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Centenary Planner |
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Celebrating
our Centenary Year
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Methodism in Cotgrave Standing at the front of the present church on Bingham Road, looking south we must visualise a garden strip sloping gently up to a house at the top. Half way down the strip Cotgrave's first Methodists built their chapel which is now the Scout & Guide Hall. There was such opposition from the Rector that anyone assisting with its building was threatened with loss of their job. However, other local societies helped, including Mr Brewster from Radcliffe who supplied the bricks. The present building dates from around 1839.The balcony from a Chapel being demolished in Radcliffe-on-Trent was bought and installed and remained in the Chapel until the 1940s. In 1846 Mr Thomas Thurman was living in the house behind the Chapel with his joiner's workshop adjacent. As most people at that time, he attended the Anglican church but his cousin Samuel Voce invited him to a meeting in the Chapel. Not wishing to be seen, he crept through an orchard to slip into the Chapel. He attended the Chapel thereafter but was ejected from the Weslyans by Rev. James Loutit because he objected to the payment of class money. Others joined him and begged him to allow them to use his workshop for meetings. This they did until they were able to purchase land and build their own Chapel behind the Anglican Church. The Manor House belonged to Lenton Priory and it was granted to Thomas White by Philip and Mary in 1555. In 1741 the White's sold the Manor and their estate, including other farms to the Pierreponts. The Priory Manor thereafter was tenanted by the Hives family who were millers and worked the two mills. In 1783 when Timothy Hives' inventory was written, it is noted that he had 31 chairs listed. As the Hives are certainly listed as Methodists, we speculate that perhaps the very first meetings were held secretly here, sitting on those 31 chairs, before 1783. Two small cottages stood near the Cross, we think John Cooper held Methodist meetings in one around 1800. Later Cotgrave's own poet, Rusticus, lived here. As a schoolboy educated in the village school his knowledge was profound and his poems eloquent. The present Chapel was built in 1902 on the Garden Strip after an old cottage that faced onto the road had been pulled down. The organ was installed in 1915 and the schoolroom built in 1925. |
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