Modern chapel. The original Wesleyan chapel at Ballafesson was built in about 1794/5 (a 1798 date is given by the 1851 religious census); it was replaced by the present structure on the same site in 1846, at a cost of about £150. The 1851 census recorded 149 seats and combined Sunday attendance of well over 400. A Sunday School had been established in 1827 (96 scholars and 17 teachers by 1851); the chapel gained its first stove heating in 1887, a preacher's vestry in 1947, and was substantially refurbished in 1950, reopening with pitch-pine furnishings brought from Ballasalla Methodist Chapel. A separate Sunday School building was added in 1952-53. The congregation ceased regular worship there in 2024-25, though the building continues in use as a community hall.
Modern chapel.
The original Wesleyan chapel at Ballafesson dating from 1794 was replaced by the present structure in 1846.
It now serves as the methodist hall.
Modern chapel.
The present Wesleyan chapel at Ballafesson opened in 1953. It originally served as the Sunday school, before redevelopment of the site resulted in the earlier chapel of 1846 being converted for use as a hall.
The site of an early medieval keeill or chapel, which would have been in use between circa AD500 and AD1000. It is shown on the 1870 1:2500 scale Ordnance Survey map, by when the site is likely to have already been largely ploughed down.
The Manx Archaeological Survey (1918) only briefly refers to the site, stating that it was “still remembered”. The brevity of the note is such that it is not clear whether it was the building and cemetery, or their location, that was still recalled in the early decades of the 20th century. The Ordnance Survey does however record that “numbers of stone-lined graves containing human bones have been turned up by the plough”, quoting the authority of four named individuals.
The field in which the site lay is now under agricultural use.
The site of an early medieval keeill or chapel, which would have been in use between circa AD500 and AD1000. It is shown on the 1870 1:2500 scale Ordnance Survey map, by when the site is likely to have already been largely ploughed down.
The Manx Archaeological Survey (1918) only briefly refers to the site, stating that it was “still remembered”. The brevity of the note is such that it is not clear whether it was the building and cemetery, or their location, that was still recalled in the early decades of the 20th century. The Ordnance Survey does however record that “numbers of stone-lined graves containing human bones have been turned up by the plough”, quoting the authority of four named individuals.
The field in which the site lay is now in agricultural use.
The site of an Early or Middle Bronze Age burial cist containing a cremation burial. The cist was excavated by Basil Megaw in the mid-20th century. Indeterminate flint flakes from the same field suggests some scanty Neolithic activity in the area.
The findspot of a flint scatter of Mesolithic date including over 22 Heavy-blade or Bann type pieces, consisting of missile heads, arrowheads and a leaf-shaped arrowhead.
Also found here was a Criffel granite block measuring 25 inches by 15 inches by 5.5 inches with a basin, 4 cup hollows and beginnings of 4 others on one face.
The findspot of an early prehistoric flint scatter. It included flakes, blades and waste, as well as a pressure-flaked knife and a stone axehead fragment of apparently Lake District stone.
