On 8 February 2002 the Methodist Church was  listed as a Grade 11 building by Paul Johnson on behalf of  the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is most unusual for a building of less than one hundred years old to be listed and then it must be an exceptional example of its period.

The listing details are as follows:

Methodist church. 1902-5. By Brookes (actually Cookes) of Broughton Astley. Leicestershire granite with limestone ashlar and granite dressings. Slate roof with stone-coped gable. Arts and Crafts style with Perpendicular tracery to front windows. Contrasting squared and random granite and heavy buttresses with limestone quoins. Two storey facade with gable facing. Entrance with double plank doors up steps under deep segmental arch between buttresses. Perpendicular style window above and panel inscribed Wesley Church over. Small windows on each story to sides again set back within buttresses. Sides have two light stone mullion windows set between buttresses. Lower element to rear with pulpit and church offices has long roof coming down to ground floor eaves. The wide limestone plinth around the church consists of many foundation stones inscribed with the names of those who laid them, being contributors to the church.

INTERIOR.

Galleries with pews on three sides supported on cast-iron columns, and the gallery with pews on the fourth side behind the pulpit has organ to rear. Arched open fronts to galleries and pew ends have pierced decoration, as have the pulpit with steps up either side and the ground floor pews. Massive hammerbeam roof with arched braces. Stained glass in window above entrance.

HISTORY

The local congregation gave much help in the building. The stone was made available free by the local Sapcote quarry to the quarrymen members if they worked after their normal day's work and local sett makers and kerb dressers worked the dressed stone. Farmers helped in the transport.

This is a well-designed and little altered Methodist church of the period with almost complete internal fittings.

On reading that the chapel had been listed, Mr Owen Brown of Stanton Road, Sapcote, sent the following letter to the Hinckley Times.

'The Wesleyan Methodist Chapel in Sapcote is almost 100 years old.

          The stone-laying ceremony took place on August 29 1903, with Croft Brass Band heading a procession around the village.

          Early in 1903, the old chapel was found to be totally inadequate for the growing society. The trustees decided to be adventurous and erect a new building entirely of local stone. Plans were drafted, submitted and rejected until the outstanding and best of all designs was chosen.

          The site adjoining the old chapel was an orchard belonging to Joseph Cook Brown. To obtain this land for building, the trustees negotiated for a piece of land adjacent to Morley's House garden, which later became The Manse orchard. The task facing them was formidable, but they went ahead. They appointed Fred Tuckey as secretary and assistant architect, and commissioned J. R. Cook of Broughton Astley to be the builder, with Dick Lane from Stoney Stanton as the stonemason.

          Then came close collaboration with the managers of Lovett's Granite Quarry, Henry J. Grace and Frederick Wright, both stalwarts of the Methodist cause. They not only gave the stone free but also allowed a team of sett makers, all zealous chapel members, to cut and dress the stone after normal working hours. Cyrus Brown, one of the team of six, said at the time that all of them took great care to put the best stuff on one side for the chapel, which was eventually carted free to the building site in horse drawn vehicles.

          On July 2 1904, the doors were unlocked by Mr Willoughby Tuckey to let a large crowd of people into the new building to take part in the service conducted by the Rev. Thomas Champness of Lutterworth (founder and editor of the Joyful News newspaper). It was reported to have been a very moving occasion.

          The first estimate of the cost was £1,600, but the ultimate total was £2,200 and many money-raising efforts were undertaken, with the last effort to wipe out the remaining debt as late as February 24 1933, when Sir William Edge, the MP for Bosworth, opened an Old English Fayre at the chapel.

          The stained glass window over the main entrance porch was presented by Mr W. Hincks and was unveiled on April 15, 1904. It was a memorial to his own daughter. The scenes in the window were painted by the donor himself.

          In Nikolaus Pevsner's book 'The Buildings of Leicestershire and Rutland', he makes no mention of the new chapel, though he does state that the old chapel is to be pulled down.

          How did he manage to overlook it? For it now stands as an impeccable structure worthy of those who contributed to its erection.'

 In 1997 Mr Edgar Fortesque wrote a book entitled 'My Journey Through the Twentieth Century - 1903-1996'. Published by Wesley Historical Society Publishing Office (Alfred A. Taberer) Bankhead Press 73, Crewe Road, Nantwich, Cheshire.

 On page 13 he writes:

'......... when a decision was taken about building a new Church and what would be needed to get it going, a letter was sent to the Managing Director of the company which owned the quarry at Sapcote as well as others in the area, as he had been a good friend at times to the Society............... His reply was startling as well as challenging. He said " If the men who worked at the Sapcote quarry would work after their day's work was done then any stone they produced would be theirs free". Quite a few of our members worked there so they agreed. They were allowed to use all the quarry machinery required, so as one man told me, who was in on this arrangement, "As we went about our daily duties any stone which we felt was the sort needed for the building, was put on one side to be collected later in the day".

Everybody rallied round to make a success of this venture. Farmers and others who had horses and carts loaded the stone when it was brought to the surface and delivered it to the site chosen. Then the settmakers and kerb dressers shaped the stones to fit the large window sills above which the large stained glass window was to be fitted, and also the square towers at the front which needed square edged blocks. The rest irregularly shaped stones were all right for the long side walls of the Church. After much hard and heavy work had been put in, the great day came when the Rev Dinsdale T Young opened the Church in 1905 - he declared it to be one of the finest village Churches in Methodism. The planning and building was carried out by Cookes of Broughton Astley. Later on Dr. Young became President of the Methodist Conference.

It is a credit to the church members who, throughout the past one hundred years, have looked after this fine church. However, plans for drastic internal alterations to the Methodist Church have been put on display in the foyer of the Church hall. The plans include extending the Church hall across the drive to the Church - knocking a hole in the side of the Church to create a connecting doorway - this will involve the removal of a window and  inscribed foundation stones. Other modifications include the removal of most of the downstairs pews,  the  removal of the organ and choir stalls and the lowering of the pulpit. It is  also planned to replace the existing oak main door with a partially glazed one. This, depite the fact that the building and its contents were listed earlier this year as a "well-designed and little altered Methodist church of the period with almost complete internal fittings."                 

Methodist Ministers At Sapcote.

1912 - Rev. H. Hartley

1915 - Rev. J. Spicer

1918 - Rev. G. A. Wooding

1921 - Rev. C. A. Gimlett M.A

1924 - Rev. F. A. Ashton

1925 - Rev. P. S. Grimshaw M.A

1928 - Rev. J. G. Morton

1931 - Rev. A. Sidebottom

1936 - Rev. A. S. Holbrook

1941 - Rev. J. H. Collins

1946 - Rev. G. E Pinfield

1949 - Rev. D. Lamsley B.A

1955 - Rev. G. Turner

1958 - Rev. A. E. Breeze

1963 - Rev. William Bethel

1967 - Rev. A. Jolley

1971 - Rev. G. Gordon

1979 - Rev. D. Cooper 

1984 - Rev. P. Hancock

1993 - Rev. D. Garfield

1998 - Rev. P. Bolas

The old Methodist Church	The exterior	Interior showing pulpit, choir stalls and organ. Note the original doors and arts and crafts chairs.	Interior view showing the upper  gallery details.

Photograph 1.

Photograph 2.

Photograph 3.

Photograph 5

Interior view showing arrangement and details  of upper galleries and choir stalls.

Photograph 6

Detail of pulpit frontal.

Photograph 7

Detail of the stained glass windo