NHER 49139 (Building record) - Old Wesleyan Church, Kirby Row

Chapel in three sections, now converted. At north end, north-south gabled brick building with plaque in north gable WESLEYAN CHURCH 184- (last digit eroded). Side windows are sashes, but present woodwork is replacement. To south an east-west gabled section of red brick with plaque to west 1892 DAVID PILGRIM MEMORIAL CHAPEL and below is a foundation stone laid by a lady from Stratford upon Avon. Large west window with sub-Venetian Gothic wooden tracery (but replaced) and pointed door. South end is an amorphous addition dated 1922, the west wall with at least ten foundation stones each laid by a different person, also one course of bricks has a long row of initials carefully incised (the church members of the time?) This is an unusual survival. (S1) under entry for Ellingham, South Norfolk, mentions as tourist attractions “Ellingham parish church and Methodist Chapel at Kirby Cane 1 mile east”. Why was this building considered so important at that time?
E. Rose (NLA), 1 December 2006.

(S2) gives date as 1849. In 1922 a Sunday-school hall was added to the rear.
M. Langham-Lopez (HES), 22 October 2012.