Avid readers of the adverts in copies of the Methodist Recorder this summer, will have noticed Punshon Memorial Methodist Church, Bournemouth, appearing. It's a church we've visited on a number of occasions; we've met local preacher Bill Parkinson and his wife Mary there too!

The name commemorates Rev Dr William Morley Punshon, a leading Wesleyan preacher during the second half of the 18^th Century. He was born in Doncaster in 1823, and served for some years in circuits in the north of England.

From 1868 to 1873 he served as President of the Methodist Church in Canada, before returning in 1874 to be elected President of the British Conference.

He became interested in the growing popularity of holiday resorts and in 1862 offered to raise £10,000 towards building or improving Wesleyan chapels in seaside and Inland resorts. Churches in many places including Folkstone, Weymouth, Matlock, Bath, Malvern, Lytham, Rhyl, Llandudno and Aberystwyth all benefited form his Watering Places Chapel Fund

The original 1886 church in Richmond Hill was destroyed by enemy action in 1943, and the present church opened in 1958