NHER 62511 (Monument record) - Site of The Tabernacle and associated burial ground

Site of Methodist chapel designed by Thomas Ivory and built between 1753 and 1755.

The Methodist meeting-house at this site originally served the congregation of the controversial independent preacher James Wheatly, who had arrived in Norwich in 1751 (making him the first Methodist preacher recorded in Norwich). The site on Bishopgate was acquired in 1752 after Wheatly’s first wooden meeting-house was destroyed by a mob opposed to his views and preaching. The new chapel was known as the Tabernacle and was a 1000-seat building designed by Thomas Ivory - a prominent Norwich architect and builder who also designed the Octagon Chapel (NHER 26087) and the Assembly House (NHER 618). Work started in 1753 and it opened its doors in 1755. Further scandal drove Wheatly from Norfolk in 1754 and after a period of being overseen by John Wesley the chapel passed into the hands of the Countess of Huntingdon’s Connexion, a small Calvinistic Methodist sect.
Information from (S1), (S2) and (S3).

The Tabernacle was eventually demolished in 1953.

Although the chapel occupied much of the plot in which it stood it was nevertheless associated with its own cemetery. None is marked on the 1885 Ordnance Survey Town Plan map (S4) but a number of maps produced following the demolition of the chapel building mark the entire plot as either 'Old Burial Ground' or 'Burial Ground'.
P. Watkins (HES), 14 February 2021.

March 1983. Field Observation.
Examination of graveyard associated with The Tabernacle.
See transcription of legible inscriptions (S5) and photographs (S6).
P. Watkins (HES), 14 February 2021.

February 2021. Field Observation.
Brief visit by P. Watkins (HES).
The site of The Tabernacle and its cemetery are now a small public garden. The chapel is commemorated by a plaque set in one of the walls and a small number of gravestones can be seen at the margins. The walls surrounding the garden are mostly covered in ivy so it is unclear whether they represent the original boundary walls.
See photographs (S7) in file.
P. Watkins (HES), 15 February 2021.