On 27 May 1898, our forefathers met not far from the site of our present church and took a major decision. They decided their Primitive Methodist Chapel in Peter Street, built less than 50 years earlier, was no longer suitable for their purposes. They took stock of their situation, they counted their pennies, and they decided to buy a piece of land on the corner of London Road and Beaconsfield Road and build a new church.
And so our church was built. Here's a report from the Dover Express, published on December 27, 1901 page 5.
Opened on New Year's Day 1902. Primitive Methodism obtained a foothold in Dover about 1848 when the Rev John Crow of Ramsgate preached in Dover in the open air in the Pier District. In 1849 services started in a carpenter's workshop in Limekiln Street. Temporary premises were used in Charlton and as early as 1861 preparations began to build a chapel, but their first building specially devoted to religious worship in Peter Street was not opened until in 1860 with a total expenditure of £1,100. During the Rev. Thomas Russell's term in Dover there had been two other buildings of worship, one at Round Tower Street, since taken down to make way for the Dover-Deal railway, and the Maxton Tabernacle at Maxton. In 1882 Belgrave Road Chapel was built for £850.
But a larger chapel in a more central district was needed and that need has now been supplied by a fine Primitive Methodist Church on the London Road corner of Beaconsfield Road. The anxious hopes of those who have zealously worked in this movement will be best stated by quoting the explanation of the work given by the pen of the Rev. I.D. Dorricott, superintendent Minister at Dover.
"Our present chapel at Peter Street has seating accommodation for over 200 people. But it is much out of repair and would have required considerable expenditure in alterations and renovation if we were compelled to remain there permanently. As recently as March 1898 the committee, after careful deliberation, decided to put in a new heating system in place of the gas stoves, new window lights, improved ventilation and to completely renovate the chapel.
"And with this end in view, several efforts were made. The school room will, but inconveniently, accommodate 150 children. It is very close to the river on one side and house property on the other. It is considerably below the street level and is only about nine feet from floor to ceiling with no ventilation except from doors and windows, so that it often produces a stuffy choky sensation and it is very unhealthy when full of children and people.
"In this room and three smaller classrooms all our school work is done. Here also is held weeknight services, Christian Endeavour meetings, senior and junior, Band of Hope meetings, choir and band practices, social gatherings etc.
"With a place so unattractive it scarcely seems possible either to enlarge or conserve our work amongst the young people, Indeed it requires considerable loyalty on the part of our young men and women; but we are thankful to say that the loyalty exists. No less objectionable are the conditions in the immediate locality. The street at the point opposite the chapel - and not infrequently the chapel yard - is the assembling place for the most noisy children in the district, especially on week evenings. This with the frequent shouting of street salesmen renders it next to impossible to conduct orderly worship. Then not only is it a side street, away from the thoroughfares and generally unattractive, but the entrances to it are detrimental to a marked degree. Shops partly block it at the High Street end and public houses abut across the road at the other end, besides the fact that the Chapel stands back considerably from the street line.
Hence the place is unknown, particularly to strangers. Cases are very frequently coming under our notice of Primitive Methodists hailing from other [parts of England who either do not find the chapel or consider it so uninviting that they do not continue to attend. Sometimes other churches gather them, but often they lose all love and relish for the House of God.
"The effect of these things has been to stunt the growth of the church, to enfeeble the workers, to destroy much of the benefit of the work, to narrow the door of opportunity and to induce a continual loss of senior scholars. This consequent weakness is also strikingly manifest from the fact that the station has never been entirely independent of the Missionary Committee although made into a separate station from Ramsgate as far back as 1850. Nor has it any hope of becoming self-supporting until it has a stronger and more eligible centre.
"But not withstanding these various drawbacks much earnest work has been done and some progress made. Our present membership is 88, teachers 23, scholars 150, total revenue for 1897 £272. We have a good Band of Hope, a Young People's Christian Endeavour Society and one for the juniors. In these various departments, an excellent tone of feeling prevails and good work is being done.
But that is the most than can be said: there cannot be an unhindered cultivation of a large and vigorous church life, nor the keen-eyed eagerness which seeks an ever widening good in connection with our Christian service. The teaching of our necessarily narrowed life is to move in ruts, to nurse ourselves to keep a jealous eye on our peculiar Church privileges and comforts, or else to feel restraints which are crippling and irksome. If the pressing question of more effectively reaching outsiders did not trouble us, even then the rising manhood and womanhood of our Church and school have imperative demands. They must have more space, freer air, greater and more varied opportunity for the evolution of all that is best and noblest within them.
"On May 27 1898 it was decided to purchase the site on which we are now building in London Road, the price being £1,200. We decided on the purchase for the following reasons: It is on the main thoroughfare of Dover and in the centre of our people and of the district where, for half a century, an evangelistic work has been done, namely Charlton, Tower Hamlets, Buckland and Barton, having an aggregate working class population of 10,000 or 12,000. The buildings may be described as follows: The church, to which access is gained direct from Beaconsfield Road, and by a roomy and pleasant corridor from London Road, is 61 feet by 37 feet inside. At the front end will be a gallery and behind the rostrum an orchestra having three gothic arch openings supported by two pillars. The entire seating accommodation will be about 400. On the remainder of the land will be four rooms on the ground floor and covering these and the corridor will be a large assembly room and two class rooms. It is proposed to heat the building by the hot water system and to light them by electricity.
"A total estimate of the cost, inclusive of land, is about £5,200. Our total assets at present being £2,880. The Church will be opened by divine worship on January 1, 1902. The work of erection is in the hands of Messrs S Lewis and G Brisley. The former, the younger son of Mr G Lewis, is station steward, Sunday School superintendent, choir leader and has been a member since 1868. The latter is a local preacher and society steward of years standing."
At the same time, the town council was considering plans to continue Beaconsfield Road to Barton Road.
Dover Express, May 4, 1928, page four - report of the stone-laying ceremony for the additions to the Sunday School which took place on May 2, 1928. The first stone was laid by Mr Stephen Lewis who was presented with an inscribed mallet. On May 5 there was a scholars' bricklaying ceremony.
Dover Express, August 31, 1928 report on page 11 with a picture on page 4. The enlargement was due to the greatly increased number of children. The school hall now holds 500 and has provided a lecture room with folding doors to form two classrooms. Cost of £7,500. Target to raise £3,000, with a loan of £4,500. Of the £3,000, £2,160 had been raised before the opening.
The membership in 1901 was 74, in 1928 it was 300.