Leire is a village in south Leicestershire, 11 miles south of Leicester and 4 miles north of the market town of Lutterworth.
There are several early meeting house registrations: Barnaby Ensor’s house in 1719, James Cowdale’s house in 1723, Thomas Sheene’s house in 1782 and William Collins’s house in 1795. The first possible indication of a purpose-built chapel comes the following year with the registration of ‘A building belonging to William Collins’. No denomination is mentioned for any of these.
Primitive Methodists
Work commenced on a Primitive Methodist chapel in July 1819, and a surviving handbill records that one of the congregation’s Nottingham brethren would lay the foundation stone and preach a (presumably open air) sermon. Another handbill records the opening of the chapel on Easter Sunday 1821. The county quarter sessions papers record ‘a chapel’ in Leire being registered for workship that year, which was presumably this building.
The meeting house return for 1829 records 80 people worshipping in the ‘Methodist’ chapel, which was alo presumably this building. No return was made for this chapel in the 1851 ecclesiastical census.
Baptists
A Baptist chapel was also recorded in 1829, which 100 people attended. Nothing more has yet beem traced about this building or its congregation. No return was made for this chapel in the 1851 ecclesiastical census, and the chapel is not mentioned in Victorian trade directories.
Wesleyan Methodists
Trade directories suggest that by 1846 there was only one chapel in Leire, which was Wesleyan, and ‘built about 30 years ago’. It is possible that the congregation were actually Primitive Methodists, although the compilers of directories don’t usually make errors over denominations. Another explanation may be that neither the Baptists nor the Primitive Methodists were now worshipping in Leire, but a new Wesleyan group had formed, and was using one of the disused chapels. The 1851 ecclesiastical census fails to enlighten us. No returns were made for any nonconformist place of worship in the village, nor for St Peter’s Anglican church (which was definitely there!). Was Leire overlooked? While some Anglican clergymen are known to have been reluctant to take part, nonconformist churches generally wanted to record their presence and popularity. Were all the returns for Leire collected and lost?
By 1863 it is clear that the congregation were Wesleyans, for they built a new chapel, and the tablet on the front records their denomination. The building is in the middle of the village, on the east side of Main Street. A directory entry for 1887-8 states that chapel services were held at 2.30pm and 6pm each Sunday. It closed for worship in 1977, and is now a private residence.
Return to Protestant Nonconformity: A-Z
Sources
- Trade directories
- TNA, 1851 Ecclesiastical census
- ROLLR, Quarter Sessions, Meeting House Registrations
- ROLLR, 1829 Return of Meeting Houses
- Handbills (private collection)