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by Hugh Pihlens

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The Methodist Church, Bridge Street. There is a long and proud history of non-conformism in Hungerford.

John and Charles Wesley were Church of England priests in the 18th century. They felt called to bring the word of God to non-churchgoers and to address some of the pressing social issues of the day, matters not high on the agenda of the Established Church at that time. In due course this became a separate denomination known as the Methodist Church.

They formed a group in a house in Moon Lane at the town end of Salisbury Road. (It is thought that this was actually the property later No. 2 Salisbury Road, home of Mr & Mrs Charles Fry in the 1970s-80s, demolished in the late 1990s when St John's Court was built. Tracey Chandler, owner in Oct 1997 stated "2 Salisbury Road was built as the original Methodist Meeting house of Hungerford, and the conveyancing document that we have had framed shows a number of Hungerford people who were involved in the purchasing of land including the nature of their employment".)  The house was registered by Thomas Russell as a place for Methodist worship. The 1864 Billings Directory states that there was a "small Primitive Methodist Chapel in Moon Lane. No attached minister.".

Another Primitive Methodist Church in Oxford Street, Eddington had been built in 1840, and was well supported in 1851.

By the 1860's the house in Moon Lane was too small for the number of worshippers, and a new Primitive Methodist Church was built between 1864-68 in Bridge Street.

In a document dated 16th April 1866, Mr T C Atherton sold the land to Mr G T Phelps and other Trustees of the Primitive Methodist Connexion. The body of Trustees was set up on the same day. The site had been bought for £548.14.0d.

The church was registered for the Solemnisation of marriages in 1868 (BRO, Parish Records). The Reading Mercury reported on 16th May 1868 that "three sermons were preached and the church was so full that there was no standing room and people had to be turned away".

The Bridge Street church was hardly a stone's throw from the fine new Gothic Wesleyan Methodist Church in Charnham Street, which opened a year later in 1869 the Wesleyan Methodists moved from the Ebenezer Chapel in Church Street.

Both churches in the 19th century were very well attended. In the seven years between 1852 and 1859 there were 66 baptisms in the Primitive Methodist Church alone.

As was customary in Methodist churches, there was a day school attached to both Church Street and Bath Road.

The school room at the back of the Methodist Church in Bridge Street was built in 1907, and, at the same time, alterations were made to the front of the church. A loan of £400 was taken up at the time - finally repaid in October 1947.

In 1932 the various splits in Methodism were brought together by the Deed of Union and one Methodist Church was formed. This was more easily done on paper than in reality and in Hungerford both Wesleyan and Primitives continued to meet separately until the Charnham Street Church was closed in 1971. The Wesleyans were invited to join with the Primitives at Bridge Street but many found themselves unable to do so

The property adjacent to the church, 9 Bridge Street, was owned by the church, and was used for some time as the manse. It was sold in 1992 to provide funds to modernise the church.

In 1993 Bridge Street was refurbished, chairs installed instead of pews, a garden established by the river, and other improvements made. This year a modern kitchen has been installed in the Hall to continue the Methodist tradition of hospitality. Much work continues to be done there to make the Church relevant within the town and to help where possible in a wider context. Bridge Street has a reputation for being a warm and welcoming Church in which to worship.

Ministers:
- 2004 - Aug 2009: Revd Irena Byron
- 2009 - 2011:        Revd Andy Warren
- 2011 - present:    Revd Terry Wright

Further information about the site of the Methodist Chapel in Bridge Street comes from a paper written by Norman Hidden in 1983:

The history of the site goes hack many centuries, probably to the original division of land along the main street into burgage tenures in the 12th or early 13th century. Certainly a house was already in existence on this site in 1470, owned by the priory hospital of St. John. Whether the house was used by the priory or was let to rent is not known; but its situation so near to the priory itself (only the mill intervening between the two buildings) suggests that it may have originally been a building used for hospital purposes. By the 16th century, however, evidence suggests that it was likely to have been let as a source of rent for the priory.

When the priory was dissolved by Henry VIII in 1548 the king granted the priory property to Sir John Thynne, of Longleat fame. Thynne leased the property and in 1552 the building was said to be "late in the tenure of ..?.. Jennyns, and now of John Bytheway."

On Thynne's death the property became again at the disposal of the crown and (via court middlemen such as Dru Drury and Edward Downing) it was purchased as an investment, along with other former priory property, by Anthony Hidden, lord of the manor of Hidden - cum - Eddington. When Anthony Hidden died in 1591 it descended to his young son Roger, and was held in trust during Roger's minority by his stepfather Robert Roberts of Salisbury. After coming of age, Roger Hidden sold it to a London merchant named Price who almost immediately re-sold to Dr.Thomas Sheaff, a canon of St. George's College, Windsor. Sheaff, in turn, disposed of the freehold (in 1612) to Henry Atkins, the sitting tenant.

The building, its accompanying garden, and a small plot of ground which separated it from the mill on the north side remained in the Atkins family for over a hundred years. William Atkins, who may have been born in the house when his father was tenant of Anthony Hidden, succeeded to the freehold when his father Henry died in 1618. William Atkins died in 1643, and in the town rent roll of 1676 the property is listed as belonging to Edward Atkins. This is presumably the Edward Atkins who is described in later deeds of the property as fellmonger, that is trader in calf and sheep skins for manufacture of leather goods (such as gloves). When Edward died he left the property and business to two sons William & Edward, who continued the business as fellmongers. In 1726 the two Atkins brothers sold the property to William Allen the elder, also a glover.

At some time before 1748 Allen used the plot of ground between his house and the grounds of the mill to build a new house neighbouring his own and this new house became occupied by Edward Lucas. Joseph Allen in 1752 mortgaged both properties (as well as 15 acres of land he held separately. The property is described as consisting of two messuages, 1 barn, 1 stable, 1 shop, 2 gardens and 2 orchards.

The mortgagor insisted that a clause be inserted into his agreement with Joseph Allen which transferred to him the benefits of the building's insurance policy issued by the Society of the Sun Office in London for insurance against loss or damage by fire, dated 6 July 1752 and numbered 131349. The policy was valid for the main or original messuage for a total sum not exceeding £200 and it carefully excluded "all manner of outhouses or adjoining buildings"!

In 1739 his previous mortgagor having died, Allen was forced to find a new mortgage to enable him to clear that agreed in 1752. This time a local widow, Elisabeth Farrendon, came to his assistance. By 1769 Joseph Allen had died and his son Joseph Allen junior, also a glover, was able to clear his mortgage to Elizabeth Farrendon only by securing a further mortgage from Thomas Mundy. Finally in 1773 Mundy 'by the direction of Joseph Allen' sold to Sir William Dolben as trustee for widow Mary Garrard of Hungerford.

Among the documents which record this and the subsequent transaction, is a memorandum in Mary Garrard's handwriting which recounts the building of a wall between her property and that on its southern side, containing a special white stone commemorating the year of her wedding to the late George Garrard.

Mary Garrard died in 1802 and in her will left the property to her two sisters, Mulso & Judith Whitelocke. They had it put up to auction at the Bear Inn in the same year, when it was purchased by Thomas Atherton, a miller. Atherton is recorded in the town quit rent rolls as owner of the premises in 1805, 1818, 1832 and 1836.

I have obtained much of the detail in this record from original deeds in possession of the Methodist church. They were brought to my attention by Mr. Alfred Kew and most generously brought out of the church's archives and placed at my disposal through the good offices of Rev. John Morgan, the local Methodist minister, and I would like to acknowledge my debt to them in this respect.

See also:
- 9 Bridge Street
- Ebenezer Chapel in Church Street
- Primitive Methodist Church in Oxford Street, Eddington
- Wesleyan Methodist Church in Charnham Street
- History of Independency in Hungerford (from Newbury Journal c1870)

Updated: 9.8.2011

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