The history of Methodism in Warwick

Our Story

John Wesley never visited Warwick, and the honour of introducing Methodism into the town in 1801 belongs to Thomas Facer, a stonemason from Yorkshire, who began to preach the Gospel in his own home in the Saltisford and in the open air. The early Methodists met for worship in private houses until the first short-lived chapel was opened in Chapel Street in 1824. They moved to a second chapel in Stand Street in 1839 and to a third at the foot of Market Street in 1863, and when our Northgate church was built thirty years later, the Market Street premises continued to be used for Sunday School and weekday activities.

As Methodism continued to grow in Warwick, Northgate Church was opened on May 25th, 1893, thanks to the enterprise shown by James Thacker and other local folk. The cost of the site and building came to £3,228, an immense amount of money in those days. At the time it was customary to have a large central rostrum for the preacher. By contrast the building was remarkable because it was one of the first examples of Victorian Gothic in the Free Churches, with vaulted roof, chancel at the front and the pulpit to one side. It was enhanced by the installation in 1903 of a new pipe organ to the right of the choir stalls, an instrument lovingly looked after by Frank Stiles, organist for fifty years, and later by Bob Meddoms and Gordon Ratcliffe, until its replacement by the present electronic organ in 1980.

Further improvements included the decorated reredos of the Ten Commandments on the chancel wall as a memorial to James Thacker on his death in 1907, and a new carved oak communion table placed in front of the Commandments in 1920 which was given by Emily Broadbent in memory of her aunt Maria Collins, a table which continues to grace our present sanctuary.

                           

Northgate Church before

 

The Church Hall adjacent to the Church in Barrack Street was built in 1961, at last removing the difficulties of organising events on split sites.

Alas, there was subsidence: Joyce Pool was aptly named! The wall on the Saltisford side was bowing outwards, and merely to repair the damage with incongruous tie-bars at the height of ten feet would cost £70,000. Intent on the maintenance of a Methodist witness in the centre of the town, both the Church Council and the members in general decided that if an architect could come up with an imaginative plan that would not only stabilise but also refashion the building for its Centenary, they would be prepared to spend much more. And in September 1991 a packed Church meeting unanimously and enthusiastically agreed to the plans of Kenneth Holmes, the results of which we enjoy today.

The alterations involved turning the church through 90 degrees. An attractive foyer was built out from the centre of the Barrack Street wall, and a pleasing curved sanctuary built on spare ground on the Saltisford side, with the magnificent stained glass window with its illuminated cross proclaiming the Gospel to all driving up North Rock. Comfortable chairs replaced the old pews, but old and new were blended by using the backs of the old pews as cladding for the front of a new all-round gallery. A watching brief on the development was overseen by Sid Kendrick as our clerk of works, and the final cost came to £345, 000.

 
The Official Re-Opening took place on January 30th, 1993, and it was fitting that the re-opening ceremony was performed by Herbert Walden who had not only given a lifetime of service to the church but was also the person behind all the raising of funds and successful applications for grants.

But the building is only the shell - it is the people who make the church, and we rejoice in the families - the Ledbrookes and the Cockburns, the Hunts and the Hobbises, the Cloneys and the Tandys, and many more - who over the years have maintained a Christian witness in Warwick. This has been nurtured by all the usual organisations: Sunday School, youth club, Wesley Guild, Northgate's own CONFRACT (Circle of Northgate Christians Reaching After Christianity Together), Bible study groups, men's and women's fellowships, choir, drama group, uniformed organisations and many more, the bulk of which continue to flourish today. Finally, we must not forget the outreach both past and present of members who witness to the love of God and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ by their involvement in so many voluntary aspects of work in the life of Warwick.