St James Green Methodist Church in 2016
History of the church building
Northern Echo, 1st June 1909. ”The opening of the new Wesleyan Sunday School took place yesterday. It has cost £2,250. The building in the front is the new part, and that in the background, the Wesleyan Chapel.”
St James Green Methodist in Church in 1909
In 1903, land was bought containing three cottages and a small public house, “The Rising Sun” for £350, whereupon application was made to Manchester (Wesleyan Chapel Committee) for permission to build a Sunday school. Church membership was 160; 166 scholars were receiving “instruction”.
There already was a Sunday School Hall adjoining the Wesleyan Chapel of 1816, which was the centre of Methodist life in the Thirsk area. This included a 14 day Mission commencing on 28th February, 1904, and Leaders’ Meeting Minutes record heated discussion about the use of fermented or unfermented wine in services of Holy Communion.
The first stones for Wesley Hall, as it was called, were laid in July 1908, and the official opening was on 2nd June, 1909, at a final cost of £2,305 0s 3d. “Our people have been most generous. The success has been wonderful.” A photograph of the interior shows a raised dais with a central rostrum at the east end. In front of that is a space filled with chairs, and the rest of the Hall filled with benches to seat 5-6 children each. There were 5 classrooms – 2 upstairs. As well as work with children, sewing classes, sales of work, chapel teas and rabbit suppers were held. The cellar had a goodly sized kitchen range, and room for a large boiler and plenty of coke.
The second phase began in 1939 when the War Office requisitioned the building. People remember going there to receive ration books. Soldiers used the smaller Hall at the back as a Naafi. Several church members helped, though a “minute” said that keys should not be handed to the military unless authorised by the minister! Sunday School Anniversaries still took place in the war years, and it was noted in 1940 that there had been no annual treat or party, but that “a day in the country would be held if conditions permitted”. Mr. Graham was invited to take the Anniversary, “because he was near”. Also in 1940 it was reported that £150 per annum was received as compensation for the use of the building.
Recorded minutes say very little about the war or people serving in it, though reference is made to Miss Muriel Todd and Miss Mary Mackereth for their part in H. M. Service. A chapel representative joined the St. James’ Green Fire Watching Committee, and acquired 6 sandbags, 6 buckets and 1 dustbin. One of the Classrooms was used as an Emergency Rest and Storage Room. Heavy vehicles and tanks were on The Green during the war, and the Ministry was pressed afterwards to make good the damage done to the Chapel Yard by heavy lorries. An unsuccessful application was made for the Hall to be de-requisitioned, and on 2nd May, 1949, the Ministry of Labour asked to lease the building for 7 years at £130 per annum, and this agreement continued until 1959. In 1950 the Trustees asked that the Wesley Hall clock be repaired “by the Military.” More importantly, from that year combined services were held between Thirsk Wesleyan Chapel and Castlegate Primitive Methodist Church in the centre of Thirsk; mornings at The Green, evenings at Castlegate. This arrangement ended in 1959, when both large chapels were closed for worship, and Methodist worship in Thirsk was held in a newly refurbished Wesley Hall. The two original doors were removed to form one larger doorway, two of the class-rooms were converted into toilets, and a worship centre with pulpit and communion table was created at the east end and a stage at the other, with chairs for seating.
Thus began the building’s third phase. Church membership in general was in decline. Many village chapels around Thirsk closed, and in the 1970’s the Sunday School closed. Membership at Sowerby increased, so that the Circuit Superintendent “moved” from The Green to Sowerby, and when Rev W. Farrell arrived in 1976, he “heard many predictions that Thirsk Methodist Church would soon be closing.”
As the 21st Century began much money was needed to make the fabric of the building fit for purpose. The Thirsk and Northallerton Circuit (initiated in 1998), did not wish to lose a church in Thirsk, and the decision was made to fund a refurbishment, with the provisos that Thirsk Methodist Church should also be a Circuit resource, and that Sowerby and Thirsk Methodist Churches should work closely together. Much of the driving force for this came from Rev Keith Phipps and Rev Carole Holmes, and most of the money came from the Circuit Advance Fund, the cost being just more than 100 times the cost of the original building.
Refurbishment was completed between February and May 2005, during which time services were held in the Lord Nelson Pub next door.
How to calculate the coordinates of the physical cache
Read the inscription carved into the wooden bench in from of the church
The physical cache is hidden at N 54° 14.ABC W 001° 20.DEF where:
A = (number of letters in fifth word) – (number of letters in second word)
B = second number
C = first number
D = number of letters in third word
E = number of letters in first word
F = fourth number
Checksum (A+B+C+D+E+F) = 24
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