Zoar · Lower Gornal

Zoar Methodist Church, Zoar Street, Gornal Wood.Photo CDM 2014

The present Zoar Church was built in 1906 as a replacement for an earlier chapel.
The clock was added to the tower in 1917.

After disagreements with the Himley Road Church and being expelled in 1835, a small breakaway group started meeting in the clubroom of the Woodman Inn and later at a barn at the Fiddlers Arms.
This led to the 'Wooden Tabernacle' being built in Summit Place near to the Limerick Inn.
In 1836, the group aligned themselves with the Methodist New Connexion, and the makeshift tabernacle was replaced with a brick built building.

In 1854, a new church was built at the present location in Zoar Street to accommodate about 500.
A Sunday School was completed next to the proposed Church slightly earlier in 1851. It could accommodate 550 scholars.

In 1899 the Church and Sunday school were enlarged, however a few years later, it was decided to rebuild the Church, and in 1906 the old building was demolished and the present Zoar Church was erected.

Pronounced locally as 'Zo-ah'.

Zoar (or Zoara) was a city mentioned in Genesis as part of the Biblical Pentapolis.

Evangelist Billy Graham reputedly visited the Zoar in 1946 during his tour of the UK and Europe, as part of the American "Youth for Christ" Team.

During the 1950s-1960s an Infant Welfare Centre was established at the Zoar.

A view of the Church and Sunday School c1963.Enlarged from a 1960s postcard.

The Sunday School was demolished in the 1970s, it was later replaced with more modern buildings set back from the road.

1898: Dudley Herald, November

NOTICE IS HEARBY GIVEN that a Separate Building named ZOAR CHAPEL, situated at ABBEY ROAD, GORNAL WOOD, in the Civil Parish of Sedgley, in the County of Stafford, in the Registration District of Dudley, being a Building certified according to law as a Place of Meeting for Religious Worship was on the 24th day of November, 1898, duly REGISTERED for SOLEMNIZING MARRIAGES THEREIN Pursuant to the Act of 6th and 7th William IV., 85.

Witness my hand this 24th day of November, 1898.
JAMES JONES

Superintendent Registrar.

A sketch by Arthur Arrowsmith appeared in the Express & Star, showing the old Sunday School and cottages missing from the present scene.

Front elevation of the Zoar in 1921 from an old postcard.Postcard image courtesy of Phil Parsons.

The Zoar memorial plaque, needs no explanation.

SEE HERE for more information on the men of Gornal who fell in the Great War.