The temporary Primitive Methodist chapel at Wootton Broadmead 1911 [RDBP1/179]

The first mention of Primitive Methodism| in what would later become Stewartby in documents held at Bedfordshire & Luton Archives & Records Service is in 1911. In this year Bedford Rural District Council approved the siting of a temporary chapel at Wootton Broadmead [RDBP1/179]. It stood on land leased for seven years to the trustees by Joseph Mead. The land measured 40 feet by 19 feet and stood at the bottom of his garden on the road from Wootton Broadmead to Wootton Pillinge; annual ground rent was £1 per annum [MB1805]. The trustees signing the lease were: James Robinson, William Turvey, Thomas Gadsden, Percy C.Gadsden, Ernest F.Gadsden, Jabez Gadsden, Ewart H.Tickner, Arthur Odell and John Savage.

The chapel was registered as a place of worship with the Registrar General in 1920 by Richard Newman Wycherley, Superintendent Minister of the Bedford Primitive Methodist Circuit| [MB1806]. The lease with Joseph Mead was obviously renewed every so often but the only other example held by Bedfordshire & Luton Archives & Records Service is one for three years in 1931 [MB1807], ground rent was still £1. An exchange of letters of 1933 to 1934 notes that Mead had died and the land had been sold the land to London Brick Company, who continued to lease the site for £1 per annum [MB1809], following the amalgamation of various strands of Methodism in 1932 the chapel was no longer Primitive but simply Methodist.

 
Sketch map of the site of the chapel in 1952 [MB1810/2]

A letter of 1952 indicates that the trustees were contemplating installing electricity from a nearby electric cable [MB1810/1]. However, by 1958 it had been decided to close the chapel and an exchange of letters with London Brick suggests that the building was removed in or shortly after June 1960 [MB1811]