Our History

 

Topsham Methodist Church – A Brief History

Our Beginnings

Wesleyan worship in Topsham dates back to around 1808. In 1811 the congregation occupied the former Friends Meeting House on Majorfield Road. By the 1860s, under the vision of local shipbuilder John Bagwell Holman (1800–63), plans were made for a larger chapel. Permission was granted in 1864, and a site on Fore Street was chosen.

New Church

The new church, designed by F. R. N. Haswell of North Shields and built by John Periam, opened on 30 May 1867. In Early English style, it featured chancel, nave, transepts, a piscina in the apse, a rear gallery, and distinctive external features including a stair tower and rose window. The grey limestone structure with red sandstone and Bathstone dressings cost £3,400.

Early Years

Over time the property was developed: electricity was installed in 1907, a manse purchased in 1910, and in 1908 a hall was built (funded largely by the Holman family) for Sunday School and other activities, later serving the Band of Hope, Boys’ Brigade, and an evacuee school during WWII. By the 1980s the premises required major work; the hall and cottage were sold, and a £200,000 refurbishment of the church, designed by Francis Bush, was completed in 1991, providing a modern worship space and supporting rooms within the original structure.

Later Developments 

The remodelling preserved notable features: stained glass, scissor-braced chancel roof, wooden nave ceiling shaped like a boat’s hull, the original gallery front (relocated to the rear wall), ornate light fittings, and the Victorian communion table. The two-manual organ, enlarged in 1900, was fully renovated in 1996 by Michael Farley.

The stained glass is significant for its associations, with windows by Heaton, Butler and Bayne, including memorials to lost ships and members of the Holman family. A memorial to Captain D. G. Saunders and the crew of the Archtor, lost in the North Atlantic in 1912, now stands in the south porch with others relocated during the refurbishment.