Patrick Comerford
Wolverton once had two Methodist Churches, a Congregational Church, and Emmanuel Hall, which later developed into Wolverton Evangelical Church. The two Methodist churches in Wolverton were the Methodist Church at the east end of Church Street, which opened n 1870, and West End Primitive Methodist chapel, which opened in 1907.
But before the Primitive Methodist chapel opened in 1907, that branch of Methodism had an earlier makeshift chapel in a former hayloft on Green Lane.
Until recently, I had searched in vain in Wolverton the former scout cabin on Green Lane, originally a hayloft, that was used by the Primitive Methodists until they opened the West End chapel at the corner of Church Street and Anson Road in 1907.
But, then last week, when we were on a family visit to Wolverton, looking for a former family home where one family member had lived many decades ago, I came across the one-time Primitive Methodist premises on the other side of the street.
The founders of the Methodism, the brothers John and Charles Wesley, had some early successes when they were preaching in North Buckinghamshire, and the Wesleyans built a large number of new buildings in the area in the 19th century.
The Methodists in Wolverton at first went to the chapel Stony Stratford, founded in 1844, or met in one another’s homes. But within a few years, a reading room in Wolverton was converted for their use on Sundays and in 1870 a new Methodist church opened at the east end of Church Street.
The Wesleyan Methodist Church in Wolverton was rebuilt in 1892, to designs by the architect Ewan Harper of Birmingham. Ewan and J Alfred Harper also designed the former Methodist Central Hall in Birmingham (1900-1903). The former Methodist Church in the heart of Wolverton once had a large Sunday School and it is one of the four major Grade II listed buildings in Wolverton.
The former church was built in red brick with a three-stage square tower with a belfry, but the planned steeple was never built, although it is possible to imagine how tall it would have been what it might have looked like by careful attention to its hexagonal stone base.
Since it closed, the former Methodist Church on Church Street has suffered decades of neglect. The King’s Centre decided around 2010 or 2011 to buy and restore the building, and to use the building as the King’s Church. But the project is still waiting completion.
Meanwhile, the Primitive Methodist Church had a late start in Wolverton. The Buckingham circuit held services for a time in a photographer’s studio, but the venture soon came to an end. The Revd RW Burnett eventually bought a site on Green Lane and a hay-loft on the land became the venue for the first Primitive Methodist chapel in Wolverton.
Leading supporters of the Primitive Methodists in Wolverton included Joseph Yates of Deanshanger, who was the Buckingham circuit steward, and later the steward of the Wolverton and Stantonbury circuit; Charles T King, the senior circuit steward and a Sunday school teacher and organist in Wolverton; and JH Taylor, the circuit secretary and choirmaster.
The Primitive Methodists in Wolverton continued to worship in their chapel on Green Lane until 1907, when West End Primitive Methodist Chapel, a purpose-built chapel, was built at the corner of Church Street and Anson Road at a cost of £1,700, when the Revd Charles Herbert Spivey (1873-1954) was the superintendent minister (1903-1909). The project was supported generously by Sir William Pickles Hartley (1846-1922), founder of the Hartley’s jam company.
When the Primitive Methodists moved out of Green Lane, their former chapel on Green Lane then became a scout cabin. The upstairs room was known as ‘The Cabin’ and served as the headquarters of the Wolverton scout troop from 1916 until 1939.
The Wesleyan Methodists, the Primitive Methodists and the United Methodists came together in 1932 to form the Methodist Church of Great Britain. The former Primitive Methodist Church at the corner of Church Street and Anson Road is now West End United Church, a Local Ecumenical Partnership formed in 2005 by the Methodist Church and the United Reformed Church, using the former Primitive Methodist building.
As for the former hayloft, Primitive Methodist chapel and scout cabin on Green Lane, it has been converted into apartments, and its previous functions are recalled in a commemorative plaque on the gable wall facing Green Lane.
The minister of West End United Church is the Revd Edson Dube, Superintendent Minister in the Milton Keynes Methodist Circuit. Last December, he was given a Lifetime Award for Contributions to Religion at the 2025 Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire Black Excellence Awards.
West End United Church describes itself as ‘a friendly church aiming to serve the local community and encompassing all ages. Sunday services are at 10:30 am, with junior church. The service on the second Sunday of the month is usually Holy Communion.
