St Helens is a town in Merseyside and in historic Lancashire. It is around six miles north of the river Mersey. During the Industrial Revolution coal mining, glassmaking, copper smelting, sail making and chemical businesses were important to the town's economy, contributing to its rapid growth in populationand status.

John Wesley visited St Helens on Saturday 13 April 1782 and preached in the home of Joseph Harris which was next door to the Navigation Tavern.

Wesleyan Methodism was introduced to St Helens by Joseph Harris who came from Kingswood to manage the Ravenshead Copper Works around 1780. The first Wesleyan meeting house was built in Market Street around 1801 and was replaced by a chapel in 1814 in Tontine Street. On Thursday 16 April 1868 Mr Thomas Hazlehurst (1816-1876) laid the foundation stone for a larger chapel in Cotham Street. The chapel was opened on Thursday 3 June 1869 when the preachers were Samuel Romilly Hall, president of the Wesleyan conference and Rev. John Bedford (1810-1879) ex-president of the Wesleyan conference.

A Primitive Methodist society was formed as a result of missions in 1842. From 1845 the society rented a chapel 'in a back street in a bad situation, few people attended it.' In 1857 the society leased a site in a better area and built a chapel, whuch was opened on 20 December 1857; the preacher was Rev James Garner (1809-95), of Liverpool. On 30 August 1875 the foundation stone for a chapel on the corner of Westfield Street and Kirkland Street was laid by Alderman Cook. In July 1902 Richard John Seddon PC (1845-1906) the 15th premier (prime minister) of New Zealand visited Kirkland Street Sunday school to view his mother’s plaque (Jane J Seddon (1816-1868)) recording her years as a teacher at the school which he attended as a boy.

The United Methodist Free Churches opened a chape in 1861 and the Independent Methodists opened Zion Chapel, West Street, in 1892.

Entry written by: DHR
Category: Place
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