Viewing Object

Richard Henry Holding was born in 1830 in Blackpool, Yorkshire. He had a bad leg after bones were set incorrectly after a fall from a horse while still in England. He arrived in Fort Langley in 1875 from Australia. He bought land where the Telegraph Trail intersected the Langley Trunk Road (now Glover Road). They family house was approximately where Belmont Golf Course is. He also bought 160 acres of land at Port Kells.

Richard was one of Langley's first school teachers and one of the first lay preachers at Milner Church. He married Isabella Guest in 1855. They had four children: Ann Forsythe Holding (married William Medd), Richard (died at sea in 1859), Henry Proctor Holding (married Jessie Marie Wilkie), and Alexander Holding (married Winnifred).

Richard died in 1890.

The church was built in 1886 by Thomas Turnbull on property donated by James M. Johnson. It was originally known as Langley Prairie Methodist, but at 25 years of age was renamed Milner Methodist, and in 1925 the congregation joined the newly formed United Church of Canada. At that time the church hall and kitchen were added to the rear of the structure. It was designated a Municipal Heritage Site in 1983, and moved to its new location at Milner Park, just south of the original location, in 2006.