Teetotal advocate and Wesleyan Methodist, born on the Isle of Man to John and Jony Teare, where he received a meagre education in Ramsey and became a cobbler and Wesleyan Methodist. At nineteen he went to Liverpool with the intent of emigrating but on visiting his brother in Preston, Lancs, he decided to remain. Here, by 1833 he was actively involved in the teetotal movement and won his spurs at the Preston Race Week mission in 1833. On returning to the Isle of Man, from 1835 to 1836, he encouraged people to sign the pledge; four Manx brewers went out of business and in one parish alone thirty-two public houses closed. On Monday, 4 April 1836 he set out to introduce the country to teetotalism. His greatest triumphs were in the west in Cornwall, being invited by his fellow Wesleyan, Mudge, Dr Henry. Teare’s appearance in St. Ives, Cornwallin 1837 led to a temperance society being formed and ultimately to the Teetotal Wesleyan Methodists secession. On his death it was found that he was comfortably well-off; he left a legacy to support a temperance essay prize.

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Trade unionist born at Shebbear 10 March 1840 and educated at Shebbear College, North Devon. By the mid-1860s he was prominent in the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners,becoming its General Secretary in 1871. During this period he was elected to the Trade Union Congress' Parliamentary Committee, serving as its chairman from 1876 to 1879. On being appointed a Factory Inspector in 1881, he resigned from his trade union posts. Retiring in 1905, he died on 4 February 1923.

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Primitive Methodist trade unionist and politician, born 1 April 1842. He was a founder member of the Derbyshire Miners' Union and a leading official, serving as Secretary from 1881 to 1913. In 1911 he was the President of the Trades Union Congress. Elected to Parliament as a Liberal for Chesterfield in 1906, he was returned at both general elections in 1910 for Labour. He died on 31 July 1913.

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Ethel Bossons was the first pioneer lecturer and demonstrator of the modern revolutionary method of teaching Methodist Sunday School teachers how to let young children learn by being allowed to be children Ethel Bossons was born 25 February 1902 at Talke o’ th’ Hill, near Newcastle under Lyme, Staffordshire. Her parents were Edward (1878-1939) a coal mine hewer, and Miriam nee Barker (1878 - c. 1955). Ethel was the eldest of seven children who with their parents and paternal grandparents attended Thomas Street, United Methodist Free Church, and Sunday School, Talke. When Ethel was 13 the family moved to Tunstall, Stoke-on-Trent where they joined Jubilee Primitive Methodist Chapel and Sunday School, which was the place where the first Primitive Methodist Sunday school was founded in 1811 by Clowes, William. Ethel’s move to the Primitive Methodists prompted her grandfather Edwin Barker (1857- c.1920) to write to her telling her about her great grandmother Miriam Barker (1819-1875) who was a lifelong Primitive Methodist. In the letter, which is on ‘My Primitive Methodist Ancestor’ site, Edwin tells Ethel how when he was a boy he moved from the Primitive Methodist chapel to the Free Methodists. Edwin ends the letter ‘So I think you are quite alright with the primitives.’ Ethel became a teacher in the Tunstall Jubilee Primitive Methodist primary and junior departments and later leader of the primary Sunday School. In 1918 Ethel became a chapel member and chorister at the Tunstall Jubilee Primitive Methodist Chapel. It was a pivotal moment for Ethel Bossons when Archibald, George Hamilton, the celebrated international pioneer, lecturer, and author of authoritative books on graded Sunday school teaching methods, gave a lecture in Tunstall. Following Archibald’s lecture where he convincingly explained his method of teaching Sunday School teachers how to use the psychological based method of teaching. Archibald’s approach to teaching Sunday School children are, in his own words printed in Carey Bonner’s Child Songs ‘We must help children be children, not adults. The selection of words as well as music from the child’s point of view is an application of a fundamental Kindergarten principle…and if the same principle be carried into all branched of our Sunday and other schools it will free the children from the trammels of adultism which have bound, and are still binding, them fast. This book is an application of that principle.’ The officials of Jubilee Primitive Methodist Church and Sunday School were so impressed with the Sunday School methods that Archibald advocated they met and agreed, with the generous financial support of the Primitive Methodist Connexional, General Sunday School Committee, to send Ethel to Westhill College, Selly Oak, Birmingham to be trained in the Archibald philosophy and method. George Hamilton Archibald was the Principal of Westhill College which specialised in training Sunday School teachers in modern Sunday School methods based on Archibald’s pioneering educational theories based on psychological principles. Ethel Bossons was awarded the Westhill Certificate in December 1923 with the endorsement ‘Specialisation in Beginners, Primary and Junior Departmental leadership’. Ethel returned to Tunstall Jubilee and became the leader of the Upper Junior Department. Soon she was appointed the first Primitive Methodist Connexional Sunday School lecturer and demonstrator. At a meeting of the Connexional Sunday School Council meeting at Crewe on 8 April 1925 Ethel Bossons was ordained to the lay ministry. The ordination charge was given to her by Rev George Bennett (1855-1931) the former Primitive Methodist Conference President and Connexional Sunday School Secretary. The charge to the Church was given by Rev Samuel Palmer (1872-1952) the Connexional Sunday School Secretary. Miss Bossons became a regular lecturer and demonstrator of the new methods of teaching Sunday School children throughout the Connexion. In the 'Weekly Journal of the Primitive Methodist Church' in the ''Primitive Methodist Leader'' of 3 June 1926 Ethel Bossons is listed along with Professor Atkinson Lee, M.A., Rev. Charles. P. Groves, B.A., B.D., Rev Samuel Palmer, Rev. Thomas R. Auty, B.D., The Connexional Sunday Schools Secretary, Mr. and Mrs. W. V. Chivers, and Mrs. Lee, B.A., as being a lecturer at the Summer School for Sunday School Workers held at the Orphanage, Alresford, near Winchester, from 31 July to 14 August 1926. Ethel Bossons was a regular lecture at Easter and Summer residential Sunday School teachers’ conferences throughout her long devoted service in Methodism. At Methodist Union she became a staff member of the Connexional Sunday School Department and in 1943 when the Sunday School Department and the Wesley Guild were brought together to form the Methodist Youth Department Ethel became a member of the field staff until her retirement in the 1960s. After her thirty-seven years of continuous service she retired to Craig y Don, Llandudno where her wealth of experience was shared with the Sunday School staff at St David’s Methodist Church, Llandudno and other places in North Wales. In 1991 Ethel Bossons returned to her native Tunstall, Staffordshire, where she died on 26 May 1992.

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The Archibald family was one of the first Scottish Presbyterians to migrate to Ireland following the Battle of the Boyne (1690). Around 60 years later Scottish-Irish Presbyterians were encouraged to emigrate by the British to the renamed New Scotland, Nova Scotia in North East America, with promises with ‘Grants of Lands’. Samuel Burke Archibald along with his three brothers and three sisters and their families sailed from Londonderry to Halifax, Nova Scotia Three generations later George Hamilton Archibald was born to Thomas Ellis Archibald (1824-1893) and Sarah nee Hamilton (1822-1905). George’s father made a good living running a logging mill. Young George had a comfortable home with freedom on weekdays and in the summer to hunt, fish, horse-ride and track in the forest and on the wide open plains. Sundays were a misery. They had to go to the Kirk where George had to sit upright on straight backed uncomfortable pews, for the two hour long service and listen to what seemed endless sermons which he did not understand. When they returned home everybody had to stay indoors in case they were tempted to get into mischief. A double tragedy changed George’s life. Firstly the logging mill caught fire and the family moved to Boston, Massachusetts. George now 13 started work as a cash boy in a local store earning $2 a week. In 1873 uncle John Archibald started a business in St John’s, Newfoundland and took George’s elder brother William into the business as a partner. William lost his life and the essential machinery for the business when the George Washington sank in a storm. George took his brother’s place and became a partner in the business. George attended St Andrew’s Presbyterian Kirk where he became a Sunday school teacher and later Superintendent. In 1880 he married Grace Murray (1854-1929). They had a daughter Ethel (1881-1955), who became her father’s assistant and Head of Sunday school Work at Westhill College. When John Archibald relocated the business to Montreal in 1888 George, Clara and Ethel moved. George soon became Superintendent of the largest English speaking Sunday school in Protestant area of Montreal.

Five years later George sold his share in the business to his uncle. With his fortune and future secure he became a man of independent means. George looking for a new career became a student at the School for Christian Workers in Springfield, Massachusetts. After a year he left the School turning down the opportunity to be trained as an ordained minister.

On returning to Montreal George was appointed the Provincial Secretary to the Protestant Sunday School Union of Quebec. In this capacity along with his wife, also a delegate, he attended the Seventh International and the World‘s 2nd Sunday School Convention in St Louis, Missouri U.S.A. in 1893. He was elected a member of the International Executive Committee 1893-96. At the Convention England and Wales was reported as having the largest number of Sunday Schools in Europe. There were 37,201 Sunday Schools, with 585,457 teachers and 5,976,537 scholars. Attending the Conventions put George in touch with delegates from many countries, including England, Wales and Scotland. It also introduced him to the new thinking about how to teach children and young people.

A new approach to Sunday school teaching The general approach to education at the time was ‘subject-centred’. John Dewey (1859-1952) the American forward thinking educationalist was encouraging ‘student-centred’ learning. Dewey’s philosophical approach was pragmatic. He advocated solving problems through experience. Armstrong seeing the value of Dewey’s learning through activity instead of by rote and wearisome reputation encourage the Canadian Sunday School teachers to put the ‘child first’ before the subject. Armstrong’s enthusiasm for Dewey’s method of teaching drew him to the notice of international leaders attending the 1896 Boston and the 1899 Atlanta Conventions. The British delegation saw the need to review Sunday school teaching. 1905 was a pivotal year. Firstly Archibald was invited to give a 5 week lecture tour in major British cities. The tour was strenuous which frequently saw George giving two and sometimes three lectures a day. Secondly Peake, Dr Arthur Samuel A. S. Peake (1865-1929) wrote a series of articles in ''Primitive Methodist Leader'', beginning on 7 September entitled 'The Reform of the Sunday School'. Based on the comments of students entering Hartley College, Manchester about Sunday schools Peake wrote of the unsatisfactory quality of the ‘International Uniformed Lesson System’ although he acknowledged that it had improved. Thirdly George received an invitation from Frederick Taylor, of the Friends’(Quakers) Firstday (Sunday) School Association, to be the guest speaker at their Easter Conference at Northfield Manor House, the home of George Cadbury, the chocolate manufacturer, benefactor, and Sunday school teacher. George Cadbury listened carefully to Archibald’s lectures about children and their intelligence, temperament, and their worlds of make believe. He outlined the place of fantasy, myths and legends in the child’s imagination. He also outlined the role of teachers as teachers. Based on his research into children’s intelligence Archibald reminded his listeners that ‘A child of twelve is nearer to a person of twenty in mental outlook than a child of six is to one of twelve. George Cadbury was impressed but said does your theory work. Yes replied Armstrong. With this assurance Cadbury, invited him to open a demonstration Sunday school in Ruskin Hall in Bournville Garden village to demonstrate his methods. John William Hoyland (1855-1927) the Director of the Friends’ College for training missionary candidates offered him a number of young men and women to assist him. This was providential because these young missionaries used on the mission fields Archibald’s techniques to teach children. In the demonstration Sunday school Armstrong had comfortable child sized chairs, a blackboard, sand trays, plasticine, pencils, paper and building blocks. He graded the classes according to age. There were no wearisome tasks, no bribes offered to learn unrelated memory passages. The Bible was presented imaginatively and graded to suite the different age groups. so that the children were fascinated and thrilled by its stories and uplifted by Christ. This venture soon led to the opening of Westhill College, Birmingham with George Hamilton Archibald as Principal. Archibald's impact on Methodism came through his lecture tours and through Westhill College students such as Miss Ethel Bossons the Primitive Methodist/Methodist Archibald method demonstrator. The Methodist Westhill College lecturer Hubery, Douglas Stanley (1916-1988) by his publications such as The Experiential Approach to Christian Education (1960) further developed the method.

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Wednesbury West Midlands Wednesbury is a market town in the West Midlands but historically and in the Wesleys’ time it was in the land locked county of Staffordshire. It is a short distance from the source of the River Tame. Archaeological evidence indicates that there was an Iron Age hill fort and an early medieval hilltop enclosure. In 1004 the area was known as Wodensbyri. In the Doomsday Book (1086) Wadnesberie is described as a thriving rural community. Wednesbury gradually changed from a family strip farming community with grazing on common land to a developing industrial area. Coal pits were dug around 1310. When suitable clay was discovered between the coal seams pottery making became a significant industry. William Paget, the M.P. for Lichfield and Secretary of State for Henry VIII was born 1506 in Wednesbury and was recorded as the son of a nail maker. Hand wrought nails continued to be made until nails were machine made in the early 19th century. The list of trades around the time of the Wesleys’ visits included bakers, blacksmiths, enamel ware coal boxes, patch boxes, snuff boxes makers, silversmiths making shoe buckles, tea tongues, and other items. Other trades recorded are butchers, carpenters, cobblers, colliers, edge tool makers, farmers, glove makers, gun lock makers iron fitters, locksmiths, maltsters, masons, millers, nailers, potters, textile dealers, weavers and wheelwright. In the mid-18th century there were 4 forges in the town. Whilst many of the trades were ‘hand to mouth’ family run businesses in an outbuilding behind their houses others were major industries. The opening of the Wednesbury canal in 1769 allowed coal and manufactured goods to be easily, safely, and cheaply transported to Birmingham. In the 18th century the population was around 3,700 and by 1801 it had risen to 4000. In the 17th and 18th century cruel blood sports were the pastimes for rich and poor alike. There was bull baiting on the High Bullen. Wednesbury was celebrated for cock fighting. The poem The Wednesbury Cocking gives details of the teams, and the viciousness of the sport. The mother society of Staffordshire Methodism Methodist was introduced to Wednesbury by Charles Wesley at the invitation of Frances Ward, the St Bartholomew’s Church Warden, and the underground manager of John Wood’s colliery. The Rev Edward Egginton (1698-1743), was the vicar of St Bartholomew’s Wednesbury from 1719 till he died aged 45 in 1743. Edward Egginton who had heard of the success of Wesley’s ‘Field Preaching’ and his work amongst the miners at Kingswood, was warmly-disposed to the Wesley brothers visiting his parish. John Wesleys says in Modern Christianity Exemplified at Wednesbury that John Eaton, of Wednesbury in Staffordshire, had heard the Rev. Mr Charles Wesley, in the latter End of the Year 1742, preach Salvation by Faith, in the Wednesbury Coalpit Field. Charles Wesley also preached at Holloway Bank, opposite Hawkins Street on the Great Shrewsbury Road when several people were converted. John Wesley urged by his brother Charles made his first visit to Wednesbury on Saturday 8 January 1743 and preached at the market cross which had been renamed in 1742 the Town Hall. The following day he preached at Holloway Bank three times. The Society now had 29 members and 3 days later the number had risen to 100. On Sunday afternoon he went to hear Rev Edward Egginton, preach ‘a plain, useful sermon’. Following the service most of the congregation went with Wesley to the Hollow to hear him preach. In John Wesley’s letter to John Smith in 1746 he says that he visited the vicarage, and that Mr Egginton told him 'that the oftener I came the welcomer I should be; for I had done much good there already, and he doubted not but I should do much more.' Wesley left on the Wednesday having had a trouble free visit Charles in his Journal 20 May 1743 records 'I got once more to our dear colliers of Wednesbury.' The numbers in the Society Charles records are 300. On the Saturday Charles consecrated with a hymn a piece of ground which a Dissenter had given for a preaching-house, he then walked with others to Walsall. Here Charles and his companions met with hostility. Charles Wesley was stoned and beaten to the ground. Charles returned to Wednesbury via a peaceful Birmingham meeting. (For fuller details see Wednesbury riots, 1743-1744). Nelson, John and Whitefield, George also preached in Wednesbury in 1743

Meeting House In 1760 a Wesleyan Methodist Meeting House was built close to one of the notorious cock fighting pits on Workhouse Lane later renamed Meeting Street. It was a square building with a gallery and seated around 350 people. On the 4 March 1760 John Wesley preached ‘in the New House at Wednesbury’. The Meeting House was replaced on the same site by Springhead Wesleyan Chapel in 1812. In front of the chapel was place the ‘horse block’ which was originally the external flight of stairs to the upper room of the malthouse at High Bullen on which John Wesley had preached at midday on 20 October 1743. The 1812 Spring Head Chapel seated 620 people and was opened on 13 May 1813 by Benson, Joseph. The chapel was lit by 5 chandeliers, the central one held 35 candles. These were replaced by gas light in 1828. On 9 January 1843 the Wednesbury Methodist Centenary Celebrations were held in the house in Holloway where John Wesley had held his first Society Meeting. With the increasing population of the town and the growing congregation a new and larger building was required. The second Spring Head Chapel was dedicated 12 November 1867 when Arthur, William was the preacher. The third Spring Head Chape; was built in 1932. This was demolished in 1965. The present Wednesbury Central Methodist Church was built of the former Wesleyan School site.

Other Wednesbury Methodist Chapels The Methodist New Connexion opened a chapel in Holyhead Road, but it only survived for a few years until the building was sold. In 1812 the Primitive Methodist held open air service probably from the Darlaston Society. In 1824 the Primitive Methodists opened a chapel in Camp Street, Wednesbury. Later they built chapels in Vicarage Lane and Lea Brook. The Wesleyan Reform Connexion sometime after 1849 build a chapel in Ridding Lane. This Society became a Free Methodist Church. The chapel was unused for around 20 years when the roof collapsed in 2017. In the Wesley Centre, Wednesbury are Methodist archives gathered and donated by Dr Dingley. Displays include Wesleyana, Bibles and a stone thrown at Wesley during the Wednesbury Riots of 1743-4; also the horse block from which Wesley preached at High Bullen. (See Dingley family).

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Russell Pope was born in Barry in 1909. He started working life as a watchmaker, and, after a conversion experience in Cardiff, he offered for the Wesleyan Methodist Ministry. After training at Cliff College and Handsworth College, Birmingham he served in home missions appointments at Central Halls in Manchester & Salford, Liverpool, Bristol and Manchester Albert Hall, with a distinctive and compelling evangelistic style of preaching. He was deeply committed to his support of the Labour movement. Moved from city ministry to become Chair of the Plymouth and Exeter District (1959), and President of the Methodist Conference in 1974, he served both rural and city churches faithfully. After serving as an active Supernumerary minister for 3 years in Ilfracombe, he continued to answer invitations to preach from around the Connexion until his death on 5th July, 1985.

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Elsie Moult, née Read, was born in Bulwell, Nottingham, on 17 December 1919, into a family rooted in Primitive Methodism. She became a Local Preachers in the Nottingham (North) Circuit, and there met a fellow preacher, Ernest Moult (1916-95). Ernest was accepted as a candidate for the ministry in 1939, and they married in 1945, while Ernest was serving in the North of Scotland Mission. Elsie spent the rest of her life in Scotland, representing the Methodist Church in negotiations for union with the Church of Scotland, but her involvement in Methodist missions gave her global interests. She served on the Central Committee of the Methodist Missionary Society, helped to transform the Methodist Laymen’s Missionary Movement into Methodists for World Mission, and held office as MWM President and Connexional President of Women's Work. She was Vice-President of the Conference in 1980 and was made MBE in 1986 for her work as a Vice-President of the British Council of Churches. She died in Dundee on 21 October 1993.

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