Memorials

The Wesleyan Chapel on St James Green Thirsk has a long history with its many named memorials listing people connected with the chapel. The down loadable PDF covers the Burial Ground, Chapel memorials and Sunday School Foundation Stones.

 

Wesleyan Burial Ground

The burial ground was created sometime after the completion of the second chapel of 1816, with the first known burial being that of Ann Tebbett in 1840. As no official burial records exist it is not known if any other unmarked burials took place. The burial ground consisted of a narrow strip of land to the side of the current Church and was once enclosed with iron railings.
 

Chapel Memorials

The five named memorials were sited in the second Methodist Chapel built in 1816, which replaced the original Octagonal Meeting House. The surviving memorials were removed from the old chapel in 1959 prior to its demolition and stored in the cellar of the 1909 Sunday School, now used as the Methodist Church.

One of the most impressive monuments is to the Revd. John Hewgill Bumby (1808 to 1840) who died in a boating accident in New Zealand on 26th June 1840. 
 

Sunday School memorial foundation stones

The laying of the 47 named foundation stones for the new Sunday School building (now used as the current Methodist Church) took place on 29th July 1908 at 1:30pm. These consisted of large blocks of yellow sandstone inscribed with the names of those who donated money to help build the new Sunday School building.
 

Future Developments

The burial ground is part of the church’s vision project which sees the creation of a Pollinator friendly Community Garden with its links to Mary Bumby (sister of Revd. John Bumby) and William Foggitt (Naturalist and Botanist).