Wesleyan Church, Aldershot

The Wesleyan Connexion provided funding for the construction of an iron chapel on a site located in Church Street off Queens Road which was dedicated on 10 July 1857.

Of this period it was later written: "Mr Allen secured a large site in the centre of the town within two minutes’ walk of the main entrance into the Camp.

Conference by formal vote gave him permission to appeal for and collect funds throughout the Connexion; and at once, with untiring energy and indomitable courage, he set to work.

This magnificent block of buildings--to it a Wesley Hall was later added by the civilian members of the congregation--is one of the finest in British Methodism, and stands today as a monument of the work done by Mr Allen during the years he was stationed at Aldershot.

The imposing Wesleyan Methodist Church on Grosvenor Road with its 100 foot tower was opened on 24 October 1877 with seating for 1,150 worshippers; the total cost of construction was £10,000.

The reredos is in memory of Frances Penelope Wharton Middleton, the daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel Lewis Watson who fought at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 as a Major in the 69th Regiment.

[citation needed] The conversion was made by architects from the Farnham company of Ambergrange Ltd who won the Rushmoor Civic Design Award in 1992, commemorated in the stone behind the sign.