XIV. NONCONFORMISTS AFTER 1850.
The formation of a Dover Free Church Council in 1896 brought into closer union all the bodies of Nonconformists in the town, and from about that time the name " Church " instead of " Chapel " was applied to the fabrics of Non- conformist places of worship.
The Primitive Methodists in this period took the lead in Chapel building. The Primitive Methodists had been at work in various parts of England nearly fifty years before they made much headway in Dover, and their first regular Chapel, built in Peter Street in the year i860, was one of the Jubilee Chapels of the Primitive Methodist Connexion. In 1874, the Rev. Thomas Russell, one of the pioneers of Primitive Methodism, wlio had his last station at Dover, laid the foundation stone of a Chapel in Round Tower Street at the Pier, near the spot where the Primitive Methodists had their first preaching place in Dover; but when the Dover and Deal Railway was made in 1879 the Chapel was bought by the Railway Company and demolished. A little before that time the Rev. Thomas Russell, having been superannuated, built for himself a residence at Maxton, and, adjoining it, erected a Primitive Methodist place of worship, called Maxton Tabernacle, being the first place of worship in this suburb of Dover. To meet the necessities of those who had been displaced liy the demolition of Round Tower Street Chapel, services were for a time conducted by the Primitive Methodists .n the Wellington Hall, Snargate Street, but eventually the C( mpensation money paid by the Railway Company for Round Tower Street Chapel was used towards building a new Primitive Methodist Chapel at Belgrave Road, Clarendon, the foundation stone of which was laid by the Mayor, Mr. John Lide Bradley, in 1882. In 1901 the Primitive Methodists built a large Church, affording accom- modation for 600 persons, in London Road, Charlton, at a cost of ^5,500. 'I'o make up that sum, ;^i,ooo was contributed by the Primitive Methodist Mission Fund, ^£450 was obtained for Peter Street Chapel (which was then dis- used), and the balance wrs mot by local subscriptions.
The recent action of the Dover Congregationalists has been in the direction of consolidation. They have built a large and handsome Church at the bottom of High Street, a few paces above the Maison Dieu. Its tower, rising to a height of eighty feet, is a striking feature, and the whole is an ornament to the town. The cost of the building was between ;!(^9,ooo and ;^io,ooo. The general style is Gothic of the Lancastrian Period. When this new Church was opened on the 7th September, 1904, Zion Chapel, the original home of the Dover Congregationalists, was disposed of to a Baptist congregation, and their other Chapel in Russell Street was retained for Sunday School and Mission purposes.
The Baptists, too (exclusive of the General Baptists) have concentrated themselves in one spot, Salem Chapel, Biggin Street, which was much enlarged and improved in 1879, while during the first decade of the Twentieth Century large additional buildings for Sunday School and week-day meetings have been built off Edwards Road at the rear of the Chapel. The public thoroughfare that leads to these additional buildings was named in memory of the Rev. E. J. Edwards, the Minister who was the means of greatly enlarging and strengthening the then Baptist community in Dover.
About the year 1873 a Baptist congregation met on Sundays in the Wellington Hall, Snargate Street, under the ministry of the Rev. J. F. Frewin. In 1880 a place of worship, known as the Memorial Hall, was built for this congregation in Priory Road, mainly at the cost of the late Mrs. Hyde, who had been the chief supporter of the cause from the beginning. The congregation fell off, and in 1896 the building was sold to the Salvation Army to be their Dover Barracks.
The Salvation Army was established in Dover in 1886, having their first Barracks at the Wellington Hall, Snargate Street. On their first night, 2nd September, 1886, they met with a hostile reception, their windows at the back of the hall being smashed, and after the meeting a howling mob hustled the leaders through the streets. The voice of authority and public opinion strongly condemned the per secutors, and ever after the Salvationists in Dover were unmolested. Many of the first night opposers afterwards joined the movement. In 1896 the Memorial Hall in Priory Road was purchased by the Salvation Army for ;^ 1,000. and their " Barracks " were established there until 191 2, when those premises were sold to make room for a new Post Office; and new Barracks, at a cost of ^5,465, were, in 1 9 13, built for the local corps of the Salvation Army, with a good frontage and roomy interior in High Street, facing Wood Street, the meetings having been held, in the interval, at various ])ublic halls.
The Wesleyans have e.\j)ended large sums in improving their two large Chapels in Snargate Street and Buckland, and have taken steps to provide another Chapel on a more central site to meet the convenience of modern Dover, which straggles a long way up two valleys. They have secured the site at the point where the two valleys diverge at the foot of St. Martin's Hill, part of the site of the old Priory. There they have built a handsome Wesley Hall for meetings and Sunday Schools, which was opened in November, 1910, and have acquired the adjoinhig property, on which they intend, later on, to build a large central Wesleyan Church. About ;!{^3,ooo has been spent at this centre up to date, and probably further building will be postponed for a few years so as to l:)e able to estimate what the future requirements of Dover will l)e. As far back as 1880 the leading Dover Wesleyans set their minds on this locality, which had attracted religious leaders in Dover in 1131, when they were looking for a new site for the Dover Priory; and the Wesleyans, having made so good a beginning here, in the course of a few years they hope to build on the historic site a crowning citadel of Wesleyan ^tethodism.
A large and convenient " Bethel "' for the sailors of the Port of Dover has been opened on the site of the old Post Office at the bottom of Northampton Quay. This is the worthy lineal descendant of a " Bethel " located in a loft a little higher up Northampton Street which was established by the late John Gilbert, who was Seamen's Missionary at the Port of Dover for more than forty years.
When the Rom. ;' L'atholics, in 1868, opened their new Church on the Mals^n Dieu Road they vacated their old Chapel in Elizabeth Street ; yet, still keeping their attention on that quarter of the town where the Roman Catholic Chapel of " Our Lady of Pity " had several centuries earlier existed, they, in 1906. built and opened, on the cliff side of Snargate Street, at a fost of ;£![ 1,300, a second Church of " Our I.ady of Pit},' providing ample accommodation for the Catholics residhig in that part of the town.
A Jewish Synagogue at the top of Northampton Street, the successor of one m Hawkesbury Street, was built in 1862, and opened in 1863. The western part of it is over the strong tunnel through which flows the River Dour into the Wellington Dock. The foundation stone of the Synagogue was laid with Jewish ceremony by Mr. Barnett Nathan, of Dover, on the 10th September, 1862, corresponding with the Jewish date of the 15th day of EUul, 5622. The style is Greek, the edifice is designed to accommodate 250 persons, and the cost was one thousand guineas. The consecration ceremony was performed by the Chief Rabbi, Dr. Adler, on the loth August, 1863.
Looking back to the first half of the Nineteenth Century, w^e miss the Hyper-Calvinists from " The Ark " in Castle Street, and the Latter Day Saints from their room in Chapel Place; but there are added Christadelphians and Christian Scientists, who both meet in the Arthur Hall, St. James's Street, where also meetings of the Dover Branch of the Theosophical Society are held.