(24.02.2016 at 30cGR): At last, I have found something definite about the Walton Street Methodist chapel, where William Archer WGRA was married in 1902, and his father, AGA, Alfred George Archer, was a local preacher and presumably (can’t remember the details from his obituary, to be sure) his funeral service in 1913, took place.
This text is from The Victoria History series, and of course the volumes relating to Oxford, and it states:
“A mission established in Jericho in 1871 at first met in a house in Albert Street, but by 1873 a chapel had been built in Cranham Street. On the initiative of Hugh Price Hughes a new chapel, designed in gothic style by T. Mullett Ellis, was opened in Walton Street in 1883, but the Cranham Street chapel continued as a mission until 1918. Declining population in the area led to the closure of the Walton Street chapel in 1946.”
So, I still don’t know where in Walton Street the chapel was. Nor, indeed, what it looked like apart from its ‘gothic style’. But I do have its dates: 1883 to 1946, which is 63 years. The adjoining text in the Victoria History page, discloses the corresponding history of Wesley Memorial Church in New Inn Hall street, where Dad (FGBA) and I attended in the 1940s and 1950s - and he no doubt continued until the end of his life, and his funeral service was there in 1991.
From the above quoted text from the Victoria History, it is clear that the Walton Street Chapel was brand new in 1884 when Walter Gilder’s three-months of ‘labours’ commenced. So there might not have been a background of ‘public opinion’ to have established itself at the chapel in such a relatively short time, against which to measure the reaction to the situation. Nevertheless, I shall, if possible have a search made at the Oxfordshire Record Office at Temple Cowley to see if there is recorded any mention of him in that context, for example in the ‘vestry minutes’ or a comparable record of the chapel’s official bodies.
I will in due course, and as soon as possible, add to this record, a copy of the photo I have of my Dad, FGBA, as a member of a Sunday School class at Walton Street Chapel. And I also have a copy of William Archer (WGRA)’s response to the 1900 appeal (called something like “The Centennial Appeal”) to support the Methodist Church generally. Not to mention the obituary and funeral arrangements for his father Alfred George Archer (AGA) in 1913 (or was it 1916?).
An online search has revealed that T. Mullett Ellis also designed at very much the same time, a neo-Gothic style Methodist church in Malta, which may give a clue as to the appearance of the Walton Street chapel. Click here to go to a graphic giving some idea of the appearance of the Malta church.
(27.8.17): Here is a list of Oxford’s Methodist Chapels, from the Oxfordshire History Centre’s records:
NM5/25 Oxford: Wesley Memorial chapel, New Inn Hall street
NM5/26 Oxford: Walton Street Wesleyan Methodist chapel
NM5/27 Oxford: Cranham Street Wesleyan Methodist chapel
NM5/28 Oxford: Paradise Square Wesleyan Methodist chapel
NM5/29 Oxford: New Inn Hall/St Michaels United Methodist chapel
NM5/30 Oxford: Pembroke Street Primitive Methodist chapel
I had no idea that there were so many chapels. The reference numbers refer to the OHC’s indexing system.