Union Street Methodist Church
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Union Street Methodist Church

Maidstone, Maidstone Borough, Kent, England – *No GPS coordinates

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  • 20 Brewer Street, Maidstone
    Maidstone, Maidstone Borough, Kent ME14 1RU England

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  • 01622 672418
  • Cemetery ID:

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Although the present building was erected in 1823 there has been a chapel on this plot of land since 1305, at which time the road at the front was called Tyler's Lane. (It is believed that the original name for Union Street – Tyler's Lane – was derived from Wat Tyler).
The present building had an original seating capacity of 800, and as far as is known it had neither vestibule nor porch. The present interior glass doors occupy the position of the earliest external doors. It was in 1865 that a frontal extension was added, and the date "1823" together with the name "Wesleyan Chapel" were affixed to the front elevation at the same time.
Six years later, 1829, three local brewers laid out a new street behind the Chapel, and it was appropriately named Brewer Street; whereupon the Church Officers with a view to beneficial access from that new road, purchased the connecting block to complete a through plot from Union Street to Brewer Street.
By this time a schoolroom had been added, but by 1853 it was proving inadequate, and a more spacious school was built to serve the Church and the Community for over 100 years until, in 1963, it was demolished and replaced by the Centre which we all know and which was opened on 30th January 1965. (The day Winston Churchill was buried!)
The Garden of Remembrance at the front of the Church and the car park at the rear of the Centre are very modern. They mark the area which for 30 years from 1823 was used as the town's principal Non-Conformist burial ground; it is quite unusual for a burial ground to be attached to a Methodist Church. Interments, except in family graves, practically ceased in 1856 when the Town Cemetery in Sutton Road was opened.
Although the present building was erected in 1823 there has been a chapel on this plot of land since 1305, at which time the road at the front was called Tyler's Lane. (It is believed that the original name for Union Street – Tyler's Lane – was derived from Wat Tyler).
The present building had an original seating capacity of 800, and as far as is known it had neither vestibule nor porch. The present interior glass doors occupy the position of the earliest external doors. It was in 1865 that a frontal extension was added, and the date "1823" together with the name "Wesleyan Chapel" were affixed to the front elevation at the same time.
Six years later, 1829, three local brewers laid out a new street behind the Chapel, and it was appropriately named Brewer Street; whereupon the Church Officers with a view to beneficial access from that new road, purchased the connecting block to complete a through plot from Union Street to Brewer Street.
By this time a schoolroom had been added, but by 1853 it was proving inadequate, and a more spacious school was built to serve the Church and the Community for over 100 years until, in 1963, it was demolished and replaced by the Centre which we all know and which was opened on 30th January 1965. (The day Winston Churchill was buried!)
The Garden of Remembrance at the front of the Church and the car park at the rear of the Centre are very modern. They mark the area which for 30 years from 1823 was used as the town's principal Non-Conformist burial ground; it is quite unusual for a burial ground to be attached to a Methodist Church. Interments, except in family graves, practically ceased in 1856 when the Town Cemetery in Sutton Road was opened.

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  • Added: 8 Jan 2023
  • Find a Grave Cemetery ID: 2768721