Wilford (North)
St Wilfrid’s Mission Church

History

St Wilfrid’s was a small mission church built on Briar Street in The Meadows in 1883 to serve the north-western part of Wilford parish that lay in the borough of Nottingham. The rector of Wilford, the Rev E. Davies, secured the land and built the mission house at a cost of £480. It was close by the River Trent and the Wilfrid Toll Bridge, an area subject to flooding. Located at the end of a terrace, it was surrounded by high density, mainly two-storey terraced housing, built predominantly for railway and colliery workers and their families.

In November 1889 an advert was placed in the local newspapers for a volunteer organist and choir master for 'Briar-street Mission Church': the advert mentioned that a 'good harmonium' was available.

Little is recorded of its day-to-day activities. It is not known when it actually closed, but the mission church is no longer listed in the street directory section of the Nottingham directories after 1916. By the mid-1950s it was being used by a builder and joiner for storage. It was demolished in the late 1960s/early 1970s as part of a land and housing general clearance scheme.

Although it appears to be a small building, it is recorded that it had seating for a congregation of 100. In 1907 two services were conducted each Sunday and Thursday. Twelve baptisms were conducted in September 1907, and in 1911 it had a Sunday School roll of 150.