Our story begins with John Wesley, who with his brother Charles and George Whitfield, breathed new life into whole sections of the Christian church in Britain and beyond at a time, 250 years ago, of great social and political upheaval.

Their movement, nicknamed Methodism because of their strict disciplines, reached Jersey via America, where young Jersey fishermen, Pierre Le Sueur and Jean Tentin, heard Laurence Coughlan, a young Methodist preacher in Newfoundland, were converted and brought the message back to their native Island in 1774.  In time Wesley himself heard of this work and on a request for help, sent Robert Carr Brackenbury to further the work in the Islands.

A local, young man from St. Martin’s, Jean de Quetteville, was converted to the cause and spent the rest of his life evangelising the  Islands and even into Continental France.  The Chapel proudly houses a memorial to these good men.

Wesley himself paid a visit to the Island in 1787.  His journal clearly reveals how impressed he was with the people he met and equally he gave new heart to the folk here. In the early days there was much persecution to be endured, but certain brave   people opened their houses to the Methodists for their meetings.  In time these were outgrown and Chapels began to appear all round the Island (up to 34).  St. Martin built its first one in 1820  but by the late 1840s that was too small and the present Chapel was built further up the hill —in a remarkable eight months from foundation to finish! - and dedicated in 1851, having cost £770!

The site of the original 1820 Chapel

The 1851 replacement

The interior as it is today