107 Wellington St, Longford. Google maps.

Opened 1837
Closed & demolished with opening of new church in High St, 1880
Sunday School constructed on site c.1902
Now privately owned.

The Longford Methodist Church, or, as it was then known, the Wesleyan Methodist Society, was founded in 1834 at a meeting convened by Rev. J. A. Manton, of Launceston, and held in a barn on a farm adjoining Northbury. The first enrolled was Mr. William Mason, grandfather of the present families of that name associated with the church. The next was Mrs. George Gould, and the last surviving member of that little band was Mrs. J. Bonner, of Scottsdale, who died in 1923 at the age of 92 years.

Progress was rapid, and Mr. Man ton later wrote: “At the town of Longford, in the district of Norfolk Plains, our prospects are very encouraging. We are building there a good, substantial chapel.” This chapel was opened in 1837, free of debt. According to Mr. Manton, “The congregation was large and respect able and the collection very good amounting to £350.” At the end of 1848 Longford was created a circuit separate from Launceston.

Two years previously the first Wesleyan Methodist Sunday School had been commenced at Longford, but it was not until after the union of the Wesleyan and Primitive Methodist Churches that the present Sunday School was erected. This building stands on the site of the first Wesleyan Chapel, which after 40 years began to show signs of decay and was replaced by a new church building in 1880.
The Examiner, 9 June 1934
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