Totley Rise Methodist Church, Grove Road

The first Methodist Chapel was built on Chapel Walk (now Chapel Lane) in 1849 for a board of trustees that included both local members and established Methodists including George Bassett (liquorice allsorts) and Thomas Cole, founder of Cole Brothers department store in Sheffield (now John Lewis). The land for the Chapel was given by Job Green, landlord of the Cross Scythes at this time. It was eventually enlarged in 1898 but not before the growth in population at the lower end of the village created a need for a new Church.

Totley Rise Methodist Church had its origins in the early 1890s, when "Missionaries" from the Brunswick Methodist Circuit in Sheffield were sent to Totley to preach to a Congregation which contained navvies who were working on the Totley Tunnel and merchants and businessmen, incomers from Sheffield who were able to commute to the city from Dore & Totley station.

Open air meetings were held on a piece of land at the junction of Glover Road and Baslow Road, but these sometimes tended to be disrupted by hecklers and by bad weather. Local legend has it that in 1892 a Mrs Wint took pity on the would-be worshippers during a thunder storm and invited them to meet in her nearby home, "Woodside", 2 Back Lane. 

The Wesleyan Chapel from bridge, circa 1905



Church Meetings were held in this house until 1894, when they moved to another house on Totley Rise next to a shop. The Congregation continued to grow and fund-raising to build a chapel began in 1895. Totley Rise Wesleyan Methodist Church was registered for worship on 24 February 1896 and for the solemnization of marriages on 25 June the following year. 

The Chapel was built on a strip of land given by Ebenezer Hall (of Abbeydale Hall) on the Dore side of the Oldhay Brook. It was gifted on the understanding that it was to be used for the building of a Chapel and Sunday School only, not a Day School. No liquor could be served on or off the premises and there must be no bowling green, tea garden or making of gas, saws, steel, cast iron, or a foundry, steam engine house or abattoir on the site without prior written permission.

Grove Lodge, built in 1836, bought by the Church in 1917



In 1917 the Church bought the former lodge of Totley Grove from Mr Francis Harrison and this became the caretaker's cottage. In 1925 the Trustees purchased the strip of adjacent land between the Church and the Oldhay Brook from Mr William Henry Field "to ensure that nothing of an objectionable nature be erected thereon". This land is now the garden and car park. 

Church Hall, built in 1930-31 mainly for use as a Sunday School

The Church premises have been extended on several occasions. In 1930-31 the Church Hall was built, fronting on to Grove Road, primarily for use as a Sunday School. Further extensions were made to the buildings in 1957-58, replacing the small porch with a new vestibule and cloakrooms at the front. The interior was redesigned and the organ relocated to provide more space for seating.

The extension of 1987-91, however, was much more ambitious, providing seating for an extra 120, a Church lounge that could be used as an overflow area, kitchen facilities and toilets for the disabled as well as an extended car park and landscaping of the surrounding area. Most of the estimated costs of the project, a staggering £117,000, were raised by the 200-strong Congregation in just eight hours on Saturday, 14 October 1989. Building work began in July 1990 and the extension was opened on 26 January 1991 with a Service of Thanksgiving and Rededication.

Based on the early chapters of Josie Dunsmore's book A Church on the Move: Totley Rise Methodist Church (1896-1996), published in 1996.