Sandbach’s Heritage – May 2026

By Stewart Green

Behind the church on Chapel Street is the Wesleyan Church Hall. It holds many meetings as well as being the home of the Food Bank, Sandbach Pantry, a weekly Coffee Morning on a Saturday and has various activities including indoor bowling and in the past it had badminton courts.

The building was also the home for many years of the Sandbach Scouts, Cubs and later Brownies and Guides until they moved into their own hall next door into what was the Providence School.

The Sunday School building was built in 1870 and opened in 1871.

In 1911 a new school on Crewe Road was opened to take the Secondary and Junior pupils eventually turning the Wesley Avenue into an infant only school.

In 1933 the School became an Infant School only taking children from the age of five.

By 1935 the head teacher was Miss Buckley with Nancy Riley looking after the first year students and Miss Beatlestone for younger children.

During the Second World War when there was an air raid the children were taken over the road to an Anderson Shelter in Mr Beech’s garden. One of the songs they sang while in the shelter was “This Old Man (Knick, Knack, Paddy Whack)”.

Like many schools of the time the nursery children would take a nap during the afternoon and in the morning there was an assembly. The children would do sports and Physical Education in the main hall and in the playground which was between the school and the church and is now the car park.

The main hall was divided into classrooms by movable partitions with the fire in the younger pupils’ area. There were also a kitchen, toilets towards the front of the school and stairs leading to an upper floor. As this was also connected to the church the building also supported a Sunday School that used the rooms upstairs including a table tennis room.

In 1958 proposals were put forward for the creation of a larger secondary school in the area and were approved. In June or July 1960 the Sandbach County Secondary School held its first Sports Day at Crewe Road and by 1966 a new school had been built on Middlewich Road to house the increasing number of pupils. This left Crewe Road as an Infant and Junior School only.

In 1968 a new school opened in Sandbach on Offley Road taking in Infants and Junior School children.

These new government schools meant that the church led school at Wesley Avenue was no longer needed and it changed direction into a community based facility. The first major addition was in September 1968 when Les Bassnett, Jim Hampson, Stuart Hurst and the Rev R Warner (Wesley Avenue Church) held a meeting to form the 3rd Sandbach (39 South West Cheshire) Group. It was the idea of Reg Shallcross whose son wanted to join the scouts but found that there wasn’t a group in the area so he decided to form one and Reg became Chairman of the Scouts in Sandbach. They were soon joined by Tony Harrison who was a leader in Chelford but lived in Sandbach and had been thinking of joining a group nearer his home and Jim Thompson who would stay with them until he died in 2025.

Other groups that used the facilities were the folk dancing group who later moved to the Hope Street Chapel Hall and various sports groups including badminton.

In 2004 the church wanted to knock down this building and create a new hall. However its Grade 2 status and public opinion changed the plans and a refurbishment and adaptation was put into place.

In 2005 work started on altering the School Room building with the front entrance being demolished to make way for a new look doorway and extra rooms. The interior was updated but still kept its Grade 2 listed features.

On the 3 May 2006 pupils from Sandbach County Primary School, Offley Road School and members of the Sandbach Methodist church sealed up three time capsules in the wall of the renovated Wesley Avenue Schoolroom. On the 6 May 2006 the Schoolroom was officially reopened as the Wesley Centre by Local MP Ann Winterton along with vicar Rev’d Kim Stilwell. The interior now had improved facilities including a kitchen, toilets, extra meeting rooms, a staircase to the upper floor rooms, a lift and a brand new entrance hall.

Unfortunately in 2007 thieves took advantage of the new building and stripped the roof of its lead and copper leaving the church facing another large bill to replace the metals as well as repairing damage to the interior including the kitchen as water seeped through the unprotected roof.

The building is now known as “The Wesley Centre” and continues to be at the heart of Sandbach life.