Fleetwood Road Chapel

The early Primitive Methodists had been meeting for around 10 years before a Chapel was built on Fleetwood Road.  They met once a week on Sunday afternoons in John Crofts kitchen in Thornton.  This was located at 191 Fleetwood Road which is today known as The Little Cottage opposite the junction of Trunnah Rd. 

On the 6th January 1871 the Vicar forbade John Croft from ‘entertaining

Fleetwood Road Chapel - 2009

the Ranters’ but the meeting went ahead as planned and was a turning point for the church.  He declared that he was going to donate enough land to build a chapel ‘from yonder field’ where the congregation could meet without interference.  This is the area where the old Chapel now stands.

On Good Friday 1879 the Chapel was opened at a cost of £250 as

 The Old Chapel (1879) - 2009

Fleetwood Road Primitive Methodist Chapel which was known locally as ‘the little Chapel’.  The building served as both a Sunday School and a Chapel. 

In early Church Records it states that an Easter tree was usually purchased which then had small gifts hung on it and in 1892 a clock was authorised at a cost of no more than £1.

The church flourished as the

population of Thornton grew and by 1904 it was decided that a new chapel should be built at a cost of £1000. 

The old Chapel then became the Sunday School and in 1925 after a kitchen and electricity were added it 

was also used as the local clinic,

The New Chapel (1904) - 2009

before the Church Road Clinic was built in 1939.  At the beginning of the second world war it was even used as a day school for evacuees from Manchester.

In 1932 the Wesleyan Methodists and the Primitive Methodists merged to form The Methodist Church of Great Britain and today Wignall Memorial Chapel and Fleetwood Road Chapel are joined as one Church with two Chapels.

 Fleetwood Road Chapel

Fleetwood Road North

Thornton-Cleveleys

Lancashire

FY5 4BJ 

Further Information