The First Chapel 

The first Chapel was apparently built on a site on Alcester Road now occupied by the Conservative Club.  The Registry of the Consistory Court of Worcester has a record dated 22nd November 1808 certifying that “a certain new erected building situated near the Marlboroughs Head in the Village and Parish of Studley and Diocese of Worcester is intended to be used for Religious Worship under and by Virtue of the Statute of the first King William and Queen Mary entitled ‘An Act for exempting their Majesty’s Protestant Subjects dissenting from the Church of England from the practises of certain laws”.

In June 1838, the Trustees authorised Mr R. Harrison to bid for and purchase a piece of land for a Chapel site and to refund to him within 12 months any monies borrowed from the Gloucestershire Banking Company for this purpose.  We found no record of whether this purchase was made.

Methodism in Studley was clearly flourishing.  A document dated 7th April 1857 concerning the Wesleyan Sabbath School which had commenced in 1808 estimates that half the population of the village had received instruction.  There were 150 children on the books, the number steadily increasing.

Arrangements for teaching were unsatisfactory, as the only spaces available were the Chapel and the vestry, which was described as being very dark following construction of a shop very close to it.
It was resolved to “erect a neat and commodious building capable of accommodating 200 children” and to provide weekday instruction.  £200 needed to be raised to achieve this.