An imposing York church dating back 121 years has been put up for sale.
Trinity Methodist Church on Monkgate is now on the market after it stopped being used for worship.
Expressions of interest are being invited for the property, which dates back to 1903.
It was able to be sold after the Yorkshire North & East Methodist District granted permission to cease worship.
The membership of the church had dropped to 20, with average attendance for a Sunday morning service of 18.
Before the Covid restrictions in March 2020, the church also functioned as a distribution centre for the ‘Big Issue in the North’ magazine three days per week. But that work has since ceased.
With three other methodist churches within a mile of Trinity, and the costs of maintaining the building seen as too high for a small group of people, it has been put up for sale.
According to the National Churches Trust, Trinity “was built to replace the Ebenezer Chapel in Little Stonegate, which had become inadequate for the needs of the growing congregation during the 1880s”.
It cost £8,000 to build. It originally accommodated 400 people on the ground floor and 375 in the gallery, and was called the John Petty Memorial Church, named after a leading figure in York Methodism.
“During the Second World War choirmaster Archibald William Sargent led hymn recitals at the chapel that were broadcast by the BBC 1937 to 1947,” the trust states. “The chapel roof was also used for firewatches of York County Hospital during bombing raids.”
Separate building
The chapel’s design also included school rooms at the rear. These now house Theatre@41. The theatre building was separated from the church when it was bought by John Cooper in 2000. As such, this part of the building is not up for sale.
Chair of Theatre@41 Alan Park told YorkMix: “In terms of the practical implications of the sale, the theatre is open for business, and is not affected.
“It’s a completely separate building. We’re not being sold, we own our building and we will always own our building.”
Alan said the success of the theatre is such that they need more space.
“At the moment, we’re booking shows for 2025, we’re turning down requests for rehearsal space. So if someone said to me, ‘do you want more space and it’s right in front of your theatre?’, I’d bite their arm off, quite frankly – because we’re kind of at capacity.
“We have mentioned to the estate agents that we would be interested in looking at it, but obviously there’s a long way to go before anything happens on that.
“It is sad to see it being sold. But at the same time, it might provide an opportunity. If someone gave me a magic wand, I’d absolutely love to take it off them.
“At some point that would take hard cash, but we’re keeping a watching brief.”
No price has been put on the Trinity Methodist Church as yet. The church, which isn’t listed but is considered a ‘building of merit’, currently has a planning class of F1, which includes places of worship. Planning permission would be required to change its use.
Estate agents Lambert Smith Hampton say: “Interested parties are invited to submit an expression of interest in the property, identifying their proposed use, the source of funding and any condition that would be attached to their offer.”
You can find out more here.
Another redundant methodist church, the Groves Chapel on Clarence Street, was turned into a Co-op supermarket in 2018.