When James Wheatley, one of John Wesley’s helpers, had been expelled him from the fledging Methodist movement by the Wesley brothers he came to Norwich. He collected money to build a permanent preaching place and his fund was swelled by a substantial donation from the Countess of Huntingdon. The Norwich architect Thomas Ivory designed a chapel and house for the preacher at St Martin-at-Palace Plain.

Wheatley then resolved to build chapels or tabernacles in two villages in south Norfolk – at Hempnall and Forncett End. These were completed in 1754. However, when rumours again circulated about Wheatley’s inappropriate relationship with women, he was brought before the Bishop’s Court, found guilty and left Norfolk, never to return.

Before he left, he urged John Wesley to take over the supervision of his congregations and lease of the buildings. Wesley was initially very reluctant, but eventually agreed. On Sunday 25 March 1759 John Wesley wrote in his journal, ‘I rode to Forncett, twelve miles from Norwich, where also was a building of James Wheatley’s, which, without my desire, he had included in the lease’. He discovered that one of Wheatley’s Calvinist collaborators, William Cudworth, had preached there in the morning and had clearly poisoned the minds of the congregation against John Wesley for, he went on to say,

'The people looked as direful upon me as if it had been Satan in person. However, they flocked from all parts, so that the tabernacle would not near contain them. I preached about two. God bare [sic] witness to His truth, and many were cut to the heart’. After preaching I found Mr. Cudworth sitting in the pulpit behind me, whom I quietly and silently passed by.'

On Wednesday 28 March, he wrote, 'I rode over to Forncett again and preached to a large congregation. Great parts of them were now exceedingly softened; but some were still bitter as wormwood'.

Back in Norfolk the following year, John Wesley again visited the congregation at Forncett. On Friday 4 January 1760, he ‘preached at about one at Forncett to a much milder people than I left there’.

In 1765, with thankfulness, Wesley relinquished the leases on Wheatley's chapels and they were taken over by the Countess of Huntingdon. Subsequently, when her cause declined after her death, in 1791, the building and congregation at Forncett joined the General Baptists. The Baptist use ceased about 1960. The chapel was subsequently purchased by a local farming family for storage purposes. Two silos were constructed inside and a modern access door to the right of the porch. It was last used about 2001.

An application to turn the building into a house in 2003 came to nothing. In 2012 efforts were made to secure Listed Building status, as this is the only surviving chapel building in East Anglia where John Wesley preached. The application was unsuccessful.

Entry written by: NV
Category: Place
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