashford. In 1920 a fund to build a school room behind the chapel was started. The opening ceremony for the new school premises with seating for 250 persons was on 30 January 1924. With Methodist Union in 1932 the Francis Road Wesleyan Chapel closed and several of their members joined the former United Methodist chapel which was named the South Ashford Methodist Church. There was need of major restoration work to be undertaken to the building which was weakened in part by a flying bomb which exploded nearby on 24 March 1943. The front wall had to be taken down and rebuilt. The work was so extensive that the chapel had to be closed for 5 months. It was officially re-opened on Wednesday 1 October 1952.

United Church Ashford

The United Church Ashford was established on 18 November 1970, bringing together the Ashford Methodist and Congregational Churches. The United Church, affiliated to the United Reformed Church since the formation of the URC in 1972, meets in a new building on Cade Road and Kingsnorth Road in South Ashford.

Countess of Huntingdon’s Connexion

The Connexion had a chapel in Ashford from 1785 until around 1864.

Entry written by: DHR
Category: Place
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