School Lane Primitive Methodist, Farington

Photograph supplied by & Copyright of Jean Berry. Primitive Methodist church,
School Lane,
Farington
Lancashire

Cemeteries

The church does not have a graveyard.

Church History

It was founded in 1884 and closed in 1905.

The building first started out as Farington's first School in 1812. Known as Farington (Endowed) School House. Deeds in 1845 record that it is on a triangular piece of land totalling 766 square yards, which fronted onto 'the highway leading from Preston to Farington (now called School Lane). The London to Glasgow railway line built in 1830 forms the north easterly boundary of the 'school' site to the rear of the building. The School House was a basic single story building 54' long and 35' 6" wide, divided along its length into two sections with 3 windows on each side and a door in the dividing wall. 1910 conveyance papers show that it was formerly known as Farington Endowed School and part of building had been used as a school and part as a dwellinghouse. The children moved out of their old school due to overcrowding in July 1880 and it remained empty until special permission was obtained from the Charity Commissioners for its sale.

On the 12th March 1884 a public auction was held at the Anchor Inn, Croston Rd., and the building and land was sold for £176, to the Primitive Methodist Church for their use as a Chapel and place of worship. Members of the Church increased over the next few years and on the 29th October 1904 a ketter sugbed by a majority of the Trustees was sent to the Primitive Methodist Church District Building Committee applying for permission to sell the Chapel.

Reasons given:-

1. The membership has so increased as to require a larger or more commodious Chapel or place of Religious Worship.
2. Permission to purchase land in a better situation has already been obtained.
3. The Chapel is damp and dilapidated and that to put it to anything like proper repair would cost at least £100.

Permission was granted to sell and in July 1905 it was purchased by Mrs Alice Hodge for some £180 (wife of one of the Chapel Trustees) It also appears that in later Conveyance papers that Mr and Mrs Alice Hodge had lived in the dwellinghouse part of the building since 1896.

The property was then sold to Herbert Durham for £220 and it remained in his family until Herbert Died in 1952 when the house was purchased by Thomas Lomax and his wife Elizabeth.

In 1970 the property was formally divided into 2 properties with Thomas and Elizabeth living in the 'dwellinghouse' part and their daughter Lillian and her husband Raymond having the Chapel House and is still called the Chapel House in 2007. A new family moving into the old dwelling house when Mr and Mrs Lomax passed away. Thomas Lomax passed away in 2001. Both sides of the property have been extensively renovated internally and extended sympathetically.

The Primitive Methodist church was an early 19th century (1807) secession from the Wesleyan Methodist church and was particularly successful in evangelising agricultural and industrial communities at open meetings. In 1932 the Primitive Methodists joined with the Wesleyan Methodists and the United Methodists to form the Methodist Church of Great Britain.

Maps

The church was located at OS grid reference SD540254. You can see this on maps provided by:

• this church marked on a Google map. (Use this to report a corrected location)
• Old Maps
• Streetmap.co.uk.
• multimap.com.
• www.magic.gov.uk
• Google maps showing nearby churches with satellite image option.

This site provides historical information about churches, other places of worship and cemeteries. It has no connection with the churches etc. themselves.