NHER 67108 (Monument) - Site of former Methodist chapel

This is the site of a Methodist chapel known to have first opened in 1807, making it the first purpose-built Methodist chapel in Gorleston. Initially a Methodist New Connexion chapel it would go on to be used by a sequence of Methodist movements, being successively Wesleyan, Wesleyan Reform, United Methodist and Free Church. In 1843 the original chapel was replaced by a larger building which then remained in use until the mid 20th century. It was damaged by bombing during World War Two, with the chapel then officially closing in 1948. The site was sold in 1959 to fund the creation of a new Methodist church on the Magdalen Estate and the chapel largely demolished. A fragment of the chapel had apparently survived as part of a workshop until 2017, when this was also demolished to make way for the William Adams public house. The chapel is now commemorated by a blue plaque commissioned by the Gorleston-on-Sea Heritage Group.
Information from (S1).
P. Watkins (HES), 29 May 2023.

June-October 2017. Watching Brief.
Monitoring of groundworks associated with construction of new public house.
This work exposed a brick barrel-vaulted crypt containing two burials within wooden coffins. Two north-to-south aligned brick walls were also probably associated with the Methodist chapel, with the westernmost likely to have been the rear wall of the later building.
See NHER 67109 and local press articles (S2) and (S3) for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 29 May 2023.

The mapped extent of this record represents the footprint of the later chapel, as depicted on the Ordnance Survey 1:500 Town Plan map of 1885 (S4).
P. Watkins (HES), 29 May 2023.