ABOUT US

OUR PURPOSE

“Allhallowgate Methodist Church, part of Ripon and the Lower Dales Methodist Circuit, exists to spread the love of God in Jesus Christ to everyone, to worship, pray and learn together, in order to share our faith in the community, and to bring hope and joy to all.”

History

Ripon was an important and influential location for Primitive Methodism in the north of England. According to Patterson, a Primitive Methodist society was first formed in Ripon as a result of a visit by William Clowes on 4 March 1820. Petty records that he preached twice “with good effect” and that “ a great excitement was awakened, and much spiritual good done”. Ripon was made a branch of the Hull circuit in June 1820, and became a circuit in its own right in 1822. By 1828 Ripon had five travelling preachers on its station; in 1847 there were in the circuit and its two branches seven travelling preachers, with “two ‘to be obtained’”. The circuit also “sent out five travelling preachers”. Neither was Primitive Methodism in Ripon a purely local affair. Patterson, writing in 1909, describes how “the original station covered the ground now occupied by the Harrogate, Knaresborough, Pateley Bridge, Thirsk, Ripon, Bedale, and Middleham Circuits”.

The first Primitive Methodist chapel in the town opened in 1821. It was built on a site in Priest Lane, although no trace of it now exists. Evidence of its former location, near the junction with St Marygate, can be seen on old Ordnance Survey maps. The earliest maps dating from the 1840s show the premises marked as a Primitive Methodist chapel. The chapel was enlarged in 1841. Despite its enlargement, it seems that the chapel was still not big enough, but because the buildings now completely filled the relatively small site in Priest Lane it was necessary to look elsewhere for larger premises. In 1878, some land in Allhallowgate, a short distance to the west from Priest Lane, closer to, but still on the edge of, the town centre, was acquired from George Robinson, the Marquis of Ripon (who lived at Studley Royal), on which a new and considerably larger chapel was constructed. It opened for worship in 1881.

Some 80 years after the new chapel was built a church hall was added to the premises (opened in 1966) and in 2008 further alterations took place, resulting in a flexible suite of premises for a very active Methodist church and its local community. However, despite the later changes, the main elements of the interior of the church remain virtually unaltered since it was built.

The Team

Rev Ian Pruden is Minister of Allhallowgate Methodist Church, and 5 other Methodist Churches within the Ripon and Lower Dales Methodist Circuit.

We have 7 Stewards who are also Trustees of the Church

Andrea Scott Senior Steward aescott01@gmail.com 01765 608981

John Williams 01765 451869

Bryan George

Phil Harris

Lynda Blackburn

Roger le duc Barnett

Marion Bailey.