By 1786 numerous classes were meeting and cottage preaching was planned in half a dozen homes and farms around Douglas. It faced Thomas Street and bore this name. In the basement the first Sunday School in the island was held and when the chapel was rebuilt the old building became a day and Sunday School. The local preachers were missionaries in the truest sense. That Laxey be dropped in winter.
Old plans show which men preached in English and which in Manx.
The island membership around this time was 3,000. A great strength to the cause at this time was the rapid growth of the Sunday and day schools. By 1834 there were 50 girls and 100 boys on the register. In 1843 there were 120 boys and. Attendance must either have been staggered, or more likely, extremely irregular, or the room could not have contained the numbers, even though they were taught standing and without equipment beyond a few bibles.