Newbiggin Chapel : Teesdale

“Churchmen are so thinly spread on the ground that many and many a time the wardens are either Methodists or Ranters.”

J. R. Featherstone, Weardale Men and Manners, 1840

Though many are now redundant Nonconformist chapels are a feature of almost every settlement in the North Pennines. By 1900 there were 22 Methodist chapels in Weardale compared to only ten of all other denominations, a pattern which was repeated in other North Pennine Dales.

High House Chapel : Weardale

This unit traces the growth of ‘dissent’ in the North Pennines and investigates its relationship with lead-mining communities, looking at the simple vernacular architecture of chapels and visiting two of the oldest Methodist chapels in the country, Newbiggin in Teesdale and High House in Weardale.