Building record SBT 045 - Former Primitive Methodist Church

The former Primitive Methodist chapel at Sibton lies in the hamlet of Pouy Street immediately opposite the White Horse Inn, and straddles the parish boundary between Sibton and Peasenhall. Its isolated location is typical of Primitive Methodism, which was designed to appeal to the poorer labouring classes and was initially viewed with suspicion by the authorities. A stone plaque above the chapel’s original entrance commemorates its construction in 1836 and renovation in 1882, and this date is confirmed by the 1851 Census of Religious Worship which notes its opening on May 31st 1836. It was therefore one of the earliest Primitive Methodist chapels in Suffolk, the first of which appeared in 1827. Curiously the building is depicted on the Sibton tithe map of 1840 but not mentioned in the apportionment which names the site only as a garden belonging to the neighbouring cottage. The chapel is famous – or infamous – for its role in the notorious Peasenhall Murder of 1902, when Rose Harsent, a 22-year old servant, was murdered after having an affair with William Gardiner. Gardiner was tried twice for the murder but on both occasions the jury failed to reach a verdict.
The original chapel is a relatively small red-brick structure with a hipped pantiled roof extending to a total of 9.1 m by 6.5 m (30 ft by 21.25 ft). Its arched windows are alterations of 1882 but there is some evidence of taller, rectangular predecessors. The building was entered by a central door in its north-western facade and probably possessed a pulpit against its back wall where the original windows were higher than elsewhere. This door was blocked and the interior stripped of all fixtures and fittings when the building was leased to the local Youth Club in the mid-20th century and converted into a squash court. Various extensions were added between the 1950s and 1970s including a kitchen and cafe, WCs, committee room and a large hall which operated as a theatre and archery range. The walls of the committee room include part of an extension of 1882 that probably operated as the Sunday School. The chapel’s tiled floor survives from the same period, but while it remains a picturesque structure of considerable historic interest it has been too heavily altered to merit listing (S1).