| AdminHistory | Prior to the building of the Brunswick Chapel, services were held in a large room over "Eyre's" shop, then located at 71 South Street, Moor, Sheffield, whilst a room above a shop, which later became the Hereford Arms, served for Sunday schools and a preaching room. In its early years, Brunswick was in the East Circuit (with the Sheffield Circuit having been divided into East and West in 1831).
The Brunswick Chapel was built on the junction of London Road and South Street, Sheffield and opened as a 'Wesleyan Methodist New Chapel' on 30 May 1834 with seating for 2,000 worshippers. At the time of its erection, the Brunswick Chapel was considered to be one of the finest buildings in Sheffield. The chief founder of the church was Thomas Staley who helped purchase the site of the chapel and laid the foundation stone on 3rd April 1833. Staley died not long afterwards and was the first to be laid to rest in the extensive vaults beneath the porch of the chapel. Upon his death, Staley bequeathed £500 to the chapel for the purposes of educating 25 poor boys, sons of Wesleyan Methodists.
In 1870, new Day and Sunday schoolrooms (to accommodate 500 children) were opened at the chapel along with a new chapel-keeper's house, ministers and stewards' vestries, built to the designs of Mr J. D. Webster, architect. In 1886, a Memorial Hall was built in commemoration of the Jubilee of the Brunswick Wesleyan Chapel on Ellin Street, again designed by Mr J. D. Webster. The Memorial Hall provided five "society class rooms", a ladies room and offices on the ground floor, and a large lecture room (48 x 28 foot) and retiring rooms on the first floor, with the basement equipped with kitchen accommodation for tea meetings.
In 1871, it was decided to make Brunswick the head of a new circuit in Sheffield. The newly-formed Brunswick Circuit included (in addition to the Brunswick Chapel) chapels of Heeley, Montgomery, Hollinsend, Gleadless, Totley and Greenhill. Later additions to the circuit included Normanton Springs Chapel, Millhouses Chapel, Trinity Church (Highfields), Totley Rise School Chapel, Meersbrook Bank School Chapel, Abbeydale House, Endcliffe Church, Broadfield Park Mission Hall and Sheldon Street Mission Hall.
South Street (where the Brunswick Wesleyan Methodist Chapel was located) was renamed The Moor in 1922. By 1935, the church was known as Brunswick Methodist Church.
The chapel was damaged in the Sheffield Blitz of December 1940 and services were subsequently conducted at the neighbouring Brunswick Methodist Hall, Ellin Street, Sheffield, and the church became known as the Brunswick Mission Hall. In 1942, the Society of Trinity Methodist Church, Highfield, invited the Society of the war-damaged Brunswick to join them and Brunswick accepted on the understanding that a new church would be rebuilt in the future near the site of the original church. The newly united Society was renamed Brunswick Trinity. In 1943 the Brunswick Circuit safe was relocated from Brunswick to Trinity Church.
The war-damaged Brunswick church building was finally demolished in 1956.
The church was formerly part of the Brunswick Circuit in Sheffield (and originally part of the Sheffield East Circuit).
Source: Various local newspaper articles - see, for example, ‘Sheffield Daily Telegraph’, 14 Nov 1908 (p. 10).
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