Times of change as chapels in rural Yorkshire close their doors

DWINDLING congregations across swathes of rural Yorkshire has seen six Methodist chapels close and another four come under 'serious threat'.
The village chapel at Wrelton (Google Maps)The village chapel at Wrelton (Google Maps)
The village chapel at Wrelton (Google Maps)

Now a call has been made for other threatened chapels to double as community hubs to enable them to survive. Chapels at Barton-le-Willows, Marton, Wrelton and Rillington, near Malton, have been on the market for more than 18 months. Two others which recently closed, at Lockton and Cropton, on the North York Moors, are due to go up for sale this month.

Another four are under “serious threat because of falling numbers”, according to the Methodist Church Circuit in Ryedale, one of the key areas for Methodism, when John and Charles Wesley established the movement in the mid-19th century. The state of the chapels was reported to Ryedale District Council’s planning committee when it gave permission for the Barton-le-Willows church to be converted into a three-bedroom home.

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The Methodist Circuit successfully applied not to have a local needs occupancy condition applied, which would have restricted who could live there.

Pickering Minister, the Rev Ruth Duck, said the condition, which applied to new market housing as part of the Ryedale’s planning rules to all but 10 “service” villages in the district, had “made it really hard to sell them” - as well as cutting their value by at least 25 per cent.

Barton-le-Willows is on the market for £170,000, Wrelton for £100,000 and Marton £85,000. The condition means people have to have lived in the parish for three years, have another long-standing connection, a full-time local job or an “essential need” due to age or infirmity.

The Rev Duck said: “Its the main problem. My understanding is that local needs occupancy no longer applies to that property (the Barton-le-Willows chapel) and we are hoping in time to be able to apply that to some of the others.”

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A council report said vacant and underused buildings have become a serious maintenance burden, open to vandalism and water seeping through roofs.

It added: “In general, rural circuits struggle to cope with the burden of supporting chapels in villages with very small congregations. In Ryedale, these buildings are old, all dating from the mid to late 19th century.”

The Rev Jacky Hale, the Superintendent Minister for Ryedale, said: “It is very disappointing when chapels have to close.”

Where chapels had shut, people have travelled to other Methodist churches or joined congregations at local Church of England church. The Rev Hale claimed one solution is for chapels to become community hubs to enable them to survive.

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The council’s head of planning and housing, Gary Housden, said applicants “have to justify” why the local occupancy condition will not be imposed, adding: “At Barton-le-Willows they put a cogent argument together as to why it shouldn’t be applied and that then became a consideration in the planning balance.”

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