Brunswick United Free Methodist Chapel, Burnley Wood

[SimonInKent]

Hello again all. This is another question relating to my family history. Alice Cherry and William H Kenniford got married in 1875. I went to look for the place they got married, Brunswick United Methodist Free Chapel, which is in the Burley Wood area of Burnley which is currently undergoing some extensive redevelopment. Opposite the area of Burnley Wood which has been wholesale demolished there is a building which could have been a chapel but it is dated from the 1890s so would not have been there when Alice and William married.

On the web I found this picture : go here … http://www.francisfrith.com/pageloader.asp?page=/shop/prints/printSelector.asp&neg=35800a&collectionid=10&towni d=B251&start=1&action=prevphoto

It doesn’t look like the same building but this is a turn of the century photo. Is it the same location? And does anyone remember Brunswick Chapel?

[Stu H]

The photograph is indeed Brunswick United Methodist Free Church which stood virtually opposite the Town Hall on Manchester Road, Burnley. The picture is taken from the Town Hall side of Manchester Road, The chimney in the near background belongs to Saunderbank Iron Works. It was opened in 1869 and demolished in January 1963. At its peak between 1884 and 1934, the congregation (membership) numbered around 300, but then declined sharply into the 1950's. The United Methodists were actively concerned with the Temperance Movement, and formed the "Total Abstinence Society" in 1846, widening the scope of their activities in the 1850's to become the "Town and Temperance Mission"

What they would have thought of today's 24-hour licences is beyond imagination!!

[SimonInKent]

Thanks very much for this.

Regards, SIMON

[katharine]

Do you know what happened to the records/archive of Brunswick when it joined with Central Methodists.
Katharine