Printed and Published at the Dover Express Works. 1916.
TO BE FORMATTED
ANNALS OF DOVER.
SECTION FOUR.
THE HISTORY OF RELIGION.
XIV. NONCONFORMISTS AFTER 1850.
The formation of a Dover Free Church Council in 1896
brought into closer union all the bodies of Nonconformists
in the town, and from about that time the name " Church "
instead of " Chapel " was applied to the fabrics of Non-
conformist places of worship.
The Primitive Methodists in this period took the lead
in Chapel building. The Primitive Methodists had been at
work in various parts of England nearly fifty years before
they made much headway in Dover, and their first regular
Chapel, built in Peter Street in the year i860, was one of
the Jubilee Chapels of the Primitive Methodist Connexion.
In 1874, the Rev. Thomas Russell, one of the pioneers of
Primitive Methodism, wlio had his last station at Dover, laid
the foundation stone of a Chapel in Round Tower Street
at the Pier, near the spot where the Primitive Methodists
had their first preaching place in Dover; but when the
Dover and Deal Railway was made in 1879 the Chapel was
bought by the Railway Company and demolished. A little
before that time the Rev. Thomas Russell, having been
superannuated, built for himself a residence at Maxton, and,
adjoining it, erected a Primitive Methodist place of worship,
called Maxton Tabernacle, being the first place of worship
in this suburb of Dover. To meet the necessities of those
who had been displaced liy the demolition of Round Tower
Street Chapel, services were for a time conducted by the
Primitive Methodists .n the Wellington Hall, Snargate Street,
but eventually the C( mpensation money paid by the Railway
Company for Round Tower Street Chapel was used towards
building a new Primitive Methodist Chapel at Belgrave Road,
Clarendon, the foundation stone of which was laid by the
Mayor, Mr. John Lide Bradley, in 1882. In 1901 the
Primitive Methodists built a large Church, affording accom-
modation for 600 persons, in London Road, Charlton, at a
cost of ^5,500. 'I'o make up that sum, ;^i,ooo was
contributed by the Primitive Methodist Mission Fund, ^£450
was obtained for Peter Street Chapel (which was then dis-
used), and the balance wrs mot by local subscriptions.
THE HISTORY OF RELIGION. 213
The recent action of the Dover Congregationalists has
been in the direction of consolidation. They have built a
large and handsome Church at the bottom of High Street,
a few paces above the Maison Dieu. Its tower, rising to a
height of eighty feet, is a striking feature, and the whole is
an ornament to the town. The cost of the building was
between ;!(^9,ooo and ;^io,ooo. The general style is Gothic
of the Lancastrian Period. When this new Church was
opened on the 7th September, 1904, Zion Chapel, the original
home of the Dover Congregationalists, was disposed of to a
Baptist congregation, and their other Chapel in Russell
Street was retained for Sunday School and Mission purposes.
The Baptists, too (exclusive of the General Baptists)
have concentrated themselves in one spot, Salem Chapel,
Biggin Street, which was much enlarged and improved in
1879, while during the first decade of the Twentieth Century
large additional buildings for Sunday School and week-day
meetings have been built off Edwards Road at the rear of
the Chapel. The public thoroughfare that leads to these
additional buildings was named in memory of the Rev. E. J.
Edwards, the Minister who was the means of greatly enlarging
and strengthening the then Baptist community in Dover.
About the year 1873 a Baptist congregation met on
Sundays in the Wellington Hall, Snargate Street, under the
ministry of the Rev. J. F. Frewin. In 1880 a place of
worship, known as the Memorial Hall, was built for this
congregation in Priory Road, mainly at the cost of the late
Mrs. Hyde, who had been the chief supporter of the cause
from the beginning. The congregation fell off, and in 1896
the building was sold to the Salvation Army to be their Dover
Barracks.
The Salvation Army was established in Dover in 1886,
having their first Barracks at the Wellington Hall, Snargate
Street. On their first night, 2nd September, 1886, they met
with a hostile reception, their windows at the back of the
hall being smashed, and after the meeting a howling mob
hustled the leaders through the streets. The voice of
authority and public opinion strongly condemned the per
secutors, and ever after the Salvationists in Dover were
unmolested. Many of the first night opposers afterwards
joined the movement. In 1896 the Memorial Hall in Priory
Road was purchased by the Salvation Army for ;^ 1,000. and
their " Barracks " were established there until 191 2, when
214 ANNALS OF DOVER.
those premises were sold to make room for a new Post
Office; and new Barracks, at a cost of ^5,465, were, in
1 9 13, built for the local corps of the Salvation Army, with
a good frontage and roomy interior in High Street, facing
Wood Street, the meetings having been held, in the interval,
at various ])ublic halls.
The Wesleyans have e.\j)ended large sums in improving
their two large Chapels in Snargate Street and Buckland,
and have taken steps to provide another Chapel on a more
central site to meet the convenience of modern Dover, which
straggles a long way up two valleys. They have secured
the site at the point where the two valleys diverge at the
foot of St. Martin's Hill, part of the site of the old Priory.
There they have built a handsome Wesley Hall for meetings
and Sunday Schools, which was opened in November, 1910,
and have acquired the adjoinhig property, on which they
intend, later on, to build a large central Wesleyan Church.
About ;!{^3,ooo has been spent at this centre up to date, and
probably further building will be postponed for a few years
so as to l:)e able to estimate what the future requirements of
Dover will l)e. As far back as 1880 the leading Dover
Wesleyans set their minds on this locality, which had attracted
religious leaders in Dover in 1131, when they were looking
for a new site for the Dover Priory; and the Wesleyans,
having made so good a beginning here, in the course of a
few years they hope to build on the historic site a crowning
citadel of Wesleyan ^tethodism.
A large and convenient " Bethel "' for the sailors of
the Port of Dover has been opened on the site of the old
Post Office at the bottom of Northampton Quay. This is
the worthy lineal descendant of a " Bethel " located in a
loft a little higher up Northampton Street which was
established by the late John Gilbert, who was Seamen's
Missionary at the Port of Dover for more than forty years.
When the Rom. ;' L'atholics, in 1868, opened their new
Church on the Mals^n Dieu Road they vacated their old
Chapel in Elizabeth Street ; yet, still keeping their attention
on that quarter of the town where the Roman Catholic
Chapel of " Our Lady of Pity " had several centuries earlier
existed, they, in 1906. built and opened, on the cliff side of
Snargate Street, at a fost of ;£
