OLD PLYMOUTH . UK
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WHITLEIGH METHODIST CHAPEL

For ten years the Whitleigh congregation of Methodists worshipped in a converted barn.

On the evening of Monday May 4th 1959 a crowd of 300 gathered in Budshead Road for the turf-cutting ceremony in connection with a new Chapel building.  The minister, the Reverend Arthur Revell, was joined by the Reverend Clifford Lever, the superintendent minister, and Sister Edith Walton, the deaconess, in turning the first turfs.

The foundation stone of Whitleigh Methodist Chapel was laid on June 20th 1959, but went unreported as there was a newspaper printing strike on at the time.

It was opened by Mr Albert Radcliffe of the Mutley Wesleyan Methodist Chapel and dedicated by the Reverend C Leonard Tudor, the general secretary of the Methodist Home Mission Department on Saturday January 21st 1961.  The building had cost Ł40,000 to erect, which was financed by the trustees of the Ebrington Street Primitive Methodist Chapel.  It could hold 600 people.  At the opening not only was the Chapel full but a further 250 people were accommodated in the adjoining Sunday School hall.

Also present at the ceremony were Mr G G Pooley, treasurer of the Trust; Mr David G Spear, secretary of the Trust; the Reverend Clifford Lever, superintendent minister; the Reverend Arthur Revell; the Reverend Maurice Harker, of King Street Wesleyan Methodist Chapel; Mr J J Polkinghorne, from the Ebrington Street Primitive Methodist Chapel; Sister Joan Bennett, the deaconess; and Mr W J Copplestone.