John Wesley visited Fakenham on Monday 29 October 1781. He preached in a ‘meeting room’ which had been built by Miss Mary Franklin in 1773. He remarked that he thought ‘most of the town were present’ - clearly an exaggeration of the population numbers in the growing town, but, nevertheless, reflecting the impression of a very crowded meeting house. However, his visit appears to have had little lasting effect as in 1799, there were only five formal Wesleyan Methodist members in the town.
The day following his visit to Fakenham, John Wesley was at Wells-next-the-Sea where he met Mary Franklin. She explained she had been ‘preaching abroad though at the peril of her life.’
Mary Franklin was a follower of Thomas Mendham, a Calvinist Methodist minister in the Countess of Huntingdon’s Connexion. The denomination was quite strong across north Norfolk largely as a result of the activities of Mendham supported by several, mostly women, preachers and two chapels had been erected.
Writing to Wesley several years later in February 1784, Mary Franklin’s explanatory and placatory letter received a stern rebuff from Wesley who told her to sever her connections with the ‘vile bigotry of the Calvinists.’ Mary and her husband, Thomas Parker, both died in 1788. Although Mary had left the chapel in her will to the chapel trustees with money to support it, the will was overturned in Chancery and, after the cause collapsed following the death of the Countess of Huntingdon, the building was taken over by the Wesleyans. The society became part of the Walsingham Wesleyan Circuit.
Samuel Eastaugh, formerly a minister at the Calvinist chapel and native of the town, became a Wesleyan local preacher and travelled and preached in the circuit for almost fifty years. In the class lists he is described as a school master.
As a result of the Wesleyan upheavals in the middle years of the nineteenth century, the congregation transferred its allegiance to the Reformers so there was no organized Wesleyan presence in the town. The reported attendances at worship on Census Sunday 1851 were 53 persons in the morning with 16 Sunday scholars, 153 in the afternoon and 126 in the evening. However, the average numbers attending at services in the previous twelve months had numbered 180 to 200. This figure must reflect the loss of Wesleyans who had left the chapel in the hands of the Reformers. The return was signed by Daniel Burrell, Trustee and Steward, Ironmonger at Fakenham.
At some point the congregation reverted to its original allegiance and the Fakenham society joined the Dereham Wesleyan Methodist Circuit in 1881.
With the chapel becoming dilapidated and unfit for worship, land was bought in Oak Street and the Norwich architect firm of Edward Boardman & Sons drew up plans for a new building. The builder was James Needs of Fakenham.
The foundation stones were laid on 19 April 1892 and the chapel was opened on 12 October of that year when the preacher was the Rev. Dr William Moulton, ex-President of Conference. The last service in the old chapel was held on the 9 October 1892 and the building was sold in January 1894.
The new red brick chapel had seating for 250 people and cost £1818. Sunday school rooms were in the basement of the building.
In 1821 Primitive Methodist missionaries arrived in Norfolk from the Nottingham Circuit. Initially Norfolk became a Branch of the circuit, but early in 1823 Fakenham was formed into its own circuit. It covered a vast number of villages and had six travelling preachers – five men and one woman. Sunday services were held in 39 places as well as in 68 places on week-days with 458 members and an additional 80 on trial.
The Fakenham congregation met in a barn in Wells Street at the back of Oak Street. This was bought by the trustees for £270 of which £200 was a loan from James Bull, a local butcher. On 25 November 1825 it was opened by Samuel Atterby from Norwich and William Green Bellham from King’s Lynn. It had 220 sittings, 94 of which were free.
On Census Sunday in 1852, 105 people were at the morning service as well as 59 in Sunday school, in the afternoon 220 attended with 60 scholars and in the evening 200 people were present. John Cushing, Steward and brazier of Fakenham who completed the census form noted the school room for the scholars was open to the chapel during services.
The dilapidated state of the chapel led the trustees to resolve to demolish the building and build a larger replacement. The foundation stone was laid on 10 September 1861. The new chapel measured 52 by 30 feet and 18 feet from the floor to the wall plate. It had a gallery on each side and at one end and had seats for 500. Instead of a pulpit, a rostrum was built. A school room was situated under the front gallery. It opened into the chapel by means of sliding doors. By the end of the century, it was decided to build a new and larger chapel in a more prominent position. As a preliminary, on 21 August 1896 shops and cottages between the chapel and Gee’s Yard and Oak Street were purchased for £400 and over the following years other small plots were bought.
It was not until 1908 that the site was finally cleared and twelve foundation stones were laid for the new chapel. Those who laid the stones included Sir George White MP and Mrs Catherine Buckenham, widow of the missionary, Henry Buckenham, who had been born in the town and after whom the church was named. Designs for the building were drawn up by the Norwich architect Augustus Scott very much in accordance with his usual ecclesiastical style. The builder was Charles Tuthill. The church was opened on 9 September 1908 when the sermon was preached by the Rev. James Pickett, President of the Primitive Methodist Conference. The old chapel was converted into a Sunday school hall and class rooms.
George Edwards, Member of Parliament and Primitive Methodist local preacher, spent his later years in the town and worshipped in the Buckenham Memorial Chapel. Foremost in his work in the agricultural trade union, he was awarded an OBE for his life-long championship of workers’ rights. A memorial to his memory was placed in Queen’s Road cemetery in Fakenham.
At Methodist Union, the Wesleyan congregation, after some hesitation, amalgamated with the Primitive Methodists and moved to Buckenham Memorial Chapel. The Wesleyan building was used as the Methodist Hall until the Salvation Army bought the building in 1937. The building was destroyed by bombing in the Second World War.
Property adjoining the earlier PM chapel in Oak Street came into Methodist hands in 1968. It became Halfway House, providing accommodation for people discharged from hospital with mental health problems until new legislation made it difficult for this to continue and it closed in 2004.
The Buckenham Memorial Church closed in 2016. It has now been converted into three houses.
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Entry written by: NV
Category: Place
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