A Brief History complied by Winston Kime on the occasion of the 150th Chapel Anniversary in 1986

Whilst the Methodist building at Chapel St Leonard’s has been enlarged and improved over the years, it is basically the same little chapel which was erected by a handful of ardent Methodists in the small coastal village in 1836. It is believed to be one of the oldest Methodist churches still in regular use in the area.

Early in 1836, the Hill Primitive Methodist Conference sent John Stamp to evangelise the Lincolnshire coast and in eighteen months, 1836-7, a number of new chapels sprang up in the Marshland, including those at Alford, Hogsthorpe, Mumby, Ingoldmells and Skegness, as well as Chapel St. Leonards, all in the Louth Primitive Methodist Circuit.

The old village of Mumby Chapel, as it was called, was destroyed by the sea in 1571, when the parish church and most of the habitations were overcome by the tide, a fate which had earlier overtaken othe rplaces on this wind-swept seaboard.

Rebuilding took place at Chapel after the all consuming flood and a new parish church was raised, but it was allowed to fall into decay and for nearly two centuries there were no religious services in the village.

When John Stamp arrived at Mumby Chapel he found organised worship almost non-existent, although the established church was making some effort to improve the situation. He wrote in his journal at that time: “We went to a very wicked village called Chapel, situated close by the sea. It had indeed been one of the dark corners of the earth. There has not been a regular preacher in the place in the memory of man, and the church has been known to have been shut up ten years without preaching.”

With characteristic vigour, Stamp set about the task of sparking off a religious revival, going from house to house and talking with every family, and when he called a public meeting (he recorded), the people cried, ‘Build us a chapel, that we may hear the word of life!’.

He found a vacant house to use temporarily as a meeting place, but then decided it would not hold all who wanted to com. When he sought further instructions from the Connexion, he was told to build a chapel immediately.
But he was offered no money for that purpose!

The preacher made another perambulation through the village, this tie begging money, and collected nearly twenty pounds. A Mr Briggs, who appears to have been a builder, promised to give land on which to erect the chapel, and he also undertook to carry out the construction work at the lowest possible price. The foundation stone was laid on the last day of February, less than four weeks after Stamp’s arrival. During that brief time, the preacher had also been busy in other nearby parishes, instituting more new chapels and, when one considers the limits of transport , and the general poverty of the population, it was a remarkable achievement of zeal and energy.

The chapel was opened for worship on Sunday April 3rd 1836, when John Stamp preached the sermon, assisted by Brothers Buttery and Horner, travelling preachers of the Louth Primitive Methodist Circuit. It was reported that the congregation was large and the collection liberal. At the end of that year, there was a debt of £70 on the building , but pew rents had brought in £10.

The completed building measured 34 feet by 18 feet and had a hipped roof covered with clay pantiles, probably made at Hogsthorpe or Anderby Brickworks. The entrance was on one side of the present pulpit and the original interior and frame is still intact.

At the 1851 religious census, the average congregation in the little chapel, including the Sunday school children, was said to be 80 at the morning service, 180 in the afternoon, and 160 in the evening, a quite amazing attendance record in a average of about 300 souls, even if a number of worshippers came from neighbouring parishes. (How such numbers were accommodated is unclear!)

The restoration of 1900 cost about £250 and this work was carried out by a Boston contractor named Greenfield. It involved raising the end walls to form gables, with bricks from Farlesthorpe brickyard , and the old pantile roofing was replaced with blue-slates. A new floor was laid, sloping down towards the pulpit, and the main entrance with double doors was switched from the opposite end of the chapel. The original box pews were taken out and substituted by seats which could be moved around when chapel tea meetings were held.

Commemorative stones , paid for by members of the congregation, were inserted in the new brickwork on either side of the doorway. The names of the Rev. J. Hodges and his wife were on one of the stones. Other commemorated were: Atkins, Balding, Crow, Harness, Harper, Hill, Keal, Lingard, Lister, Plant, Raynor, and Robinson. When the new porch was added after the Second World War, the stones were plastered over and, although one survives at the end of the side wall facing the road, the inscription is no longer readable.

At the conclusion of the dedication ceremony, 120 people sat down to tea in the former lifeboat-house, which had stood empty since the Chapel lifeboat had been withdrawn a couple of years earlier. On completion of the restoration work the ‘new’ chapel was officially opened on 2nd July 1900 by J. Beaulah, Esq, J.P. of Boston, when the Rev. J. Hodges was the preacher. The tea that followed on that occasion was held in Mr G. Simpson’s premises near the Chapel.

Electirc lighting and heating was part of post-war modernisation and, in 1954, a new porch, vestry and toilet facilities were built in front of the former entrance and car parking space was provided on newly acquired land adjacent to the Church.

The windows in the new extension were beautified by stained glass from the bombed Shakespeare Street Methodist Church in Nottingham, which also provided the lovely window in the end wall, depicting Christ, the Good Shepherd. More of the Nottingham glass was used in Ingoldmells Methodist Church which was under construction about the same time, both contracts being carried out by Faulkners’ of Chapel St. Leonards.

The Wesleyan Connexion was never established in Chapel and , at the 1932 amalgamation, the Primitive Methodist Chapel became Chapel St. Leonards Methodist Church.

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