Middle Rasen lies 1.5 miles west of the town of Market Rasen. It consists of the merged villages of Middle Rasen Drax (from Drax Priory in Yorkshire which held land in medieval times) and Middle Rasen Tupholme (from Tupholme Abbey in Lincolnshire).

This photograph is of the main street (now the A631) with the Methodist Chapel on the left. (This is the current Methodist Chapel, built in 1911)

postcard, undated (but after 1911)

The former Wesleyan Chapel occupies a prominent positon on the corner of Gainsborough Road and Mill Lane.

It was opened in 1911 on the site of a public house, "The Brown Cow".

undated postcard c.1950

The chapel on the corner of Gainsborough Road and Mill Lane was built on the site of the Brown Cow public house in 1911.

It was the third Wesleyan Methodist chapel in the village and was originally called the Central Chapel.

June 2018

View of the chapel from the north-west.

June 2018

The chapel sanctuary is to the right, the schoolroom to the left.

June 2018

The date stone in distinctive Art Nouveau style of the period.

June 2018

Interior of the former Wesleyan Methodist Church.

"A LIST AND BRIEF DETAILS OF CHAPELS IN THE MARKET RASEN & CAISTOR CIRCUIT PAST AND PRESENT" prepared by COLIN  SHEPHERDSON & EILEEN H MUMBY September 1997 (Revised August 1998) has :-

i) The first chapel was built circa 1800.

ii) The second chapel, in Church Street, was built in 1838/39 and since demolished. The site is now occupied by a house, "The Chestnuts".

iii) The third chapel was called "Central" and was opened on the 3.8.1911 on the site of the "Brown Cow", on the corner of Gainsborough Road with Mill Lane. The chapel is still in use with a membership of 54."

DB 11 May 2024

Looking towards the rear of the chapel. More comfortable chairs have replaced pews in the foreground.

DB 11 May 2024

A closer view of the sanctuary.

DB 11 May 2024

A small portable font.

DB 11 May 2024

Looking towards the rear of the chapel and roof structure above.

DB 11 May 2024

A photographic display of previous chapels. From top to bottom the images are titled :-

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"MIDDLE RASAEN CHAPEL"

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"In Memory of United Methodist Chapel, Chapel St, Middle Rasen Built in 1854 and closed on 11th May 1958, after the Society amalgamated with the Central Church Middle Rasen."

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"Ex-Primative Methodist Church Middle Rasen built to the Glory of God in 1838. on a site near the blacksmith's shop and dismantled in January 1956 This photo is to serve as a Memorial"

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DB 11 May 2024

"IN LOVING MEMORY OF 2ND LIEUT CYRIL DOUCHTY NAYLOR M.C

7TH LINCOLNSHIRE REGT:

BELOVED SON OF FRANK & ADA MARY NAYLOR OF MIDDLE RASEN.

WHO WAS KILLED IN ACTION NEAR  MARTINPUICH AUGUST 25TH 1918, AGED 20 YEARS. INTERRED IN MARTINPUICH MILITARY CEMETERY.

ONLY ONE LIFE, HOW SWEET THE MEMORY, STILL YET HOW SAD THE LOSS."

DB 11 May 2024

St. Peter's church in Middle Rasen has a large ironstone tower in the Perpendicular style. The north arcade is dated c1200.

This church's most notable feature is the impressive Norman south doorway - to Pevsner among the best work of its period in Lincolnshire.

Mark Acton, 2008

A view from the south-east in weak winter light.

The windows on the south side of the nave and chancel are of the Perpendicular period with triangular heads. Above are pinnacles and embattlement.

December 2017

Kelly's Directory 1913 reads :-

"There were formerly two churches here, St. Peter's, built by the monks of Tupholme Abbey, and St. Paul's belonging to Drax priory: this latter having become dilapidated, was pulled down in 1860, but the churchyard remains.

The church of St. Peter is a building of stone in the Norman, Earlier English and Early Decorated styles, consisting of chancel, nave, north aisle, south porch and a western tower with embattled parapet and pinnacles containing 3 bells:

the church was thoroughly restored in 1860, when the north aisle was rebuilt, the tower strengthened and the fabric generally repaired:

in the aisle is a Decorated window, formerly in St. Paul's church, and in the chancel is the effigy of a priest, vested and wearing a hood, and holding a chalice : this was also formerly in St. Paul's, and appears to be 14th century work:

the total cost of the repairs, carried out under the direction of Messrs. Bellamy and Hardy architects, of Lincoln, was £1,500 :

there are 324 sittings" 

DB 8 May 2022

White's Directory 1872 states :-

Middle Rasen "was formerly in two parishes, called Middle Rasen Drax and Middle Rasen Tupholme, from their having been respectively appropriated to Drax Priory, in Yorkshire, and Tupholme Abbey, near Wragby.

The disputes of the abbot and prior of these monasteries caused the erection of two churches and a division of the tithes, in Middle Rasen.

St. Peter's Church, which was in the appropriation of Tupholme, was restored in 1860-1, at a cost of £1500. It consists of nave, chancel, north aisle and an embattled tower containing three bells.

The vicarage, valued in K.B. at £7. 10s. 10d., is consolidated with that of St. Paul, now valued at £313, in the patronage of the Bishop of Lincoln and the Hon. Charles Henry Cust alternately, and incumbency of the Rev. William Handley Bland, of Braceby.

St. Paul's Church, in Middle Rasen Drax was pulled down and partly used for the restoration of St. Peter's Church, in 1860, but its burial ground and that of St. Peter's are still used as places of sepulture"

DB 19 April 2021

"Parish church. C12, C13, C14, C15, 1861 restoration by Bellamy and Hardy"

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1166238?section=official-list-entry 

DB 19 April 2021

Looking east towards the sanctuary.

DB 8 May 2022

More detailed view of the altar.

DB 8 May 2022

"The C15 chancel east window is of 5 lights with ogee heads having panel tracery to the head under a 4 centred arch"

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1166238?section=official-list-entry 

Inscription incorporated in the stained glass reads "ERECTED BY PUBLIC SUBSCRIPTION TO COMMEMORATE THE RESTORATION OF THIS CHURCH AD 1861".

DB 19 April 2021

An early fourteenth century effigy of a priest.

December 2017

"In the chancel is a C19 octagonal font with quatrefoils removed from the demolished Church of St. Pauls"

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1166238?section=official-list-entry 

DB 8 May 2022

"In the chancel north wall is a marble plaque in the form of an obelisk dated 1747, with pediment and rococco cartouche"

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1166238?section=official-list-entry 

DB 8 May 2022

"NEAR TO THIS PLACE REST THE REMAINS OF THE REVEREND THOMAS WILSON. HE DIED THE 21ST MARCH 1804, IN THE 84TH YEAR OF HIS AGE.

HAVING BEEN VICAR OF THE TWO PARISHES, MIDDLE RASEN DRAX, AND TUPHOLM, THIRTY TWO YEARS" 

DB 8 May 2022

"FORSTER & ANDREWS / HULL 1893"

DB 8 May 2022

John Saxbee 71st Bishop of Lincoln speaking in the nave of St Peter's church.

DB 5 June 2010

A mememorial to William Bentley died 1849. 

"IN MEMORY OF WILLIAM BENTLEY A NATIVE OF THIS PLACE, AND FOR MANY YEARS AN EMINENT LANDSURVEYOR WHO HAVING AQUIRED A CONSIDERABLE PROPERTY, BEQUEATHED THE GREATER PART OF IT TO CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS ... "

DB 8 May 2022

"IN PROUD AND UNFORGETTING MEMORY OF LIEUT-COL. GEORGE ARTHUR TYRON M.C. 4TH KING'S RIFLE CORPS. WHO AFTER FOUR YEARS ACTIVE SERVICE IN THE GREAT WAR GAVE HIS LIFE FOR HIS COUNTRY NOVEMBER 7TH 1918, FOUR DAYS BEFORE FIGHTING CEASED. HIS AGE WAS 32 YEARS"

DB 8 May 2022

Looking east towards the screen and chancel.

"The oak screen has unrestored C15 sections with panel tracery"

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1166238?section=official-list-entry 

DB 8 May 2022

View across the nave, through the c.1200 north nave arcade, into the north aisle.

DB 8 May 2022

The chancel arch is flanked by several paterae.

December 2017

A simple and unremarkable font, probably of the fifteenth century.

December 2017

The impressive Norman south doorway at St Peter's church.

The inner zigzag is followed by a wide band of crenellation and an outer band of beakhead.

Mark Acton, 2008

Detail of the beakhead and zigzag decoration surrounding the south doorway, Norman in style but most probably restored.

December 2017

Gargoyle on the southeast corner of the tower below the battlements.

DB 19 April 2021

The war memorial inside St Peter's church.

December 2017

This mill was erected in 1820, originally with three floors and four sails.

The tower was raised in 1873.

Jon Sass Collection, undated photograph

The mill was worked by wind until the 1920s. For a further 30 years the mill machinery was powered by belt drive from a tractor.

Location of mill: TF 091 888

Peter Kirk Collection, 2000

A more recent view of the windmill at TF 090 887.

Two corn millers listed in White's Directory 1872 "Fowler James, corn miller" and "Penistan Richard, corn miller".

DB 19 April 2021