Methodist Chapel - Stradbrook
Methodist Chapel - Stradbrook


In the 19th century Methodism thrived across England and, like many other communities, Bratton found itself with a Methodist congregation but with no chapel for them to go to for worship. For many years, they gathered in private homes in the village but eventually in 1870 they were able to build their own free church in Bratton, helped by Nathaniel Snelgrove, who gave them land and left £400 in his will for the maintenance of a chapel.

It is hard to believe today but, as the old photograph shows, for over 80 years a small chapel stood in the space between Chantry and Vale View Cottages (15 and 17 Stradbrook).

For many of those 80 years the Methodist chapel prospered. Anniversary services were held each July, and well-attended harvest services were held each September, during which the produce was sold for funds. In the 1920s Bratton joined the Methodist Union and the Bratton church became joined with Westbury, where a new Methodist church had been built.

After the Second World War the congregation dwindled and the chapel began to fall into disrepair. By the 1950s the state of the property had deteriorated and all services ceased in 1952. The chapel was eventually demolished in 1957 and the land split between the two properties on either side. The organ was transferred to the Pound Street Chapel in Warminster (which itself closed in the 1970s), while all the moveable pews went to chapels in Freshford and Westwood. What was left of the congregation transferred to the Westbury Methodist Church.

A gate remains in the railings opposite where the chapel had once stood. This is the only surviving sign that there was ever a chapel in Stradbrook. For years the gate was used to gain access to a flight of steps down to the stream below for baptisms. Today it is locked and rusted and there are no longer any steps.




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Bratton History Association.

The Bratton History Association aims to provide all those curious about local history with an opportunity to meet, exchange ideas, and discover more about the history of Bratton and Wiltshire. Activities include monthly meetings, talks by professional historians, visits to places of interest to historians, and our own local history project.

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