From [William Bryan] Reed at Alexandra House, Bideford, to Lewis Court.
In The United Methodist of yesterday, Court is credited with having said that the foundation stone of the Bideford [Bible Christian] Church was laid on 19th April 1865. Is not the year 1865 a misprint? Should not the year be 1864? Reed became Superintendent of this Circuit in 1865. The chapel at Taunton had been opened and had been in use for some time. Further, the interval from 1864 to 1924 is sixty years - a diamond jubilee. Reed concludes therefore that the stone was laid in 1864.
He remembers visiting Taunton some years earlier when Francis Martin was Superintendent (1851-53), at which time the chapel was part of Martin's own dwelling house. The residential part, which Reed also occupied, has since been taken down to make way for a schoolroom.