LONGTON, CHAPEL STREET and STAFFORD STREET (now The Strand).

A building was erected in Longton for Methodist worship in 1783. Wesley first preached there in the following year in the open air, as the meeting-house was too small to hold the congregation. In 1804 a new chapel was built in what became Chapel Street and was subsequently used both for worship and as a Sunday school.

As the congregation grew need arose for a new chapel; this was erected in 1842 on land in Stafford Street (now the Strand) and in 1851 seated 500. Attendance on 30 March 1851 was returned as 250 in the morning and 400 in the evening. In 1877 alterations, including ornamentation of the interior pillars, were made to the chapel. In 1940 it seated 1,100  and is a brick building with Classical features. In 1933 it became Longton Central Mission.

Shortly after the building of Stafford Street Chapel, Chapel Street Chapel was converted into Sunday-school buildings. By 1855 new schools had been built at the rear of Stafford Street Chapel and the old chapel was sold.

From:  A History of the County of Stafford: Volume 8 (1963)