Lyde Green Memorial Wall

(TRINITY WESLEYAN METHODIST)

 

Lyde Green at Bridge Street and Colley Lane, Cradley.

The Evangelical preaching of John Wesley resulted in the formation of a religious movement called Methodism. 

In 1766 a small society of Wesleyan Methodists was formed in Cradley, which was then in the "Staffordshire" Circuit.  From 1786 the Wesleyan Society met in a private house on Dungeon Head.

In 1817, a couple called Elizabeth and James Bowater, a chain manufacturer, established the Methodist Sunday school for adults and children, and in 1825 land was bought at Lyde Green at its junction with Colley Lane. The chapel there was given the name Ebenezer, which was completed and opened in1826.

An additional building behind the chapel was built about 1840 for use as a Sunday school and in 1874 the former Wesleyan Methodist Church was replaced by a new building that was in a completely different architectural style with a tall spire, called ‘Trinity’.

The Trinity church was demolished in 1998, following the congregation’s decision to move to Overend Methodist Mission because of problems with the property. The Mission in Banners Street, Cradley is an amalgamation of four societies:

·       The Wesleyan Society that first began to meet in Cradley in 1766

·       The Primitive Methodist Society that was founded in Cradley Heath in 1827

·       The Primitive Methodist Society that started in Cradley in 1836, and

·       The People’s Mission, Overend that was founded in 1905.

Some of the inscribed memorial bricks from Trinity have been set in the wall built by the housing developer that separates the houses on Lyde Green from the main road (B4173).