PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY.
Apostolic Church.
An unsectarian mission hall in
Rolfe Street was registered in 1906. It was apparently the forerunner of the Rolfe Street Pentecostal Mission in existence by 1918 and known as
Rolfe Street Apostolic Church by 1929. It was
replaced by the Apostolic Church in Queen Street,
registered in 1935. In 1972, after the demolition of
the church during the redevelopment of the area,
a new church was opened on the corner of Broomfield and Holly Street. (fn. 57)
Assemblies of God.
The New Covenant Pentecostal Church in Pargeter Road, Bearwood, was
registered by the Assemblies of God in 1955. (fn. 58)
Baptists.
The Baptist cause in Smethwick was
founded in 1839 when the minister from Bethel
chapel in West Bromwich started regular preaching
in a private house in Oldbury Road. Numbers grew,
and the house of Joseph Vernon, the postmaster,
was used instead. In 1842 a chapel with accommodation for some 200 was opened in Cross Street,
although there was no resident minister until 1851;
the first baptism there was performed by Arthur
O'Neill, the Christian Chartist. In 1847 the church
became independent of West Bromwich and in 1848
joined the Midland Baptist Association. There
being no resident minister, numbers declined.
Average attendance at services in 1850-1 was 50 in
the afternoon and 40 in the evening; there was also
a Sunday school. The chapel was given up in 1853
and sold to the Temperance Society, which rebuilt
it in 1876. (fn. 59)
In 1866 an evangelist was sent to Smethwick by
the Midland Baptist Association. At first he preached
out of doors. Services were next held in the messroom at the Patent Nut and Bolt Co.'s works, and
later a shed was taken in Union Street where both
services and a Sunday school were held. A chapel
was built in Cross Street in 1869. Numbers increased, and a new chapel was built in Regent
Street in 1877-9; it is a building of brick and stone
in a baroque style. The adjoining Sunday school was
built in 1908-9. At the beginning of 1969 the
church's adult membership was 110, and there were
220 children and young people. In the later 1880s
the Cross Street chapel had passed to the Salvation
Army and in 1970 formed part of the works of
James C. Nicklin Ltd. (fn. 60)
Services were held at the board school in Bearwood Road from 1898 by the minister at the Regent
Street chapel. A branch church was formed in 1899.
A school-chapel designed by George Bowden &
Son was opened in Rawlings Road in 1903, and
Bearwood became a separate church in 1915. A new
church, designed by E. S. Mitton, was built in
Bearwood Road adjoining the first church in 1921
and was itself replaced by another church on the
same site in 1965. The 1903 building still stands.
At the beginning of 1969 the adult membership
was 118, and there were 134 children and young
people. (fn. 61)
In 1882 a few people who had left the Regent
Street church formed a church of Baptist Brethren.
They leased the Temperance Hall in Cross Street
and bought it in 1897. By the early 20th century
a Baptist Gospel Temperance Mission was being
carried on there. The cause joined the West Midland
Baptist Association in 1920, and the chapel continued as the Central Baptist Mission until it was
closed in the late 1960s. (fn. 62) It was demolished in the
winter of 1970-1.
The institute in Mornington Road was registered
for Baptists in 1910. (fn. 63) Nothing further is known
about its use as a Baptist centre.
Brethren.
A meeting-room was built at Bearwood in 1880, the first place of worship in that
district. It was registered in 1881 simply for Christians but may have been the predecessor of the present Gospel Hall in Bearwood Road opened for the
Brethren in 1896. Designed by G. F. Hawkes, the
new meeting-room was built at the expense of
Swaine Bourne. On his death in 1923 it passed to
trustees under the terms of his will, with the stipulation that if it ceased to be used by the Open Brethren
it should be conveyed to the Salvation Army. (fn. 64)
A meeting-room on the corner of Hume Street
and Cape Hill was registered for 'believers' in 1900.
It was replaced by the Gospel Hall in Hume Street,
a brick building in an Early English style, dated
1901; there is a Sunday-school building attached.
The new hall too was registered for 'believers',
though not until 1916. By the later 1960s it was
occupied by the Christian Brethren under the title
of the Cape Hill Assembly. (fn. 65)
The Sandwell Gospel Hall above the canal off
Brasshouse Lane was registered for the Plymouth
Brethren in 1930. It was closed in 1969. (fn. 66)
The meeting-room in the former St. Hilda's
Church in Rathbone Road was registered for the
Plymouth Brethren in 1962. (fn. 67)
Catholic Apostolic Church.
The Catholic
Apostolic Church had a meeting in Bridge Street in
1869, but it had ceased by 1896. (fn. 68)
Christadelphians.
There was a Christadelphian
meeting-room in Waterloo Road for some years
from 1937. Another was opened in Hurst Road
about the same time, and Warley Christadelphian
Ecclesia was meeting in the community centre
there in 1971. (fn. 69)
Congregationalists (Independents), later
United Reformed Church.
In 1810 a preachingstation and a Sunday school were started in a room
on the Birmingham road in the Cape Hill area by
members of the Carrs Lane Congregational church
in Birmingham. In 1813 the congregation moved to
the house of William Newland at Bearwood Hill
at the junction of what are now Bearwood Road and
High Street. A chapel, used also as a Sunday school,
was built on the corner of Crockett's Lane in 1823-4
and registered as an Independent place of worship;
it was later enlarged and a gallery added. For many
years there was no resident minister, and the congregation regarded Carrs Lane as their church,
going there to receive the sacrament. In 1837 a
church was formed in Smethwick and a resident
minister appointed. Average attendance at the
chapel in 1850-1 was given as 140 morning and
evening with 140 Sunday-school children in the
morning. (fn. 70) A new chapel was built in High Street
in 1853-4, a building of blue brick and stucco with
a pedimented classical façade; it was opened in
1855. (fn. 71) The old chapel was used as a Sunday school
until a school was built behind the new chapel in
1871. (fn. 72) The High Street church was closed in 1961
since the congregation could no longer afford to
maintain the building or support a minister. It was
then sold and converted into a Sikh temple. (fn. 73)
Cottage services were held in Victoria Street
West in West Smethwick by members of the Smethwick and Oldbury churches, apparently by the
1860s. A church was formed in 1870 and placed in
the care of those two churches. A school-chapel was
built in Oldbury Road in 1872-3, and in 1877
average attendance on Sunday evenings was 100,
with an average of 176 at the Sunday school. The
mission had no resident minister until 1885. By 1896
Smethwick alone was responsible for the chapel,
and by the later 1960s it was in the care of the
church at Sedgley. (fn. 74) It was demolished in 1970 in
the course of the redevelopment of the area, and
a new church was opened in Mallin Street in
1971. (fn. 75)
In 1859 the Revd. Robert Ann of Graham Street
chapel in Birmingham started meetings in Slough
Lane and open-air services at Merry Hill. A mission
hall was built in Slough Lane in 1870. It was bought
by the Harborne school board for a school in 1875
but was used as a chapel as well until the building of
Winson Green Road chapel in Birmingham in 1882. (fn. 76)
Elim Foursquare Gospel Alliance.
Elim
Tabernacle on the corner of Oldbury Road and
West Street was registered in 1930. It was replaced
by Elim Pentecostal Church in Woodlands Drive in
1967. (fn. 77)
Latter-day Saints.
Mormons were meeting in
Cross Street in 1857. (fn. 78)
Methodists.
Wesleyan.
By 1821 there was a
Wesleyan chapel at the French Walls; meetings had
been held earlier at the house of a Mr. Grant' in
Harding Street. (fn. 79) A chapel was built near by in
Rabone Lane close to the corner of Bridge Street
in 1826. It had sittings for over 500 people in 1851,
and attendances on Census Sunday were estimated
as 245 in the morning, 211 in the afternoon, and
317 in the evening, numbers which were said to be
lower than usual because it was Mothering Sunday. (fn. 80) The chapel was replaced by one in New
Street built in 1855-6 with sittings for 829 people;
a building of brick in a classical style, it was designed by G. B. Nichols of West Bromwich. (fn. 81) In
1880 there was a church membership of 168. (fn. 82) By
1921 the fabric was being weakened as a result of
vibration caused by the hammers of Harper, Sons
& Bean's stamping works in Rolfe Street. Also most
of the congregation then lived at some distance from
New Street. It was therefore decided to rebuild on
a site which would serve one of the new centres of
population, and Broomfield House and adjoining
land in the Uplands area were bought. The Akrill
Memorial Church was built there in 1928-31,
mainly with money left by Elizabeth Akrill of
Edgbaston (in Birmingham), by will proved in 1913.
The church, designed in a Gothic style by Alfred
Long, (fn. 83) is a brick building with a tower. The Akrill
Memorial Sunday School and Institute in Queen
Street was opened in 1931 and used as a Sunday
school until the opening of the Sunday school adjoining the Akrill Church in 1932. (fn. 84) The New Street
chapel was closed in 1931; the building then became a sweet factory (fn. 85) and by 1970 was part of the
works of Smethwick Drop Forgings Ltd.
Several new centres were opened from the mid
19th century. A meeting was apparently started at
the soap works at Merry Hill in the north-east of
the town in 1849, and by the late 1850s there was
a prayer-meeting in a room near the London Works
on the opposite side of the canal. (fn. 86) A school-chapel
was built in Upper Grove Street in 1864 and replaced by a new chapel built in front of it in 1875.
There was a membership of 47 in 1880. After the
closing of Baldwin Street church (formerly New
Connexion Methodist) in 1957 its congregation
united with that of the Grove. The church in Upper
Grove Street was replaced by St. John's Methodist
Church in Price Street, a brick building in a
modern style opened in 1963. (fn. 87) Halford Lane chapel
in Brasshouse Lane existed by 1866, and there was
a membership of 49 in 1880. A new chapel was
built on an adjoining site to the north in 1882;
the old chapel apparently survived as the school.
The building was closed in 1970 and demolished in
1971. (fn. 88) There was a centre in Bearwood Road (then
Bearwood Lane) by 1876, but it disappears from
the circuit plan in 1878. (fn. 89) A mission centre in Bearwood Road is recorded from 1884 until 1904. (fn. 90)
A mission centre was started in a cottage in Slough
Lane (later Wellington Street) in 1878. When this
became too small for the growing numbers a bakehouse in Slough Lane was used instead. A mission
chapel was built on the site of the bakehouse in 1889
and continued in use until 1939. (fn. 91) A mission was
begun in the schoolroom at Shireland Hall in 1878
and had a membership of 14 in 1880. (fn. 92) The centre
was replaced by a school-chapel in Waterloo Road
built in 1886 to the designs of Edward Pincher of
West Bromwich. This was itself replaced in 1896 by
the chapel on an adjoining site at the corner of
Waterloo and Sycamore Roads. Designed by Ewen
Harper in a Gothic style, it is of brick with stone
dressings and has a tower and spire by the main
entrance. The adjoining Sunday school was rebuilt
in 1907. (fn. 93)
At the end of 1862 there was a plan for opening
a centre at West Smethwick if a suitable place
could be found, but the scheme was dropped in
1864. (fn. 94) A mission was started in 1902 at a shop in
St. Paul's Road. A site was bought on the corner
of St. Paul's Road and Holly Lane, and in 1904
an iron chapel was erected there. A schoolroom was
bought from Messrs. Cadbury in 1910. In 1927 the
society amalgamated with the society from Spon
Lane, and the following year a church was built on
the Smethwick site. Designed by Webb & Gray, it is
a brick building in a Romanesque style. The Avery
organ from Spon Lane, dating from 1799, was installed in the new church. (fn. 95) The iron building was
then used as the Sunday school until 1943 when it
was demolished. (fn. 96) There was also a Methodist
church (formerly Primitive Methodist) in Corser
Street near Smethwick West station until the mid
1950s. (fn. 97)
A church was built in Abbey Road for the growing Warley Woods area in 1928. It is a brick building in a Gothic style with a tower and was designed
by Moss (probably A. W. Moss) of Crouch, Butler
& Savage of Birmingham. A new Sunday school
replacing an earlier school was opened to the west in
1938. (fn. 98)
In 1970 there were six Methodist churches in the
area of the former borough. Five were in Birmingham (Smethwick) circuit (formed out of West
Bromwich circuit in 1876): St. John's, Price Street
(65 members), Waterloo Road (107 members), West
Smethwick (122 members), Akrill Memorial (173
members), and the former Primitive Methodist
church in Regent Street (52 members). (fn. 99) The sixth,
Warley Woods, was in Islington-Quinton circuit.
New Connexion.
After meeting in a house in Brasshouse Lane and later at the Temperance Hall in
Cross Street, members of the Methodist New Connexion built Mount Zion chapel in Baldwin Street,
which was registered in 1865. In 1885 a new chapel
was built in front of the old, designed in a debased
Italian Gothic style by J. H. Burton of Ashtonunder-Lyne (Lancs.); the first building then became the Sunday school. The church was United
Methodist from 1907 and Methodist from 1932.
The school building again became the church in
1952. It was closed in 1957 and the congregation
moved to Upper Grove Street. By 1962 the site
was occupied by James Watt House, a multi-storey
block of flats. (fn. 1)
Primitive.
The Primitive Methodists, after meet
ing in a house in Bridge Street, built a chapel in
Rolfe Street on the site of the later railway station;
the materials were rough stone and cinders and it
was known as the Cinder Chapel. (fn. 2) A new chapel
with sittings for 100 people was built on the opposite side of the road in 1849. On Census Sunday
1851 it had attendances of 20 in the morning, 30 in
the afternoon, and 50 in the evening; there was also
a Sunday school. (fn. 3) Numbers increased and a gallery
was erected; but the chapel proved too small for
special occasions, and for those the railway goods
shed was used. A large chapel with galleries all
round was built on an adjoining site in 1873, and the
1849 building became the Sunday school. (fn. 4) By 1886
there were plans for widening Rolfe Street, and the
chapel was sold. A chapel was opened in Regent
Street in 1887; it is a building of brick, stone, and
stucco in a debased Italian Romanesque style. (fn. 5)
It had a membership of 52 in 1970. (fn. 6)
A chapel was built in Corser Street, West
Smethwick, in 1878; it was a Methodist church
from 1932 until c. 1955. It was then used as a factory and demolished in 1965. (fn. 7) A mission centre was
opened in Pope Street from the Rolfe Street chapel
in 1885 or 1886. It was replaced by a chapel built in
Middlemore Road in 1901, which was closed in
1965. (fn. 8) In 1971 it was being used by City Electrical
Factors (Midlands) Ltd.
Rolfe Street chapel became the head of the Birmingham Third Circuit when it was formed in 1881
out of Birmingham First Circuit. At the Methodist
union of 1932 the name was changed to Smethwick
Regent Street circuit. It was united with Smethwick
Broomfield circuit to form Birmingham (Smethwick)
circuit in 1954. (fn. 9)
Wesleyan Reform Association.
From about the end
of 1854 a class meeting was held at the house of
its leader, Charles Richardson. In 1857 the group
united with the New Street Wesleyans. (fn. 10)
Plymouth Brethren, see Brethren.
Presbyterians.
By 1851 a group belonging to the
Presbyterian Church in England was worshipping
on Thursday evenings at the Cape Hill school, built
in 1846 by John Henderson of Fox, Henderson &
Co. (fn. 11) The estimated attendance on 27 March 1851
was 27. Smethwick was recognized as a preachingstation in 1853. The school was apparently rebuilt
by Henderson in 1854, and Sunday services began.
The group was recognized as a regular congregation
in 1855, and in 1856 a resident minister was appointed. Fox, Henderson & Co. failed in 1856, and
most of its workers left the area. The congregation
dwindled, and by 1866 the remaining few had had
to leave the Cape Hill premises. They built a hall
in Helena Street off Windmill Lane; they also left
the Presbyterian Church in England and joined
the English Congregations of the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland. A church was opened on
the corner of Helena Street and Windmill Lane in
1875, a building in a plain Byzantine style; the hall
became the Sunday school. When the English
Congregations and the Presbyterian Church in England united to form the Presbyterian Church of
England in 1876, the Smethwick congregation became a member of the new body. The church in
Windmill Lane was closed c. 1965 and subsequently
demolished.
Protestant Evangelical Church.
The Protestant Evangelical Church was meeting at the Hope
Mission Hall in Bridge Street in 1912. (fn. 12)
Providence Young Men's Bible Class.
The
Providence Young Men's Bible Class was founded
in 1878, and by 1903 it met in the dining-hall at the
Cornwall Works of Tangyes Ltd. In 1904 it opened
a hall in Mafeking Road, where in 1971 Providence
Mission was holding services. (fn. 13)
Salvation Army.
The Salvation Army 'opened
fire' in Smethwick in 1881, meeting at first in the
wooden theatre building in Grove Lane. In the
later 1880s the former Baptist chapel of 1869 in
Cross Street had become the Salvation Army barracks. It was replaced by a hall in Windmill Lane,
registered in 1908; the registration was cancelled in
1918. (fn. 14)
Separatists.
The Separatists met first at the
house of R. L. Chance and later at the glass-works
of Chance Brothers & Co. in Spon Lane. About
1862 Chance built a meeting-house on the corner of
Oldbury Road and Bridge Street West (later West
Street). After his death in 1865 his son, also R. L.
Chance, continued to maintain the meeting-house.
He died in 1897, and in 1898 the building was
bought from his trustees and opened as an Anglican
mission church. (fn. 15)
Spiritualists.
The Smethwick Spiritualists'
Society met in a house in Hume Street from 1889.
The accommodation became too small for the growing numbers, and from 1894 meetings were held at
the Central Hall on the corner of Cape Hill and
Shireland Road. In 1930 a church was opened in
Church Lane near the Council House (apparently
the northern part of the present Arden Road), and in
1936 it was registered as the Smethwick National
Spiritualist Church. The group moved to Crockett's
Lane, apparently in 1937, and in 1938 to Thimblemill Road, where, on the corner of Katherine Road,
the Smethwick National Spiritualist Church and
Healing Sanctuary stood in 1971. (fn. 16) The Christian
Spiritualists registered the Sanctuary of Light and
Healing Centre in Wellington Road in 1951; the
registration was cancelled in 1956. (fn. 17)
Swedenborgians (New Church).
The Swedenborgians were meeting at a house in Bampton Road
by 1896. By 1903 they had a meeting-room in
Windmill Lane, where they continued until c. 1910. (fn. 18)
United Reformed Church, see Congregationalists.
Other Groups.
There was an undesignated religious group meeting at the Old Library (formerly
the Stour Valley inn) in 1874; it had ceased to meet
there by 1896. (fn. 19)
The Wattville Road undenominational chapel in
Handsworth was running a mission centre in
Mornington Road in 1892. It also ran the Young
Men's Institute in Mornington Road, opened in a
former coffee-house in 1900 by D. P. Wright and
closed in 1969, and a mission in the former Rabone
Lane Wesleyan chapel in the early 20th century. (fn. 20)
There was an undenominational mission room in
Slough Lane (now Wellington Street) which was
later used as a factory and c. 1894 became an Anglican mission room. (fn. 21)