Minister: Rev Sue Baker-Maher 01480 473444 or 07483 153948
We meet every Sunday at 10am in our bright chapel; welcoming regular members and visitors to our service led by our Minister or local lay Preachers. We then have refreshments in our adjoining church hall. We welcome guests from across the world and nearer to home.
We join together with the Parish Church for many events across the year, giving our support to the local community. Our Church and Hilton Parish Church formed a Covenant in January 2001 to co-operate in our witness here. This covenant is commemorated by the wall-hanging here and is re-affirmed by both churches in January each year.
Below is a brief history of our church by Malcolm Lynn, one of our members.
The earliest record we know of for a Wesleyan Methodist congregation in Hilton is in an account book which shows that Methodists in Hilton contributed 5s 6d (27.5p) to the work of the Huntingdon Circuit in 1836. It is very likely that the worshippers would have met in one of the houses in the village.
The first record we have of a Wesleyan Chapel, as such, is from the registration of a Wesleyan place of worship on May 7th 1839 by William Whitney of Huntingdon but it is not clear exactly where the building was located. Over time, the congregation grew to a point where the building was no longer big enough for the congregation and it was decided a larger one was needed.
The architect of the present chapel was Robert Hutchinson from Huntingdon, whose house still stands at the junction of Market Hill and Princes Street. He also designed Huntingdon Methodist Church, which was built in 1878.
This chapel was built on the site of the old village 'pounds' and, according to a newspaper report, the site of the new chapel was, "just opposite that of the old one". The foundation stone was laid on July 3rd 1867 by Thomas Coote of Fenstanton. Mr Coote was a wealthy local businessman and he was a member of the Congregationalist Church in Fenstanton (now the United Reformed Church). He also laid the foundation stones for that church and for the old Trinity Church in Huntingdon, which has now been demolished.
Our Sunday School building was added in 1979 and the church was extensively refurbished in 1999.