Primitive Methodism in South Shields dates back to about 1822 when open-air meetings were held by John Branfoot from Hutton Rudby in Yorkshire. The most likely place of these open-air meetings was the Market place. The first meeting house was two cottages in Oyston Street. Which the Baptists had previously used, other congregations assembled in private homes and even in a sail loft and the first chapel was erected in Cornwallis Street. In 1828 a little chapel was opened on Johnson’s Hill, off Commercial road sometime before 1828. The North Shields Chapel was largely responsible for establishing the Chapel in South Shields. The chapel soon became inadequate and at a later date the Zion Chapel was built that sat 700 worshippers in Fredrick Street, South Shields. The foundation stone was laid by Alderman Stainton in 1857 and opened in 1859 at a cost of four thousand pounds. Hodgson History of “The Borough of South Shields” gives considerable detail on the growth of Methodism in the town in the nineteenth century. The following is an extract from Northern Primitive Methodism written by W M Patterson in 1909.

Courtesy of South Shields Local Study Library