Ushaw Moor Historical Website - Religious History (Methodist)

Methodist

The Wesleyan Methodists at Ushaw Colliery are first recorded as holding their meetings in 1894. Two leaders of the movement from New Brancepeth, Robert Bottoms and Isaac Wood are remembered as helping with the first services which were held in the colliery house of Mrs Metcalfe. Later the mine owners, Pease & Partners, allowed them to use 'the huts' , a row of 12 wooden houses which had been used to accommodate the first workmen.

The last two of these miserable dwellings (they had earth floors and were dark and cold) had been united to form a single large room which later became the first miners institute. Two years later the Wesleyans were allowed the use of the colliery office which was situated in the centre of South Street. A request was made to the colliery owners for a site on which to build a permanent church. Pease & Partners presented them with land and bricks , a gift valued at £125.

The new church was erected, and opened on the 1st September 1900 by Mrs Philipson, the total cost being £360, a debt which was cleared by 1912. As further consolidation it was included in the Crook Wesleyan Methodist Circuit. A harmonium was loaned by one of the members until 1903 when a larger American organ was purchased. In 1920 a small pipe organ was installed and dedicated to the memory of the men who died in the first world war. Ralph Wilson held the position of organist for 37 years The Chapel On The Hill as it became known locally or Esh Road Methodist Church which was its official name, held its last service on the 28th July 1954, after which the membership transferred to the Durham Road chapel in Ushaw moor.

Paul Clough o^o

via Ushaw Moor Historical Website - Religious History.