Patrick Comerford
I have been catching up in recent days on memories of visiting churches and chapels in Leighton Buzzard in recent months. Leighton Buzzard has a long tradition of ‘independent’ and ‘nonconformist’ churches and chapels, and once had a strong Quaker presence, which continues in the Quaker Meeting House in North Street. But the other ‘nonconformist’ traditions in the town on the borders of Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire include Methodists and Baptists, and there is interesting connection between these traditions.
Leighton Buzzard once had three Methodist churches or chapels, and so it seems theologically appropriate that when they came together the new church they built should be called Trinity Methodist Church.
The Bedford Circuit Book records the first society in the town in 1801 led by Samuel Copleston. His father had been the curate in Luton when John Wesley preached there.
Although Methodists in Leighton Buzzard first met in private homes, they grew rapidly and a chapel was built on Hockliffe Street in 1804, and was dedicated in 1805. At first, Leighton Buzzard was in the Bedford Circuit, but a separate Leighton Buzzard Circuit was formed in 1812.
The chapel on Hockliffe Street was said to be an unattractive building but it was extended twice. However, each time it quickly became insufficient for the needs congregation, and it was replaced by a much larger new chapel in 1865, and the old chapel was then bought by one the Baptist groups.
The new Methodist chapel was further along Hockliffe Street, it was capable of seating 1,500 people. This number was exceeded on special occasions, and there was a large Sunday School too. The basement was used for classrooms and a library, and two houses or manses were built on either side of the chapel for the ministers.
The Wesleyan and Primitive Methodists united in 1932 as the Methodist Church of Great Britain and in 1960 the Wesleyans at Hockliffe Street and the Atterbury Mission Hall gave up their premises and moved into the old Primitive Methodist chapel in North Street, which was renamed as Trinity Methodist Church.
The former Wesleyan church at Hockliffe Street was subsequently sold to the council and was finally demolished in 1969. All that remained was the former right-hand manse, at the entrance to the Hockliffe Street car park. A modern office building stands where the chapel used to be, and the left-hand manse disappeared to make way for the ring road.
Meanwhile, the Primitive Methodists made several attempts to consolidate their presence in the town with regular preaching from 1837 into the early 1840s. A local society was recorded later in the 1840s. A chapel was built in Mill Road in 1851 and a new Primitive Methodist circuit based on Leighton Buzzard was formed from Aylesbury Mission in 1862.
The original chapel was replaced in 1870 with a much larger one seating 400 people. This building was plagued with problems and eventually burnt down in 1889. This was a huge set-back for the ‘Prims’, but they secured land for a new chapel on North Street, and this was in 1890, on the site of the present Trinity Methodist Church.
This new chapel cost £2,340 to build and had seating for 500 people. A residence for the minister was also built, on the north side of the chapel. The chapel later had many changes, and was enlarged in 1967, when the adjoining residence was demolished to make room for the work.
There was also a Primitive Methodist Chapel in Linslade. The Primitive Methodist Jubilee Chapel was built in 1861 at the corner of Old Road and Station Road. During World War II, the chapel was converted to an engineering works. When it was demolished housing was built on the site.
In addition to the Wesleyan and Primitive Methodists, there was also an Atterbury Mission in Leighton Buzzard. This was at a small Methodist Mission House, built in 1885, at 83 Vandyke Road. The three Methodist congregations in the town – the Wesleyans, the Primitive Methodists and the Atterbury Mission – came together in 1960 to form the present Trinity Methodist Church.
The earliest references to Baptists in Leighton Buzzard are in returns by the Vicar of All Saints. ‘Anabaptists’ are mentioned in the returns for 1706, 1709, 1717 and 1720. Forty Anabaptists were recorded in 1706, with their own meeting house. An Anabaptist meeting was being once a fortnight In 1709 with about 40 people present. By 1717, about 15 families were meeting in the home of William Fenner, in 1720 they were meeting in two houses.
The General Baptist Church in Leighton Buzzard was founded at Lake Street by seven people ca 1772-1775. When the first pastor Joseph James arrived he reported that the ‘moral state of the town was deplorable, with bull-baiting and cock-fighting abounding’. A chapel and house were soon given to the church, and baptisms took place in the River Ouzel. By 1812 The Baptists had also opened a Sunday School by 1812.
A split divided the Baptists in Leighton Buzzard in 1832 when some members were dissatisfied with the pastor and with his open communion policy, left and formed the Strict Baptist Church. The original chapel was extended in 1834, and a new chapel was built on the site of the old one in Lake Street by 1864. This new chapel was built in an Italianate style, could swet 500 people and cost £900 to build.
As for the group that split from the original church, they moved into the former Wesleyan Methodist chapel in Hockliffe Street in 1865. The Baptist Church on Hockiliffe Street was rebuilt in 1892 at a cost of £4,000 and with seating for 670 people.
The Revd John Forrest Neilson became pastor of both Lake Street and Hockliffe Street Baptist church in 1961. The Lake Street Chapel closed in 1972 and the building was demolished in 1983. The site was later developed as a residential housing estate, named Chapel Mews.
Lecton House, beside Chapel Mews in Leighton Buzzard, is a Grade II building with many associations in the past with the town’s ‘nonconformist’ communities. It was built in 1845 as the Leighton Institute, a temperance hall. It has a Neoclassical stucco pedimented front with a tetrastyle Greek Ionic ‘pseudo portia’ and the date 1845 in Roman numerals, sash windows, panelled doors and a Welsh slate roof.
The building was financed by two local Quakers, John Dolin Bassett of Bassett’s Bank, and Hannah Grant. It served as an adult education centre and could accommodate 400 people.
The building was later transferred to a committee of 12 members of Lake Street Baptist Church, and by 1927, the Temperance Hall was owned by the trustees of Lake Street Baptist Chapel. Concerts were held there occasionally for the up-keep of the chapel, but as a Baptist building there were no whist drives or dances.
After World War II, the Temperance Hall on Lake Street was leased to the county authorities by the Baptist church trustees and in 1949 it became a branch library, with accommodation for the librarian. The library closed in 1979, when a new purpose-built library and arts centre opened on the opposite side of Lake Street. By 2009, the building was a gym or fitness centre known as Colloseum (sic). Today it is private housing.
• The Revd Seung-Wook Jung, the minister in Trinity Methodist Church, is on sabbatical, and the Revd Patrick Kandeh is providing cover; Sunday services are at 10:30, Morning Worship; 4 pm, Messy Church; and 6 pm, Evening Worship. Hockiliffe Street Baptist Church is in the early stages of a process to appoint a new senior minister; Sunday services are at 10:30 and 5:30.
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