History

 

 

Over the door of the church there is a plaque which reads:

                                                                                      Erected in 1764

                                                                                      Enlarged 1857

                                                                                      Renovated 1890

 

In 1755 a troop of Dragoon Guards who had been serving in Flanders came to Dunbar.  Amongst them was a group of men who had come under the influence of the Moravians.  Once settled in the town they hired a room and met together for prayer and Bible Study every morning and evening.

 

A number of the townspeople joined their meetings.  One of them was Thomas Rankin, who later went to America and became a pioneer of Methodism there, and another local was Andrew Affleck, a farmer, who gave the land on which the church was built in 1764.

 

The original building was what is now the front part of the church in which you can find today the pulpit and organ.  The part where the pews are was added in 1857.  The original church had two galleries, one on both of the narrow ends.

 

John and Charles Wesley were both members of the original Trustees of the church.

 

John Wesley wrote in his journal for 17th May 1770 “In the evening I preached at the new house at Dunbar, the cheerfullest in all the Kingdom.”  John preached in the church 21 times, the last occasion being May 1788.

 

In the early days the society struggled to survive.  Then under the ministry of the Rev’d Duncan McCallum (1817), a highlander, who could preach in both Gaelic and English, the congregation began to increase.  However by 1844 the congregation had dwindled so much that the Methodist Conference proposed that the minister be withdrawn and the church closed.  In the end they were given one last chance and Alexander McAuley became minister.

 

The congregation grew so much that the old building was no longer large enough and in 1857 additional ground was purchased from the Earl of Lauderdale and the original building enlarged to the shape that it is today.

 

By 1880 the membership had fallen to 17 members and once again, closure seemed certain.  In a desperate attempt to change the situation it was decided to send the Rev. J.N. Barret Houldsworth.  Within a short time he had enlivened the congregation and endeared himself to the whole town.  The congregation grew, this time to overflowing and further alterations and renovations were necessary.

 

During this renovation the present oak pulpit and stained glass windows were installed.  Both the pulpit and windows were originally in St. Giles in Edinburgh.  They were removed from there in 1872.  There is something of a mystery why they ended up in Dunbar and whether any of this had anything to do with the spelling mistake in the word “RESSURRECTION” (sic) in one of the windows is not known.

Barret Houldswoth’s ministry in the town ended in tragedy when he was drowned while bathing in the sea.  There is a memorial plaque to him on the east wall of the church and the stone on his grave in the Parish churchyard was subscribed for by the children of Dunbar.

 

The work which he started was carried on and in 1909 a new hall was built on to the east wall of the church.

 

During both world wars this hall was used for recreational and educational purposes by the service men and women who were stationed in the adjoining barracks which were demolished in the early 1990’s.

 

The years immediately after the Second World War saw the development of a large Youth Club which ran until the late 1950’s.