Introduction
Churchill Methodist Church is a Grade II listed Methodist church on the Somerset Mendip Methodist Circuit. Designed by Foster & Wood, Bristol, of Perpendicular Gothic style, the church opened on 2 May 1881. The schoolroom and coach house, of Elizabethan architecture, were erected before the new church, and opened on 1 June 1879 (Whitsun). Sidney Hill, a wealthy local businessman and benefactor, erected the church and schoolroom as a memorial to his wife.
The church consists of a chancel, nave chancel, and two transepts, with a gallery at one end facing the pulpit. There is a staircase turret with pyramidal cap to the north-east for access to the gallery. An organ is installed in the eastern transept. It is cased with freestone, and has an arched pitch pine ceiling, divided into panels by moulded ribs, bearing on attached stone shafts. At the extreme end of the chancel, immediately above the communion table, there is memorial window by Clayton and Bell, representing Dorcas amidst the people that she helped, in her illness, in her death, and resurrection.
History
Until the autumn of 1835, Methodists in Churchill would meet at a private home, when the first chapel was opened. William Baker was a trustee of the chapel by the time the Churchill tithe map had been constructed in 1843. This chapel was demolished in 1880 so that Sidney Hill could erect a new Wesleyan church on adjacent land gifted by William Bobbett. Sidney Hill had married his wife, Mary Ann Bobbett, at the old chapel on 15 June 1864, and erected the new church as a memorial to her after her early death on 7 December 1874 (aged 35). The new church was designed by Foster and Wood of Bristol in Perpendicular Gothic style, and erected by William Veals, master builder of Bristol, at a cost of £3,300. Hill would engage the same firm of architects in 1897 to design the nearby clock tower. The church opened on 2 May 1881 with a dedication and sacramental service commencing at 2:00 pm.
The schoolroom and coach house, of Elizabethan architecture, were erected before the new church, and opened on Whitsun, 1 June 1879. These buildings cost £1,300 to build and the schoolroom was later linked to the new church by a cloister. In 1898, Sidney Hill funded the addition of a porch that was designed by Foster and Wood and built by Henry Rose of Churchill.
In 1906, Sidney Hill gifted land at the back of the church for a burial ground extension. The ground was consecrated in June of that year. The church closed in August 1924 so that the organ could be refurbished and four stops added. The opportunity was also taken to provide better accommodation for the choir. Services were held in the schoolroom until the church was reopened on 27 November 1924 with a service held in the afternoon. On 1 September 1933, the Methodist circuits of Draycott, Cheddar, Congresbury and Palmer's Green, were united to form one circuit, under the name of the Cheddar Valley Methodist Circuit.
The Cache
You are looking for a micro nano tube. Please bring your own pen and tweezers.
On street parking is available nearby. Be careful as the cache is located near the road.
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For full information on how you can expand the Church Micro series by sadexploration please read the Place your own Church Micro page before you contact him at churchmicro.co.uk
See also the Church Micro Statistics and Home pages for further information about the series.
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Congratulations to silverfox11 for FTF