Chantry Cottage and Methodist Chapel, Ashford

This is a modern view of the old postcard of Chantry Cottage kindly provided by Moyra Burnett. The building attached can be seen more clearly here as the newer Ashford Methodist Chapel, which according to the date carved in the pediment just above the doorway dates from 1899.

This may not have been the only Methodist Chapel in Ashford, however as White's Directory of 1857 notes that ‘a neat Wesleyan chapel’ was built here in 1830. It also mentions that the Baptists have a chapel in Ashford Lane, ‘in which no service is at present performed’. This was as well as a Presbyterian chapel, founded by William Bagshawe in 1700, now demolished, but believed to have been in Buxton Road.

This photograph is taken from Holy Trinity Churchyard; the name of the Cottage derives from the Chantry House, built in 1257 by Griffin, son of a Welsh prince, for the saying of masses for his soul.

(Information provided by Rosemary Lockie)