Church History

Methodism has deep and distinguished roots in Nailsea, beginning in 1789 when John Hall preached the first Methodist sermon on the village green. Just three years later the first chapel was opened on 5th August 1792 in what is now Chapel Barton in the Kingshill area, where it was extended, and grew through the 19th Century.

In 1914, the chapel was opened on our Silver Street site to be nearer the new village centre; the fellowship was moved from Chapel Barton and the two Methodist societies eventually united here at what we now call Chapel Precinct.

In 1965 in response to a growing awareness of community need among young people and resourced partly by Somerset County and Central Government, we built the MYCON (Methodist Youth Club of Nailsea) a building that was not a church, but a Youth Centre.

By the 1990s the town had grown, and our church was often bursting at the seams at Sunday worship. In early 1992, after 11 years of considering one building scheme after another to no avail, we asked a radical question: “What premises does God want us to have?” The answer involved a double challenge! In 1994 we replaced the old church with a larger, flexible, multi-purpose building with the community in mind. And we refurbished the MYCON building - now renamed the Wesley Building - to fit it for the wider range of community groups now making use of it.