The former chapel on Kenilworth Road, St Leonards on Sea

At the southern end of Kenilworth Road, and now numbered no. 98, is a former chapel, very obvious as one descends the road from the north. Formerly its activities were carried out upstairs at its neighbour, 18 Gensing Road, which is on the corner.

The Primitive Methodists were a working class breakaway from the Methodist Church in about 1811, intended to get back to the denomination’s first principles. In particular they persisted in holding open air meetings, and supported visiting women lay preachers. In 1932 most surviving congregations in England united with the Methodist Church. They opened a new chapel, as reported in the 28 September 1861 St Leonards and Hastings Gazette:

THE PRIMITIVE METHODISTS opened their new place of worship in Gensing Road St Leonards, on Sunday last, when two excellent sermons were preached by the Rev. J. Fleetwood, of Tunbridge Wells. On the following day a crowded tea-meeting was held in the building when addresses were given by the Revs. W. Robinson, J. Fleetwood, R.H. Horrocks, Mr W. Ransom and Mr Edwards.

The site was 18 Gensing Road, on the corner with Kenilworth Road. The building has almost certainly been much altered since then.

The Primitive Methodists already had a chapel at 39 1/2 High Street, Hastings, from at least 1860, which continued for many years. There was also a chapel on Newgate Road, Silverhill, from about 1873.

The Hastings and St Leonards News, 4 April 1872, listed the times of the services. These were 10.30 and 6.30 on Sundays, and 7 on Tuesdays. The ministers were the same as at the Hasting site, as were the times. The ministers were the Rev. R.H. Horrocks and the Rev. W. Robinson. Presumably they took turns serving each site.

The Hastings Observer, 13 June 1874, listed details of three properties on Gensing Road for sale at auction by Bridger. These were the freeholds of 8-roomed 5 Gensing Street, let at £40 p.a.; 4-roomed 19 Gensing Street; and…

provision dealer’s shop, 18 Gensing Street, together with the Primitive Methodists’ Chapel over the said dwelling house and shop, and the yard and two stables and two coach-houses in the rear.

There was a planning application on the 5 March 1875, DH/C/6/1/1740, for the Primitive Methodist Chapel, Gensing Road, catalogued as ‘heightening’. As usual I have not looked at the actual application at The Keep, Falmer. The Hastings and St Leonards News, 12 March 1875, gives us a little more detail:

Plan and section for heightening the walls and fixing the roof of the Primitive Methodist Chapel, Gensing road, St Leonards, approved. 

The Hastings and St Leonards News, 12 July 1878, gave details of a tea meeting followed by a public meeting to discuss wiping out the remaining debt of £15 from the ‘considerable improvements.’ Seventy persons were present. After singing and prayer, Mr R. Jenner as chair addressed the meeting, stating that he had been a Primitive Methodist for almost fifty years. More speeches followed, with a hymn between each. The concluding collection was £7 3s 5d plus one farthing.

So who was actually living on the premises ? The 1881 census lists Alfred Alderton, master tailor, with wife and two children; William Tennant, bath attendant, and his wife; and as a lodger Elizabeth Morris, ‘plain needlewoman.’ We can only guess as to how these seven were accommodated. Perhaps it explains why there was a further planning application for 18 Gensing Road, approved on the 2 December 1881 as DH/C/6/1/2760, ‘additions.’

At some point it was decided to build a new chapel at the rear of the premises, on Kenilworth Road. On the 2 August 1895 planning application DH/C/6/1/5761 was decided on by the Council. The Hastings Observer, 3 August 1895:

New Primitive Methodist Church, Kenilworth-road; Rev. J. Biggs and trustees, owners, per Mr P.H. Tree, architect; that the plans be not approved, not being in accordance with the bye-laws.

That planning application was swiftly replaced by DH/C/6/1/5767. The Hastings Observer, 7 September 1895, reported on it with similar wording to that above, except that it was successful. Objections were usually due to inadequate drainage and the like. In this instance, the newspaper added that approval was ‘subject to the surface water being connected with the drainage system of the premises to the satisfaction of the Borough Surveyor.’

Philip Tree was the architect of numerous houses in the area, and had been born on Norman Road. His background was Congregationalist, and his building of chapels etc. was mostly for Protestant sects.

The Hastings and St Leonards Advertiser, 17 October 1895, reported on tenders receiving for building the new chapel. These numbered eight, with the cheapest tender, not surprisingly, being accepted. This was for £282 by Eldridge and Cruttenden. The highest bid was £355. No time was lost, with the Hastings Observer, 9 November 1895, in a paragraph headed ‘Primitive Methodist Connexion’ stating that memorial stones were to be laid on Wednesday at 3.30 for the ‘new School Church in Kenilworth-road’. Tea was to follow at 5 at the Shepherd Street Schoolroom. I am guessing that this was a friendly gesture by another Protestant sect, as also was a meeting at the Norman Road Methodist Church at 7 pm. Why not at 18 Gensing Road ? Perhaps the Gensing Road premises had been given up, but apparently not sold (see below, in 1911). The reference to a school is a little mysterious.

The Hastings and St Leonards News, 25 September 1896, reported on a fair held by the Primitive Methodists to reduce the debt of £120 on the ‘new school chapel on Kenilworth Road.’

The Hastings Observer, 30 December 1911, reported that the chapel had been sold (by whom ?) to St Leonards Church for extension work. The adjoining house and shop at 18 Gensing Road had been sold at the same time. Dr J. Walther [of Gloucester Lodge] had financed it. The chapel could seat 100 persons. The original cost of the chapel was estimated at £750 (which would have included furnishings etc.). Both properties were withdrawn from the auction when bidding stopped at a combined £750, but were afterwards sold privately.

The Hastings and St Leonards Advertiser, 4 January 1912, gave more details. The chapel was to be named the Church Hall and would mostly be used for meetings, and also a service on Sunday evenings. 18 Gensing Road was to be known as the Church Institute. It was to be used for a number of activities, namely Mothers’ Meetings; a library; soup kitchen; a creche, described as being for brothers and sisters of those attending meetings; and a men’s reading room and ‘evening resort.’ Dr Walther was apparently particularly interested in evangelizing work among men.

Dr Walther’s daughters had offered to pay for the costs of running the creche. The existing ‘Church House’ on Stanhope Place was to be given up, and its harmonium was to be moved to the Church Institute. A ‘small American organ’ was needed for the Church Hall. The largest room had been set aside for the creche, and block linoleum at a cost of £5 was needed for its floor. The first such banknote received in donations was to be earmarked for that purpose. It also suggested that cots for the creche and wicker chairs for the reading room would be welcomed.

The refurbishing work was to be completed in six to eight weeks. Dr Walther was to retain ownership of the freeholds and would not be charging any rents.

On the 18 October 1912 planning application DH/C/6/1/8204 was for additions to 18 Gensing Road.

There are numerous mentions of meetings at the Church Hall but also a mention of an offence in the Hastings Observer, 2 September 1916. Raids by Zeppelins were a fear, and forty-six offenders who had lights showing in buildings were fined. These included Dr John Walther, fined two guineas for the Church Hall, Kenilworth Road.

In the 1921 census, for 18 Gensing Road, there was a five-roomed dwelling. This housed Frederick Charles Sackett, age 51, born Broadstairs, whose occupation was ‘evangelist’, and his wife Jessie, 52, born Denny, Scotland, engaged in ‘home duties’. They had a twelve-year-old daughter, Grace, born at Faversham. Presumably the church-related activities were downstairs while the household was mainly or entirely upstairs.

The 30 September 1939 Register, compiled for rationing purposes, suggest that 18 Gensing Road had lost, at least in its housing function, an evangelical role. The eight inhabitants included Albert Judge, born 1899, a clock jobber journeyman, and also ARP warden, and his wife Lillian and their son, plus (his father ?) Albert Judge, bread baker journeyman, born 1867, a widower. There was also Frederick Waterman, a solicitor’s accountancy clerk, and his wife Gertrude.

The Ordnance Survey map surveyed in 1954 shows, at bottom left, the chapel as a mission hall while 18 Gensing Road is labelled a club. As the Kenilworth Mission, the cause carried on until in 1976 the church, now apparently an independent Protestant cause, moved to the former Crusader Hall on Albany Road. Until 2003 it was known as the Kenilworth Evangelical Mission. In that year it was renamed as the Independent Church. All this is from the newspapers.

There are twelve planning applications on the Hastings Council planning applications portal for the former chapel. These include the 1992 planning application to change its use from a workshop to a dwelling. This was discussed in the Hastings Observer, 30 October 1992. Rodney Stephenson, an accountant, had purchased it in January and it had undergone a ‘dramatic transformation’ into a two-bedroom home. It was now on the market for £69950. It was virtually a shell when work began in May. Stephenson coordinated the four-month build and planned to live there himself, but was unable to because of commitments.