Horspath Methodist Chapel was built in 1909. It commands a pivotal position in the village, and you pass it soon after arriving. In 2012 the Methodist circuit put it up for sale with planning permission for a four-bedroomed house. A few of us thought that it would be very sad to lose such a special building for the village. The Friends of Horspath, which is an offshoot of the Anglian Church of St Giles, felt that we should mount a campaign to save it. We had it listed as a Community Asset, which gave us six months to get enough money together to buy it. It was to be sold by sealed bid, and we really didn’t know what sort of sums we were looking at. In the six months available to us, we mustered the village and, together with the SODC, the Parish Council and a couple of charities, we had sufficient grants, donations and loans to make a bid. And we were successful.

We were essentially a group of seven busy, retired people, and we wondered what on earth we should do now. We had no experience of running a community hub, but we were prepared to put in a lot of hard work. Five years later, we were a success story. The trustees are still working their socks off and we have a thriving café, classes of all shapes and sizes, bookings for parties, and a beautiful building within which to focus our efforts. We were awarded a letter of Commendation by the Oxford Preservation Trust in 2017 for our work in sympathetically renovating the building. One specific task we undertook was to clean and restore the foundation stones at the front of the building where the names of the original benefactors are shown.

In 2024, the Horspath Community Hub celebrated its 10th anniversary.

We do hope that our Methodist friends feel that we have done a good job with their special building. Past and present ministers joined us for our opening party in June 2014. The Reverend Rosemary Davies (Methodist) can be seen in the picture with the Reverend Emma Pennington (Anglican) and Sheila Frankum, who is the Chair of the Friends of Horspath.

Assuring you that we will never forget our heritage and hope that the Horspath Community Hub in the Old Chapel will last another hundred years as a place of welcome and community.

The single religious Census of 1851 revealed that over 50% of churchgoers were Nonconformists, and the rapid growth of Wesleyan Methodism both in Oxford and all the surrounding villages comprised a large part of this social change. In Horspath, from the 1860’s, cottage meetings were held for prayer and discussion groups. In 1871, a purpose-built wooden chapel was opened in Oxford Road  (on the left where no. 12 now stands as one enters the village). This building is shown on the 1886, 6-inch OS map marked as “Wesleyan Methodist Chapel”. The population then was around 370 (during the period when the school, railway, field boundaries and enclosure roads were created and the restoration of St Giles’ Church completed) so that the new Chapel became yet another aspect of the many changes in Horspath between 1850 and 1880.

With these changing times, social attitudes also changed, and Chapel attendance thus increased steadily; so much so that a new, larger brick-built Chapel was envisaged under the energy and guidance of the Minister, William Lindsey.

In 1909, a plot of land was acquired, and today’s Chapel was built at a cost of £401, featuring a simple box-like structure and a slate roof, with an annexe to the south to house the Sunday School. It was opened in 1910. A photograph of the event shows over 50 people in front of the Chapel with the Reverend Lindsey in the centre.

The previous chapel was then sold to Merrick Fowler of the Manor, who converted it into the Parish Reading Room, and which was later demolished just after the Second World War.

The Chapel was to last as a place of worship for 100 years and enjoyed good attendance and support as a focus of Horspath life. The organ was donated by the Schoolmaster, Mr Booker, which had previously seen service in the Manor House.

The First World War caused three Horspath Methodist men to be killed, and a plaque was erected to commemorate them – strangely, only two were also named on the plaque in St Giles, while the third did not; the reason being that he was killed in a munitions accident in this country and not on active service. Later, there was even a Horspath Methodist Boys’ Football Team created by builder Charlie Harris, a dedicated Methodist churchman in Horspath.

Although not changing externally over that period, a kitchen, toilets and heating were installed and the interior decorated, which transformed the building into a very useful Parish Room and Community Meeting Place. During the 1980’s, links were forged with St Giles and regularly alternating services and supporting functions were held monthly in both Chapel and Church, though the Sunday School had previously met in the Chapel for many years.

The Methodist community was a strong one and only the last decade of the Chapel saw a decline in numbers and worship, which caused its closure as a Chapel – a situation sadly reflected in many parishes just like Horspath and throughout the country.