Primitive Methodist Chapel
In 1811 the primitive Methodist movement broke from the Methodist mainstream which was thought to have moved too far away from the original teachings of John Wesley. It drew its early membership mainly from the working classes, before spreading out from the industrial centres into the countryside. A history of the Wymondham chapel written in 1908 by its minister, the Rev. Wardle, recorded that in 1830 evangelists had come out from Norwich to help found their local community, and it seems likely that similar efforts were later made in respect of the surrounding villages. Early meetings were often held in member's homes but in 1850 Tasburgh's own chapel was built. The national Religious Census taken the following year reported that on Sunday 30th March 80 people attended the afternoon service, followed by 100 in the evening. Even allowing for some attending both services and some coming from other villages without their own chapel, the numbers were impressive for a village population of just 375.
The site of the chapel on Church Hill had previously belonged to Jane Cooper who lived in the nearby house now known as The Beeches, though it's not clear whether she sold the land which has since been repurchased or whether she merely granted a lease of it which has since ended, but in any event it has belonged with The Beeches since the chapel closed in 1973. In 2021/22 the chapel was carefully taken down before being rebuilt and extended as a residential property, but a survey of the redundant building in 1980 recorded that the original doorway was in the centre of the southern wall facing the road with tall windows on either side and corresponding windows in the north wall opposite. The doorway was later replaced with a third window when an entrance lobby extension was added to the eastern end. There was no space on the site for a burial ground so members were buried in Tasburgh's churchyard
In 1872 the chapel became part of the Wymondham circuit sharing ministers with other chapels, and the 1881 census records that Parson's Meere Cottage on Low Road was home to James and Elizabeth Chatten with her occupation given as Primitive Methodist minister. 30 years later, in his history of the Wymonham chapel and circuit the Rev. Wardle made specific mention of James Chatten as "a dear and saintly soul, disabled by accident and dependent on the Parish, yet the pillar of our Tasburgh Society".
During the 1930s the chapel was heavily used with two Sunday services, a Sunday school, a weekly Christian Endeavour meeting and a fortnightly Women's Own meeting. Robert Clark, who was the gardener at Tasburgh Grange, was steward of the chapel in the 1940s while his wife Kate played the organ, an ornate instrument with a central mirror. Hilda Wigby was the Sunday school teacher, and when her son Hubert died a communion table was given in his memory. At that time it was a tiny gem of a chapel with a font of white marble, a pulpit draped in blue velvet and a bible on a lectern. However after the War congregations began to decline and despite the many hours put in by Ernest King with his wife and daughters, who lived in the council houses on Church Road, trying to keep the chapel going, it finally closed in 1973 and stood empty for many years until its recent conversion to residential use.
