Wootton Methodist Church July 2007
It seems reasonable to assume that at least one of the early registrations of Nonconformist meetings in Wootton (see Nonconformity in Wootton|) was by the Wesleyan| Methodists as the Methodist chapel was first registered in 1811 [ABN1/1]. This place of worship was, in fact, two cottages which stood on a piece of land 57 feet long by 24 feet wide in Cause End Road, adjacent to the Star| Beerhouse. John Curtis the younger of Wootton, lace dealer and John Dowsitt of St.Cuthbert's, Bedford, surgeon and apothecary agreed to buy the site and buildings from Ambrose Hurst of Wootton, shopkeeper for £80 [STuncat403/1].
The following year Hurst duly conveyed the site and buildings to the Bedford Wesleyan Circuit |trustees: John Curtis; Daniel Cook of Wootton, farmer; John Doswet; Richard Lovell of St.Peter's, Bedford, shoemaker; John Maynard of St.Peter's, Bedford, wheelwright; Isaac Wale of St.Paul's, Bedford, tailor; John Issett of St.Paul's, Bedford, butcher; William Cumberland of St.Mary's, Bedford, shoemaker and William Yates of Kempston, farmer [STuncat403/2].
New trustees were appointed in 1840 being: Thomas Poulton Clark of Ampthill, minister; Charles Armstrong of Wootton, farmer; James Isitt of Bedford, butcher; James Maynard of Bedford, wheelwright; Samuel Warren of Wootton, collar maker; James Hebbes of Wootton, brickmaker; Edward Estwick of Wootton, labourer [a William Estwick had lived in one of the two cottages in 1811]; James Summerfield of Wootton, labourer; William Furr of Wootton, labourer and Ebenezer Hebbes of Wootton, brickmaker [STuncat403/3-4]
In 1862 the Bedford Circuit decided to purchase land on which to build a new chapel and schoolroom. In the end the Armstrong family donated both the site and £100 towards the building of the chapel, a further £100 coming from John Howard of Bedford. The chapel underwent significant alterations in 1964 [CRT130Woo14].
The old chapel building was not sold for ten years after the new one was built - being conveyed to Charles Hebbes of Wootton, brickmaker for £40 on 25 April 1872 [STuncat403/5]