Methodist Church, Forest, Melksham

In 1829 the Primitive Methodist Mission, known at first as the Castle Combe Mission, was launched and established preaching places in both Melksham itself and the area to the east of the town known as Forest. Primitive Methodism appealed particularly to farm labourers and the Forest area would have supported a good number of these. At first membership was small but later the numbers expanded. In 1852 two houses were bought in Lower Forest and adapted into the first chapel which was opened in 1856. A Sunday school was in existence by 1875. The congregation increased in the 1890s and in 1905 the present stone chapel in Forest Road was opened. In 1938 a stone school building in the chapel grounds was opened.