DERELICT SUNDAY

Mr. HCB and I went out for a walk yesterday - because I felt the need to get out in the fresh air.  It was very windy but we enjoyed walking together and it was good to be out.

We saw this derelict building and both thought that it had been a Methodist Chapel in the past.  However, in the spirit of Blip, although I did take a couple of photographs, I came back today to ensure that this was actually taken ON the day.  I would have liked to have gone round to the other side, but there was too much vegetation and barbed wire and we do have to be at church soon!

I found out this information about the building:

Primitive Methodism appeared at Coate since in 1828 a building occupied there by Joseph Smith was registered for worship by this denomination.  For many years services had been held in the cottages of Messrs. Webb and Gregory, but in 1888, largely as a result of the activity of the newly-formed Circuit, a chapel for Primitive Methodists was built at a total cost of £117 (that would hardly buy a pew for a chapel nowadays!)  

Apparently, by 1964 this brick chapel at Coate was no longer used for worship - it now stands derelict and looks very sad and neglected.

Unfortunately, many buildings in and around our town have been allowed to fall into disrepair;  a new housing development is springing up just behind this chapel, so whether the Council will decide to demolish it to widen the road remains to be seen.  It would be sad, but then again, it is an eyesore at the moment.

Looking at the building now, anyone can see that it was never architecturally “pleasing to the eye”, but I’m sure those who worshipped there were proud to have their own chapel and I have no doubt if those bricks could talk, they would have many stories to tell.

“Architecture is shaped 
by human emotions and desires, 
and then becomes a setting 
for further emotions and desires. 
It goes from the animate and inanimate 
and back again. 
For this reason it is always incomplete, 
or rather is only completed 
by the lives in and around it. 
It is background.” 
Rowan Moore : Why We Build

P.S.  Thank you again for all your kind comments over the last few days - I thought I was getting better, but am still very tired and the cough is lingering for longer than I would like!