Minister and missionary, popularly known as 'Fiji' Wilson. He was born in Bosfoot, Covend, Kirkcudbright, Scotland, on 21 November 1828 and raised in the Church of Scotland. Converted in his late teens in Liverpool and accepted as a candidate for the ministry in 1850, after training at Richmond College and marriage to Jane (1828-59), daughter of Peter McOwan (1795-1870), he sailed for Fiji in 1853, to work with James Calvert. Wilson was stationed successively at Viwa and Bua. Jane died at Bua in May 1859 and in 1860 Wilson returned to England with his three infant sons. He served in a succession of English circuits, was elected to the Legal Hundred in 1880, and attended the 1881 and 1891 Ecumenical Methodist Conferences. A consistent advocate of missions, especially to Fiji, he died on 1 June 1896.
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James Diggle Mould was the architect son of a Primitive Methodist minister, John Mould (1822-1887; e.m. 1849) and Sarah Diggle (1830-1891). Born at Glossop, he was educated at Bury Grammar School and in Manchester, before being articled to Maycock and Bell of Manchester from 1872-77. Employment then followed in Bolton with Thomas Haselden (1847-88), where Mould was head architect, 1878-83. He commenced his own practice in Manchester in 1884 and opened a branch office in Bury in 1886. About 1898 his younger brother, Samuel Joseph Mould (1869-1923) joined the practice, now known as Moulds, and with an office in London. A further partner was Austin Townsend Porritt (1876-1939), whose family ran Stubbins Vale Mills, near Edenfield. The partnership of Moulds & Porritt was dissolved in 1907, when Porritt left, having to take over the running of the family mills on his father's death. The Mould brothers worked together until 1910; thereafter Samuel remained in London. During the First World War he served in the Royal Engineers rising to the rank of captain; he died on 21 September 1923 at Hackney.
James Mould was the Secretary of the Manchester Architectural Society, 1885-1891, until it amalgamated with the Manchester Society of Architects. He was elected an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1888 and a Fellow in 1897.
Although the practices covered a range of building types, including housing, offices and banks, they were responsible for more than sixty religious buildings, mostly Nonconformist chapels, especially Primitive Methodist and Congregationalist. Many were in Lancashire but their distribution reflected to some extent their office locations. Their Congregational chapels included Bury Castlecroft (1885) and Park, Manchester Road (1898); Chingford, Buxton Road (1910); Hull, Newland (1904-6). Primitive Methodist buildings included Edensfield, Rochdale Road (1891); Irwell Vale (1893); Luton, Hightown (1897); Oswestry, Castle Street (1899); Worsley, Worsley Road (1883).
James Mould married Sarah Taylor Rogers in 1893. Their son George (1894-1976) was a journalist. A man of wide culture and an excellent musician, James was a choir member and for a time also choirmaster at Walmersley Road PM, Bury, where he was a member. He also served as a Liberal councillor in Bury between 1900 and 1903. He died at Bury on 28 May 1935.
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The Royal Town of Sutton Coldfield is eight miles north east of Birmingham and seven miles south of Tamworth.
Methodist preaching started in Sutton Coldfield in 1765 when Francis Asbury held services in a cottage at Hill Hook, the home of Edward Hand, a self-employed cordwainer. Opposition to the Methodists continued through the 1770s and 1780s, with occasional violence and attempts to evict the Hand family.
A chapel was opened in Belwell Lane in 1799 and sold in 1853. A growing congregation in the 1880s led to the building of a new chapel, designed by Thomas Guest of Birmingham, on the corner of Newhall Street and The Parade in 1887-88, with a Sunday School in South Parade, built in 1926-27. The chapel was purchased by the town council in 1935 and a new chapel was opened in South Parade in 1936.
The closure of the Four Oaks racecourse in 1899 led to extensive housing development. Local Wesleyans bought a site on the corner of Lichfield and Walsall Roads and the Four Oaks chapel, designed by Crouch and Butler of Birmingham, was built in two phases - the nave in 1902-03 and the transepts, chancel and vestries in 1908-10.
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Street is a large village approximately 2 miles southwest of Glastonbury. From the mid-seventeenth century there was a Quaker presence in the village and the Clarks, a prominent Quaker family, developed a very successful shoemaking business in Street from the mid-nineteenth century. The Clarks were generous donors of land and funds to successive Methodist chapels.
Wesleyan Methodists: Preaching probably began in private houses licensed for worship in the early nineteenth century. The first chapel, built in 1839, was extended several times and then replaced by a new building in Leigh Road in 1893, a Geometrical Gothic chapel with side aisles and transepts, designed by Henry Hawkins. A two-storey Sunday School, with an assembly hall and ten classrooms, was added in 1897.
Primitive Methodists: PM open-air meetings began in Street in 1852 and a Society was formed in 1863. A chapel was opened in the High Street in 1872 and extended in 1882-83.
Both chapels remained in use after Methodist Union, but the ex-PM chapel was closed in 1963.
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Socialist and reformer, born on 20 July 1866 at Raunds, Northamptonshire, into a Wesleyan Methodist family. Her parents, Samuel and Sarah (née Ekins) were farmers; one brother, Richard Ekins Brown (1867-1943; e.m. 1892) became a Wesleyan minister. Ada was an active Wesleyan and Liberal, identifying with the party's Radical wing.
In 1896 Ada moved to London and joined Katherine Price Hughes' Sisters of the People. A year later she transferred to the Bermondsey Settlement, sharing a flat with Grace Hannam and taking responsibility for the Settlement's Girls' Clubs. At the Settlement she met Alfred Salter (1873-1945), then an agnostic and socialist, also with a Wesleyan background. Under Ada’s influence he became a Christian and a Liberal. They married in August 1900 and Alfred set up his medical practice in Jamaica Road, Bermondsey.
In 1906 Ada resigned from the Liberal Party over their failure to grant votes for women. Already involved with the fledgling Women's Labour League, Ada joined the Independent Labour Party. In 1909 she was elected to the Bermondsey Borough Council as the first woman and first Labour councillor. Although her first term was brief (1909-12), she returned to the Council in 1919 and was re-elected for three further terms. She was the first woman and Labour mayor both in London and in the British Isles. Her political priorities were public health, slum clearance, and the improvement of the urban landscaoe through the 'greening' of Bermondsey, creating open spaces and planting thousands of trees.
Ada was an 'associate member' of the Deptford Friends' Meeting from 1903. Her strong pacifism led her to identify fully with the Quakers from the beginning of the First World War.
Ada and Alfred Salter's only child, Joyce, was born in June 1902 and died of scarlet fever in June 1910.
Ada died in Balham, London, on 4 December 1942.
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Addingham is situated on the River Wharfe, about 6 miles east of Skipton and 3 miles west of Ilkley. The Quaker Meeting House at Farfield was established soon after the 1689 Toleration Act.
The first Methodist society in Addingham was formed around 1748, several years after preaching in the area began, led by William Grimshaw. John Wesley preached at Addingham on 26 July 1766, travelling from Skipton to Guiseley. The first meeting house, a modest building with square windows and whitewashed walls, was built in 1778 in Lidget Lane. It was enlarged in 1808 and reconstructed in 1834. Around the chapel building is a large burial ground which was given in 1825 by George Oates Greenwood (1798-1845), of Netherwood House. In the burial ground is a large Egyptian style mausoleum built by William Greenwood (1804-1866) in honour of his brother George Oates Greenwood. In 1843 a Wesleyan Day School was started in premises specially built as a school using the British system of tuition. 50 children were enrolled. In 1874 new school premises were built. The chapel was extended in 1880.
Primitive Methodists: In 1821 John Hewson (1793-1831) preached in Addingham Main Street. A Society was started and met in a room in the Crown Inn. In 1832 a Sunday school was started and met in the Addingham Low Mill. In 1837 land was purchased and the chapel was opened in 1839. On 22 June 1912 the foundation stones for a new chapel and school were laid opposite the Fleece Inn on land donated by Mr Ellis Cunliffe Lister-Kay (1774-1853). The chapel was opened on Saturday 15 January 1913.
Wesleyan Reform Union: The corner stone of Mount Hermon chapel was laid on Good Friday, 29 March 1861. The building survived a fire, set by a disgruntled member of the congregation in December 1869.
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The name Port Talbot was first used in 1837 when docks were built on the banks of the river Afan. The town was not created until 1921 when Aberafan, Cwmafan and Margam were amalgamated. Port Talbot is on the east side of Swansea bay and eight miles from Swansea. The main employer is the steel works.
John Wesley preached in the area several times. By1797 Wesleyan ministers were preaching in Taibach and a Society Class was formed and met in the house of Isaac Bailey in Constant Row. The history of the chapel is linked with the Margam Copper Works which was the economic backbone of Taibach and the surrounding area. The Vivian family, owners of the copper works and of the Morfa coal mine, were Anglicans, but also supportive of Methodist and Nonconformist work in the area, permitting use of the Eastern day school for Sunday worship, Sunday School, and weeknight activities. As the society grew, funds were gradually raised for a chapel (1887-91), and a building in Incline Row (Waun-y-glo) was constructed in 1892-93. Wesley Hall, later the Central Hall, was opened in 1896 and rebuilt in 1911.
Primitive Methodists: The area was missioned in 1841 and re-missioned in 1848 when a Society was formed in a house on Cwmavon Street, Aberavon. In 1851 the PMs built Bethel chapel on Wern Street. The opening services were held on Friday 24 October 1851. In 1900 the chapel was relocated to High Street.
Bible Christians: In 1840 James Bartlett (1816-1881) was sent from the Monmouth Mission to Cwnavon to work amongst the Bible Christians from Devon. The area was missioned by the Bible Christians in Cwmavon around 1843. In 1849 Societies were founded in cottages in Aberavon and Cwmavon. The Society built a chapel on Wern Street in 1851. This was replaced by the larger Zion chapel in Clarence Street which was opened on 26 June 1864.
Trinity Methodist Church: When Wales’s first motorway the M4 Port Talbot bypass, was built, Bethel, the former Primitive Methodist Church, Zion the former Bible Christian/United Methodist chapel, and Wesley Hall had to be demolished. The congregations came together in 1963 in the specially built Trinity Methodist Church in Tydraw Street.
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Caernarfon is the correct spelling of this Welsh Royal town. The anglicised spellings of the town’s name Carnarvon and Caernarvon were used until 1974. Caernarfon is a port and resort in North West Wales on the Menai Straits; its name means ‘Fortress on the Mona’.
John Wesley passed through Caernarvon on his way to or from Ireland 6 times between 6 August 1747 and 24 March 1756, but never mentions preaching in the town.
As the President of the Irish Conference, Thomas Coke (1747-1814) from Brecon regularly travelled through North Wales. Coke realised that there was need for Welsh speaking itinerant preachers to be seconded to this important section of Welsh life. The Welsh speaking Methodist preachers at the time in North Wales were mainly Calvinistic Methodists.Coke urged the 1800 Wesleyan Conference to establish a Welsh speaking (Arminian) Wesleyan mission with itinerants who spoke Welsh. The Conference appointed the Welsh speaking Owen Davies (1752-1830) of Wrexham and John Hughes (1776-1842) of Brecon as missionaries to Wales. The appointment in the Minutes of Conference stated: "Brother Davies has a discretionary power to labour as and where he judges best, for the advantage of the Welsh Missions; and shall have the superintendence of the whole Mission, and authority to change the Preachers as he judges best."
On 16 September 1800 Owen Davies preached in the Caernarfon Calvinistic Methodist chapel, leading the service in English. On 26 October 1800 John Hughes preached in Welsh and English to a large congregation in the same chapel. In June 1802 the bi-lingual preachers Edward Jones (1778-1837) (Bathanfarn) and the former Calvinistic Methodist and now a Welsh Wesleyan itinerant John Bryan (1776-1856) were warmly welcomed by Robert Jones who had come from the Vale of Clwyd to live in Caernarfon and Samuel Ogden (1769-1839), a Local Preacher and hatter who had also recently come to live in the town from Oldham. The Town Crier was sent out to announce that there would be a service that evening in Penyrallt Street. Not knowing anything about the Wesleyans he announced that two Welsh Lions would preach at seven o’clock that evening.
On his next visit Bryan formed a Wesleyan society, which rented the Old Playhouse in Penyrallt Street for their meetings. In 1803 Caernarfon was made the head of the second Welsh Circuit which encompassed the counties of Caernarfon, Anglesey and Merioneth. John Hughes was the first Superintendent. At the first Quarterly Meeting on 11 April 1804 Samuel Ogden of Caernarfon and Thomas Templeman (1744-1833) of Anglesey (game keeper and formerly of Yorkshire) were appointed Circuit Stewards. At the time the Welsh Wesleyans' Arminian doctrines were considered by most of the other denominations as heretical. In the early days the Welsh Wesleyan ministers and preachers had to vigorously defend their beliefs. During the ministry of Hugh Hughes (1821-23) land was bought for a chapel and on 9 April 1826 Ebenezer, the largest Welsh Wesleyan chapel in the principality, was opened at a cost of £4000. In 1830 the Carnarvon and Bangor English Circuit was formed with the English minister John Gordon being stationed in Carnarvon. In 1834 an English Wesleyan Chapel was opened. The Welsh and English Societies in Carnarvon although in different Circuits worked side by side. When the former minister John Bryan amicably withdrew from the itinerancy he was eventually encouraged to return to Carnarvon in 1831 by Richard M. Preece (1797-1854), Local Preacher and JP. Bryan opened a grocery and tea dealership business and gave faithful and valuable service as a Local Preacher and Methodist leader until he died in Caernarfon on 28 May 1856.
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Leonard Gregory Parsons, Professor of Paediatrics at Birmingham University and dean of the University's medical school, was born on 25 November 1879 in Kidderminster, the eldest child of Theophilus Lessey Parsons and Sarah Ann Parsons (nee Sharpe). The family were experienced and entrepreneurial farmers, and committed Wesleyans.
After recovering from a serious accident in childhood, Leonard Parsons was educated at King Edward's Grammar School, Aston (1891-96) and then at the Birmingham Mason Science College, studying first zoology and then medicine. He gained a succession of medical degrees and awards, including the MD and MRCP by 1909 and FRCP in 1923. Posts at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children and at the Birmingham Children's Hospital facilitated the development of expertise in paediatrics. After service in the RAMC in the First World War he resumed lecturing in paediatrics in Birmingham and was greatly involved in the establishment of the medical school, becoming its dean in 1941. His Diseases of Infancy and Childhood (1933), coauthored with Seymour Barling, became the standard textbook on the subject. He pioneered research in child nutrition, coeliac disease, rickets, and the treatment of rickets with synthetic ascorbic acid, and, in a team including his cousin Dr Evelyn Marion Hickmans, haemolytic anaemias in chlidhood. Parsons was knighted in 1946 and elected FRS in 1948. He died on 17 December 1950.
Leonard Parsons married Ethel May Mantle (1885-1955) at Catford Wesleyan Church, Lewisham, on 30 April 1908. Ethel was the daughter of John Gregory Mantle (1852-1925), Wesleyan minister. Their son Clifford Gregory Parsons (1909-92), educated at The Leys School and Jesus College, Cambridge, was also a distinguished paediatrician, specialising in children's heart diseases and malfunctions. Like his father, Clifford Parsons was an active member of Four Oaks Methodist Church, Sutton Coldfield, and he died while ayyending a Men's Fellowship there on 19 December 1992.
Leonard Parsons' eldest sibling, Emily Gertrude Parsons (1881-1971), educated at King Edward VI School for Girls, Aston, and Newnham College, Cambridge, served as Principal of the Methodist Girls' School in Colombo, Ceylon (Sri Lanka). She married in 1908 the Wesleyan minister Arthur Ernest Kilner Brown (1883-1952).
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Pontefract is a market town in the historic West Riding of Yorkshire, now within the City of Bradford.
John Wesley passed through Pontefract on his way to Epworth on Tuesday 18 March 1746. There is no record of him preaching on this occasion. At his next visit on Wednesday 29 July 1772 at noon he opened the new preaching-house and preached to a “large and still congregation”. Wesley’s last visit was on Friday 23 April 1790 when he preached in the new chapel on Romans 3:23 before moving on to Wakefield.
Wesleyan Methodism: The Society was formed around 1765, or earlier, and was in the Leeds. It owed much to the encouragement of the Rev. Edward Buckley, Curate and in 1770 Vicar of St Mary’s, Kippax, and to the leadership of John Shephard of Peckfield, whose home contained the preaching-house opened by Wesley in 1772, A new chapel was opened on 4 April 1790 and another, in the Horsefair, seating 1000, on 13 January 1825. The development of the town led to the building of a school chapel in Newgate, opened on 19 October 1875.
Primitive Methodism: There was a Sunday school started around 1829. The first chapel was built in Booths just below the castle in 1834. This building was replaced by a 500-seat chapel, opened in Micklegate on 21 January 1872. In 1900 the Tanshelf Mission was opened.
The Wesleyan (Horsefair) and PM (Micklegate) Circuits united in the 1950s, forming the Pontefract Circuit and the Horsefair congregation moved to the Micklegate chapel. This building was destroyed by an arsonist in 1965 and replaced in 1969. Meanwhile, Central Methodist Church opened in 1962, designed by John Poulson, at that time a member in the circuit.
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Ledbury is a market town which is 16 miles east of Hereford.
Wesleyan Methodism: There was a Wesleyan Methodist presence in Ledbury from around 1800 and it was served by preachers from the Hereford Circuit. In 1812 the Circuit was named Hereford and Ledbury. The Ledbury Wesleyan Circuit was established in 1817. The Wesleyan chapel was built in Homend Street and was opened on Wednesday 14 November 1849. The chapel was reopened after extensive alteration, including the addition of twin towers, on 4 March 1886. The chapel closed on 4 August 2019 and the congregation moved to other premises.
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Haverfordwest is a sea port and market town, and the county town of Pembrokeshire, West Wales.
Methodism in Haverfordwest
Calvinistic Methodists: The Calvinistic Methodist society in Haverfordwest was established in 1743. by Howell Davies, (1717-1770), who was known as the Apostle of Pembrokeshire and who had been converted by Howell Harris in 1737. Howell Harris visited regularly and George Whitefield came to the town in 1768. The society met in City Road, and later in Cokey Street. In 1774 they built the Tabernacle chapel. A dispute over governance in 1790 led to the departure of the Calvinistic Methodists. At first they met in Bridge Street, and later in a corn loft in Prendergast until they built Ebenezer chapel in Perrot Road in 1817. The chapel was rebuilt in 1844 and restored in 1967-69.
The Moravian society in Haverfordwest started in 1739. In 1763, a few days before John Wesley's first visit to the town, the Moravian bishop John Gambold established a congregation of 26 members. The Moravians built a chapel in St Thomas' Green and Rosemary Lane.
Wesleyan Methodists: John Wesley made his first of fourteen visits to Haverfordwest on Wednesday 24 August 1763. At the time Wesley knew no one in the town and there is no evidence of any of Wesley’s preachers having visited the town before.
The Wesleyan Methodists built their preaching house in 1772 adjacent to the north side of St Martin’s Parish Church where Wesley occasionally preached. The congregation had to walk through St Martin’s churchyard to get to the ‘new house’. When Wesley visited the town on Tuesday 18 August 1772 he preached at the opening of this preaching place, which Wesley said was 'far the neatest in Wales.' The ‘new house’ was known as the ‘Wesley Room’. By 1781 there were 60 members and it was the largest congregation in the Pembroke Circuit. In 1818 the chapel was rebuilt on the same site in Perrot Road and Chapel Lane.
Primitive Methodists: S. Lewis writing in 1833 suggests that the Primitive Methodists were active at that time in Haverfordwest. William Allen, class leader and boot maker, in the 1851 Religious Census claimed that the Primitive Methodists had had a meeting place in Prendergast, Haverfordwest since 1836. The cause was started in 1823.
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Pembroke is a town in South West Wales at the end of the Pembrokeshire peninsula.
Methodism in Pembroke: John Wesley preached in Pembroke for the first time on Sunday 21 August 1763, making seventeen visits between 1763 and 1790.
Calvinistic Methodists: The Calvinistic Methodists found it difficult to establish a society in Pembroke or the county because of the anglicised nature of the area. However they erected their Westgate Chapel, Westgate Hill, Pembroke in 1826.
Wesleyan Methodists: In 1761 John Wesley accepted Thomas Taylor (1738-1816) as an itinerant and sent him to Wales. In 1762 he preached in Pembroke several times and formed a society. A Pembrokeshire circuit was formed in 1763 and a Pembroke circuit in 1771. The society built a chapel in 1822 on East Back, Main Street.This was replaced in 1871-72, on the same site.
Welsh Wesleyans: This section of the Wesleyan Connexion was unable to successfully put down deep roots in Pembroke or in the county because English was the dominant language in this part of Wales. Before the Welsh Wesleyan Mission was created the Welsh Baptists and the Welsh Congregationalists had become the only nonconformists to be successful in planting Wesh language chapels in the area.
Primitive Methodists': There is no record of a Primitive Methodist chapel in Pembroke. There was Zion Primitive Methodist chapel in Prospect Place, Pembroke Dock, which was built in 1849.
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Until the industrial revolution began, Merthyr Tydfil was a rural village. In the mid-19th century it became known as the ‘Iron Capital of the World’ and in 1804 Merthyr Tydfil was the first place in the world to have a steam powered railway. It ran around 14 km from the Penydarren ironworks to the Glamorganshire canal.
Calvinistic Methodists: Around 1738 Howel Harris preached in the area. In 1749 the Ynysgau Non-Conformist chapel was built in Merthyr Tydfil. Following disputes in the chapel leadership, in 1794 the Calvinistic Methodists left and built their Pennsylvania (later Pontmorlais) Chapel in the town.
Wesleyan Methodism was introduced to the Dowlais area of Merthyr Tydfil by John Guest (1721-1787), a Wesleyan yeoman farmer, brewer, and coal merchant from Broseley, Shropshire. John Guest in collaboration with Isaac Wilkinson (1695-1784) started the Plymouth Ironworks in Merthyr Tydfil in 1763. The partners in the Dowlais Ironworks in 1767 appointed John Guest as their manager in 1767 and shortly afterwards his wife Anne (1726-1763) and their children came to join him. In 1782 John Guest became a Dowlais Ironworks shareholder. John's son Thomas Guest (1748-1807) and grandson John Revel Guest (1790-1837) were Wesleyan Local Preachers. When in 1790 Samuel Homfray, the owner of the Penydarren Ironworks, Merthyr Tydfil, needed more workers for his expanding works he recruited them from Yorkshire and Shropshire. Many of these men were Wesleyans. The incomers started holding Wesleyan prayer meetings in cottages near St Tydfil’s Church. When the Nonconformists in the area were told that the Wesleyans sang during their meetings they considered it an innovation to be deplored. They were further horrified to hear that the blind Englishman John Drew accompanied the singing on his bass viol. As the people attending increased the congregation moved to the Long Room at the Star Inn. When they outgrew the Long Room they met in the open-air, often in St Tydfil’s graveyard using the grave stones for seats. Caleb Simmons was stationed to the area by the 1795 Wesleyan Conference and Merthyr was placed on the Brecon Circuit plan. The foundation stone for a chapel was laid in 1796 and Thomas Guest donated £50 to the building fund. The chapel, the first Wesleyan and first English chapel in Merthyr, was opened on 18 June 1797. A new and larger chapel was opened on 15 January 1863.
Welsh Wesleyans: When in 1802 Owen Davies, (1752-1830), the leader of the Welsh Mission, and Stephen Games were returning from the Bristol Wesleyan Conference they became the first Wesleyans to preach in Welsh in Merthyr Tydfil. Owen Davies was asked by the locals to appoint a Welsh speaker for the area as soon as possible. In 1804 James Evans (d.1820) was appointed to the Merthyr Tydfil English Circuit. A year later he was joined by Edward Jones, jun. who became the first Welsh speaking minister in Merthyr Tydfil and effectively the first Welsh Wesleyan minister in the town. The English chapel allowed the Welsh Wesleyans to use their chapel for services and meetings. During his two year ministry in Merthyr Tydfil Edward Jones Jun. established Welsh Wesleyan societies not only in the town but also in Cefncoedcymer, Dowlais, Tredegar, Rhymney, Ebbw Vale and other places nearby. In 1810 the Merthyr Tydfil Welsh Wesleyan Circuit was formed with David Jones sen. as Superintendent and David Evans as second minister. A chapel was built around 1811. In 1819 a gallery was added and in 1827 the chapel was enlarged. In 1854 the Vale of Neath Railway bought the chapel and new larger chapel was built in the middle of the town. In 1805 Thomas Guest encouraged James Evans and Edward Jones jun. of the English and Welsh chapels in Merthyr Tidfil to preach near to his home in Dowlais. Their open-air preaching sowed the seeds for the Shiloh Welsh Wesleyan to be opened in Castle Street and in 1843 the English Wesleyan chapel to be built. There was a dispute between the Wesleyan Conference and John Josiah Guest (1785-1852), the son of Thomas Guest, over an earlier plot of land for the English chapel in Dowlais. This probably caused John Josiah Guest to leave the Wesleyans and become an Anglican.
Primitive Methodists. The local records show that Ebenezer Primitive Chapel in Wind Street Dowlais was built in 1846 and that it was in the Nelson Circuit (Wales) .
Wesleyan Reform. In February 1850 Samuel Dunn and William Griffith held Wesleyan Reform meetings in South Wales. They held a meeting in the Independent Chapel in Merthyr Tydfil. They returned on 6 November 1850 and addressed a meeting in the Town Hall. In 1853 William Jones (1814-1895) left the Wesleyan Association and became the minister of the Wesleyan Reform societies in Tredegar, Merthyr Tydfil, and Aberdare.The Wesleyan Reform society was formed in Merthyr Tydfil around 1852.
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Samuel Ogden was baptised on 30 August 1769 at St Mary's Church, Oldham, the son of Joseph and Betty Ogden; Joseph was a weaver. Samuel married Elizabeth Connell (1762-1852) at St Mary's on 20 July 1789, and they had ten children. By 1797, when he was admitted to the St John Masonic Lodge, Samuel was working as a hatter in Manchester. By 1802 Samuel had settled in Caernarfon.
In June 1802 the bi-lingual preachers Edward Jones (1778-1837) (Bathafarn) and the former Calvinistic Methodist and now Welsh Wesleyan itinerant John Bryan (1776-1856) visited Caernarfon where they were warmly welcomed both by Robert Jones who had come from the Vale of Clwyd to live in Caernarfon and Samuel Ogden (1769-1839). The two visiting ‘Welsh Lions’ preached in the evening in Penyrallt Street.
Samuel led an English-language fellowship each Sunday in Bangor and preached in Caernarfon. Bryan recorded that the English Wesleyan society in Caernarfon began in the Ogdens' home. In 1803 Caernarfon was made the head of the second Welsh Circuit which encompassed the counties of Caernarfon, Anglesey and Merioneth with John Hughes as the first Superintendent. At the first Quarterly Meeting on 11 April 1804 Samuel Ogden of Caernarfon and Thomas Templeman (1744-1833) of Anglesey (game keeper and formerly of Yorkshire) were appointed Circuit Stewards. Samuel Ogden remained the leader of English language Methodists until in 1831 when the Conference appointed the probationer James Egan Moulton (1806-1866) as the first English minister. Samuel and Elizabeth Ogden and many of their family continued to be faithful members of the English Wesleyan chapels in Caernarfonshire. Samuel Ogden died in Caernarfon on 29 July 1839, aged 70.
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Richard Mathias Preece (1797-1854), was born at Cowbridge, Glamorgan, on 7 August 1797. His father, also Richard (1766-1847) was headmaster of the school in Cowbridge, and Richard junior began his career as a schoolteacher. He later worked for the Chester and North Wales Bank in Caernarfon, and was a Bailiff (1828) and Mayor (1844) of Caernarfon. The Preece family moved to London in 1845.
Richard Preece was brought up at Cowbridge Welsh Wesleyan chapel, the first Welsh Wesleyan chapel in South Wales. Fluent and eloquent in both Welsh and English, he was largely responsible for the building of Ebenezer Welsh Wesleyan chapel in Caernarfon. He was in demand as a preacher for chapel openings and other occasions and he was a strong supporter of the Sunday School movement.
Preece married Jane Elizabeth Hughes (1799-1870) at Llanbeblig, Caernarfon, on 27 May 1817. Among their large family of fourteen children was William Henry Preece (1834-1913), FRS, awarded the KCB in 1899 for his pioneering work in telegraphy, radio, and railway signalling.
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James Roskell was the eldest son of Robert Roskell (1762-1854) and Isabella nee Silcock (1768-1851), who lived at Over Wyre farm near Hambleton in the Fylde, Lancashire. He was given a basic education by his parents and was trained in farming skills with a view that he would help his father run their homestead farm. As a teenager James joined the army, serving with Wellington's forces in the Peninsula at Torres Vedras, Salamanca, Talavera and Badajos, where he was badly injured. Stationed at Clonmel in Ireland after 1815, James joined a group of soldiers attending a Methodist meeting, and was converted. On discharge James returned home to the farm in Rawcliffe. He sought out and joined the only Methodist Society in the area across the river Wyre at Thornton and was soon asked to take over the leadership. He met the class in the morning and led a prayer meeting in the afternoon. He then ferried over the Wyre in time to walk home to do the evening milking. James gathered a Sunday School in his home and eventually a modest chapel was built in a farmer’s field. In 1830 James Roskell moved to Little Layton on the outskirts of [[Entry:4338] Blackpool]. During the summer on Blackpool beach services were held for the holiday makers and locals when a preacher could be found. James went to the services and soon saw the need for a Methodist chapel in the town. At the beach services he met Robert Baird (1792-1850) a Preston Methodist linen draper who had opened a summer season branch in a cottage in Blackpool next to the Aquarium. In 1832 Roskell and Baird started a Methodist class-meeting in Bonny’s Bathing House on the South Beach. At the Garstang Circuit Local Preachers' meeting on 24 September 1832 it was resolved 'that Blackpool shall be tried once a month as a preaching place, services to be held at six o’clock on Sunday evening.' Although Roskell never became a Local Preacher he led the first Blackpool Methodist Society. James never married and eventually went to live in a cottage in Fleetwood where he spent his last few years caring for the poor people who knocked on his door for help. He died in 1842.
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Historic Montgomeryshire is an inland county in north-central Wales. The town of Montgomery is just west of the English border.
Methodism in Montgomeryshire. The main towns in Historic Montgomeryshire are the county town of Montgomery, Carno, Llanidloes, Llanfyllin, Llanrhaedr ym Mochnant, Llansantffaid ym Mechain, Machynlleth, Newtown, and Welshpool. John Wesley's first journey through the county was on 5 August 1747 when he rode from Builth to Caernarfon on the unmaintained road; his last visit was on 9 August 1769.
Montgomery. The first known Wesleyan itinerant to preached in Montgomery was Thomas Olivers (1725-1799), born in Tregynon, Montgomeryshire, and visiting his home county in 1768. By the late 18th century the Calvinistic Methodists had a society in the town and opened their Sion chapel in 1824 which was replaced in 1885. In 1851 82 people attended the morning service and 100 the evening service. The Wesleyan Methodist chapel was built in Duck Lane in the late 18th century. In 1851 they had a morning Sunday school with an attendance of 36 scholars. The main services were in the afternoon when 45 worshippers were present and in the evening when 56 attended. In 1848 the Primitive Methodists had a preaching room in the town. In 1851 there were 38 people at the afternoon service and 109 attended the evening service.
Carno: After John Wesley had preached In Llanidloes on 10 April 1749 he went to a village 7 miles away where he was received with open arms, and gladly supplied with hospitality. This was probably Carno. Around 1794 Richard Price was converted under the ministry of Cleland Kirkpatrick. Shortly after he led a Wesleyan Methodist society in Carno. In 1812 a Wesleyan chapel was built in the town.
Llanidloes: On his way to Holyhead on 22 February 1748 Wesley reached Llanidloes at 11am. He preached on a stone in the market-place at 12 noon. Wesley visited again in 1749, 1750, 1764, and 1769. The Methodist society held its meetings in the Market-house. In 1802 the English Wesleyans built their chapel. In 1874 it was replaced by a chapel in Long Bridge Street. The Welsh Wesleyans built their Salem chapel in 1802 which was enlarged in 1822 and twice rebuilt in 1849 and 1875. The Calvinistic Methodist had the largest chapel in the town which was registered in 1843 but the start of the society is much earlier. The present building was built in 1872 and restored in 1983.
Newtown: On 9 August 1769 Wesley preached in Newtown market-place. After a few minutes Mr Evans the landlord of the New Inn appeared cursing and blaspheming and with a stick hit all who got in his way.The stick was wrenched from Mr Evans but the commotion he caused drowned out Wesley’s preaching. Wesley and his hearers moved to Mr Hardcox’s Lower Bryn farmhouse where he continued his sermon. The Wesleyan Methodists built their chapel in 1806 which was the first Nonconformist place of worship in the town. The Calvinistic Methodist chapel was built in 1810. The Primitive Methodists built their chapel in 1821.
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Abergavenny is a market town in Monmouthshire on the confluence of the river Usk and a tributary of the river Gavenny. It is six miles from the English border. Abergavenny’s meaning in Welsh is mouth of the Gavenny. The town is mostly surrounded by hills and mountains.
Methodism in Abergavenny
John Wesley went to preach in Wales for the first time in October 1739, encouraged by Howell Harris, and Abergavenny was the second place he preached, using a stand built for Harris and previously used by George Whitefield.
Calvinistic Methodism: Howell Harris preached in the town in 1739 and shortly afterwards a Calvinistic Methodist society was formed. Frogmore Street Calvinistic Methodist Chapel and Sunday School was built in 1871 and in 1908 the society moved to Penypound and built the chapel which is now known as Whitefield Presbyterian Church.
Wesleyan Methodism: with the gradual division of large circuits, Abergavenny became the head of a circuit in 1821 and remained so until merger with Pontypool in 1909. The Castle Street church was opened in 1829 and it claimed a congregation in 1851 of 80 (morning), plus 40 scholars, and 300 (evening).
Primitive Methodism: The Tabernacle Primitive Methodist chapel was opened in Victoria Street on 23 June 1850, with room for a Sunday school and a manse. In the census a year later there were 36 at the morning service and 32 scholars in the Sunday school. 44 students attended the afternoon Sunday school and 90 the evening service.
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Born in 1904 in Liverpool, the nephew, grandson and great grandson of Primitive Methodist Ministers, Stanley Bridge grew up in Liverpool and was educated at the Liverpool Institute for Boys. He briefly worked for Martin’s Bank before candidating for the Primitive Methodist ministry. He trained at Hartley Victoria College whilst also gaining a BA in Theology from Manchester University. He entered the ministry in 1931, serving initially at Great Yarmouth (Temple) and subsequently in Bolton (Moor Lane), Sheffield (Ecclesall), Sheffield (North) and Leeds Mission circuits. He was at Oxford Place Leeds for seven years, for the last three of which he was Chairman of the Leeds District. In 1952 he was called to be District Missionary and Chairman of the Stoke-on-Trent and Macclesfield District. He died suddenly on 5 September 1953, at the early age of 49, and in the twenty-third year of his ministry. He and his wife Marjorie had three sons, one of whom, David, entered the ministry in 1959.
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In the early eighteenth century Wigan was a small market town on the river Douglas, halfway between Liverpool and Manchester. A century later, Wigan became a significant mill-town, connected to the coalfields and the ports first by canal and then by railway. Mid- to late-nineteenth century population growth owed much to Irish immigration. Immortalised as an industrial town by George Orwell in The Road to Wigan Pier (1937), the town was badly affected by the decline of the cotton and coal industries after the Second World War.
Methodism
Methodism was introduced to Wigan by John Leyland, a cobbler, and William Langshaw, who attended Methodist preaching in Liverpool, Manchester and Bolton. Travelling nearby in 1759, John Wesley described Wigan as "a town wicked to a proverb", and was equally uncomplimentary when he first came to the town in July 1764. He made a further seventeen visits. More significant to the growth of Methodism in Wigan was the preaching of Samuel Bradburn, sent from Liverpool in 1774. Bradburn's powerful oratory gathered a congregation and inspired promises of funds for a chapel, and a chapel was duly opened in Wallgate in 1775. Wesley preached at this "New House" in June 1776.
In the controversies after Wesley's death, most of the Wigan society turned to the New Connexion. The Wesleyans rebuilt their society and opened a new chapel in Standishgate in 1844-45, adding a day school in the latter year. In 1856, however, further disputes within the Wesleyan Connexion led to the secession of 300 scholars and teachers to the United Methodist Free Churches (1856). Meanwhile the Independent Methodists built a school chapel in Greenough Street in 1829 and established a Bookroom in Wigan in 1869. Since 1990 the Connexion's Resource Centre, headquarters and archive centre have been located in Wigan.
The Primitive Methodists missioned Wigan in the 1830s and built chapels in 1851 and 1897.
There was also a Welsh Calvinistic Methodist presence in Wigan, recorded in 1851, and with a chapel in Greenough Street from 1913-64.
Late-nineteenth century expansion saw new chapels in Standish, Blackrod, Appley Bridge, Hindley and Platt Bridge, while a mission in Scholes grew into the Queen's Hall, opened in 1907. Changing demographics led to the closure of the Standishgate chapel in 1969 and a move to a new building in Spencer Road, Whitley (1969-71).
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Ebbw Vale - Glynebwy is an industrial town on the Ebbw Fawr stream which runs into the Ebbw river. The Industrial Revolution brought large numbers of people to work in the mines and also in the iron and steel works, so that from 1778 until the last quarter of the twentieth century Ebbw Vale was an important iron and steel-making town. Ebbw Vale was represented in parliament for more than sixty years by two prominent Labour politicans with Methodist connections: Aneurin (Nye) Bevan (1897-1960), MP from 1929 until his death, and Michael Foot (1913-2010), MP from 1960 until 1992. Bevan's mother was a Methodist; Foot's father was the Liberal MP and Vice-President of the Conference, Isaac Foot.
Methodism in Ebbw Vale Calvinistic Methodists: The Cardiganshire preacher Owen Enos formed a society in Ebbw Vale in 1794. The society met first in a shed, rebuilt in 1806 and replaced in 1825 by the large Penuel Chapel, rebuilt and enlarged again in 1838 and replaced in 1865. In 1844 an offshoot society of Penuel chapel in Church Street was formed. With the influx of Welsh speaking families who had come to work in the iron works they needed a large chapel and on 23 and 24 September 1850 Ebenezer Chapel was opened. The chapel closed in 1891 and around 1893 the chapel became an English-speaking Calvinistic Methodist chapel. A third chapel, Bethesda, opened in 1877 and a Sunday school building was added in 1908.
Wesleyan Methodism: During the lifetime of John Wesley, Ebbw Vale was a scattered rural community of around 120 inhabitants. In 1790 the Ebbw Vale Steel, Iron and Coal company was established and a blast furnace was built which made the town a major industrial area attracting large numbers of workers. Ebbw Vale was missioned by Edward Jones, junior, Welsh Wesleyan minister stationed in the Merthyr Circuit from 1805-07, with an English Wesleyan colleague. The first chapel, built in 1808, was for both English and Welsh Wesleyans, but by around 1825 it was too small and the English Wesleyans built their own chapel. The societies were in the Merthyr Tydfil English and Welsh Circuits, formed in 1803 and 1810 respectively.
Primitive Methodism: The PMs formed a society in Ebbw Vale in the 1840s and opened Zion Chapel in 1847. A new chapel, with accommodation for 500 worshippers and 350 scholars, was built in 1894-95.
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Fleetwood is a coastal town on the Irish sea at the North end of the Fylde peninsula in Lancashire. It was developed from the 1830s as a port and seaside resort by Sir Peter Hesketh-Fleetwood.
Among the earliest inhabitants of the new town were the Roskell and Ronson families; Alice Ronson was a Methodist, and she hosted the first Methodist preaching in the town in 1837. The Garstand Wesleyan minister George Hughes (1809-90) preached to the workers building the new town. A class-meeting was formed around 1840 and services began in a room over the workshop of Thomas Heaps, Local Preacher and owner of a joinery and building business.A chapel was built in 1846-47, replaced by a new building in 1899.
A Primitive Methodist society was formed in 1851 and a chapel opened in Lord Street in 1855, enlarged and renamed St George's Church in 1875. This building was replaced by a new school and chapel on the corner of Promenade and Mount Street in 1907-08.
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Blackpool is a vibrant Lancashire holiday seaside town on the headland of the Fylde peninsula, facing the Irish Sea. The town's growth from the early nineteenth century derived from the popularity of sea bathing.
Wesleyan meetings began in Blackpool in 1830, on the initiative of James Roskell. A chapel was built on Adelaide Street in 1835, enlarged in 1862 and later renamed Central Methodist Church. The Victorian building was replaced in 1976. Other chapels were built on South Shore (Ebenezer, 1869, replaced by Moore Street in 1889), North Shore (1888, replaced in 1907), and Raikes Parade (1886, replaced in 1909). Ebenezer, in Rawcliffe Street, was donated by Francis Parnell (1799-1884).
Primitive Methodist chapels were opened in Chapel Street (1862, rebuilt 1875 and 1938), Egerton Street (Ebenezer, 1900), and Grasmere Road (1908).
There were also Methodist New Connexion chapels in Blackpool, in Springfield Road (1889) and Newton Drive (1909) and an Independent Methodist chapel on Central Drive (1925).
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Pershore is a market town set in the centre of the Vale of Evesham six miles west of Evesham.
Methodist preaching was taking place in Pershore by the early 1790s, with preachers visiting from Worcester. The curate, Rev W. Russell, published in September 1793 a reply to Joseph Benson's Defence of the Methodists. In Five Letters addressed to the Rev Dr Tatham.
A house in Newland licensed for Methodist worship under the Toleration Act was frequently attacked; on 13 January 1811 the mob broke into the house, injuring Mary Tomkins, a member of the congregation. The Methodists responded by taking a case to the Worcester Assizes and the Court of King's Bench.
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In 1820 Crewe was a village of 70 inhabitants with Crewe Hall inhabited by Lord Crewe (1812-1894) and his family in the centre. In 1837 the Grand Junction Railway line from Birmingham and Wolverhampton to Warrington crossed Lord Crewe’s estate, with the station named in his honour. By 1871 the population had increased to over 40.000 largely due to the Grand Junction Railway building its locomotive works in the town.
Wesleyan: Preaching began at Mr Galley’s farm house in Wistaston in 1835 and then in 1842 in a saw pit near Mill Street. A temporary preaching place was opened by Dr Beaumont in 1843. When Mr Richard Dutton built his home the services were transferred there and the society was placed on the Nantwich Circuit plan. A few years later a school/chapel was opened in Mill Street for nonconformists in the area. Eventually the other denominations built their own chapels leaving the Wesleyans to continue worshipping in the building. A new chapel, Trinity, was built on the site in 1848-49. With the rapid growth of the town, additional chapels were built at Warmingham Road (1868), Hightown (1868), and North Street (1869), with Day and Sunday Schools in Mill Street and Hightown (1869). Crewe became a separate circuit in 1869 and Trinity chapel was rebuilt in 1877, to a design by G.B. Ford of Burslem, with new school premises added in 1909.
Primitive Methodists In 1843 Crewe was missioned by two preachers from Nantwich. Later Thomas Wood also a Nantwich local preacher began to preach in Crewe. A society was formed and they held the services in a cottage tenanted by Ralph Poole in Market Street. In 1846 a chapel was built on the corner of Market Street and Victoria Street. Soon there was need of a larger chapel. Land in Heath Street was bought from Samuel Heath (1816-1882) and his cousin Martin Heath (1810-1887). The foundation stone of the chapel was laid on 5 September 1854 by Mr Richard Dutton of Stanthorne Hall, Middlewich followed by Mr Samuel Heath who laid the foundation stone for the schools. A new chapel was opened on 25 July 1866 and was later known as the Wedgwood Memorial Chapel, in honour of John Wedgwood (1788-1869). Samuel Heath celebrated his 50th birthday in 1866 by giving the land and donating the building costs of a school chapel in Ramsbottom Street. This building was replaced by a larger chapel, the Heath Memorial Chapel, opened on 10 July 1875. Other Primitive Methodist Chapels were built as the town began to develop. These were Wesley Street (Hope Primitive Methodist), September 1863; Mill Street, July 1865; Henry Street, 1880, Bradfield Road Mission Room 1899.
Independent Methodists. In 1869 James Slack (1833-1883), an engineer who came from Manchester to Crewe for employment, met with a few friends in a room in Market Street belonging to the Crewe Cooperative Society. Mathew Darlington was the first preacher to the group. In 1871 the Independent Methodists rented then later bought the former Baptist chapel on the corner of Oak Street and Bowling Green street. Some years later the trustees sold the chapel and moved into rooms owned by the Co-operative Society in Co-operative Street. By 1901 the accommodation in the Co-operative Rooms were too small for the growing congregation so a scheme was devised to build a church. On 21 August 1909 the foundation stones were laid for a church and schools in Flag Land and Bridle Road. The church opened in early 1910.
The Methodist New Connexion had a chapel in Edleston Road, opened in 1881, and the Wesleyan Methodist Association (later UMFC) worshipped in Earle Street from 1843, then in Market Terrace (1863) and then in Hightown (Heathfield UMFC, 1883).
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Knutsford is a market town in Cheshire some 14 miles southwest of Manchester.
Travelling south from Manchester on 20 March 1738 John Wesley briefly stopped and preached in Knutsford from the steps near the George Hotel. The occasion is commemorated with a plaque. Wesley visited again on 21 March 1775 and 14 July 1787.
Until 1796 the Wesleyan society met in the home of Peter Dean. A chapel was opened in that year in the Market Place and a school room was added in 1813. A new chapel was built in Princes Street in 1864-65; the foundation stone was laid by the Wesleyan philanthropist Thomas Hazlehurst (1816-76) on 25 May 1864 and the chapel was opened on 11 May 1865.
Primitive Methodist. In 1805 Eleazar Harthern (c.1785 – c. 1850), "the wooden legged preacher” who lost his leg in military service was converted whilst hearing Lorenzo Dow preach in Knutsford. A chapel was opened in 1836 in Cross Town, Knutsford In the 1851 Religious Census the Knutsford PM attendance was recorded as 22 in the afternoon and 52 in the evening.
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Droitwich is a mainly residential spa town on the River Salwarpe in Worcestershire around 7 miles northh-east of Worcester. The town is built on huge salt deposits.
A Wesleyan society was formed in 1797 and was described on the Worcester Circuit preaching plan as 'a new place opened this year, and in which we have a very good prospect.' The first chapel was built in 1808; the society moved premises in 1831, moving again in 1859-60 and 1886, when subsidence caused the evacuation of the premises. Following Methodist Union, a new building was constructed on Worcester Road and opened in 1938.
The Wesleyan Methodist Association and the Primitive Methodists were also represented in the town.
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Redditch is a town twenty miles north east of Worcester. In the middle ages it became the centre for needle making and by the 1870s Redditch was supplying 90% of the world's hand sewing needles. It was also a major centre for the manufacture of fish hooks.
John Wesley visited Redditch, then a small village, in 1752, 1756 and 1761.
The Wesleyan Methodists began preaching in Redditch in 1807, establishing classes, and then a chapel and a Sunday School in 1808.The chapel was extended in 1817 and replaced in 1842-43; the new chapel was greatly enlarged in 1881. A chapel was opened at Headless Cross in 1857, and replaced in 1873-74 by a new Gothic building, designed by Charles Bell. This building was destroyed by a gale in March 1895 and the chapel which replaced it was demolished in 2016.
A dispute over the preaching of Miss Butler and other women in 1831 led to the creation of an Arminian Methodist society in Redditch and the opening of a chapel in Evesham Street in 1833. This society joined the Wesleyan Methodist Association in 1836 and then the UMFC. Enlargements in 1854 and 1871 were followed by the building of a new chapel, Mount Pleasant, in 1899-1900.
There was a Primitive Methodist presence in Redditch from the 1830s, with chapels opened in 1839, 1849 and 1890-91.
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Francis Parnell was born in 1799 in Manchester, the son of a sergeant in the army. He began work in a cotton mill at the age of 8 and enlisted in the Royal Navy at 15. Returning to Manchester at the end of the Napoleonic Wars, he resumed mill work, first as a weaver and then as manager, partner, and proprietor, retiring to Blackpool in 1864.
Parnell joined the Wesleyan Methodist Society in Manchester around 1819, becoming a Sunday school teacher, Class Leader, and Circuit Steward. With growing prosperity, he was a generous benefactor, paying for the Ebenezer chapel and Sunday School in Cheetham Hill, Manchester, in 1849. Later, he funded the Rawcliffe Street chapel and Sunday School in Blackpool, and he donated 1100 guineas to the Wesleyan Thanksgiving Fund in 1879.
In civic life Parnell was a member of the Manchester Corporation and an elected Guardian of the Poor. He was a Commissioner of the Local Board in Blackpool, one of the first borough aldermen (1876), a magistrate, and the second Mayor of Blackpool (1879-80).He was also a major shareholder in the Winter Gardens.
Parnell was married twice: first, in 1818, to Ellen Howard (1800-59), and second, in 1859, to Mary Cook (1811-81).
Francis Parnell died in Blackpool on 1 July 1884.
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Leominster is a town in the north Herefordshire borderlands of England and Wales, known as the Marches.
Joseph Cownley (1723-1792), a native of Leominster, was converted in Bath by Methodist preaching. Returning to his home town in 1743 he joined the Moravian Society and later became one of John Wesley's preachers. John and Charles Wesley and John Cennick preached in Leominster between 1746 and 1750.
The first Wesleyan Methodist chapel in Leominster opened around 1836 and was replaced by a larger building in 1861.
The Primitive Methodists began open-air preaching in Leominster in 1821, formed a Society in 1825, and built a chapel in Green Lane in 1839.
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Walsall is a West Midlands town historically in Staffordshire and around 9 miles north west of Birmingham. . From the 11th century the town's prosperity came from coal, iron ore and limestone and there has been metal-processing since the 14th century. The town was transformed from a large village to a major manufacturing town with the industrial revolution.
Both Charles Wesley and John Wesley on their visits to Walsall in 1743 and 1744 were met with violence. On Monday 26 March 1764 John Wesley preached at 7 am to an attentive crowd. Wesley later commented: “All present were earnestly attentive. How is Walsall changed!”
Wesleyan: In 1770 the Society hired a room in Dudley Street. The first chapel was built in Bedlam Court off High Street in 1801. A Sunday school was begun in 1807. These premises were replaced by a new chapel in Ablewell Street, opened on 26 March 1829. These premises were replaced in 1859. This was succeeded by a Central Hall, seating 1400 people, which was opened on 9 January 1930.
The Methodist New Connexion opened a chapel in 1860, the Primitive Methodists in 1872 and the United Methodist Free Churches in 1862.
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Whitchurch is the oldest continuously inhabited town in Shropshire and the most northerly market town in the county, situated 20 miles south of Chester and around 20 miles north of Shrewsbury the county town, with the Welsh border 2 miles to the west.
[[Entry:2955] John Wesley's] first visit was when he rested in Whitchurch during a snow storm on 4 April 1751. He visited and preached in the town on six further occasions between 1760 and 1781.
Wesleyans.
The first Class-Leader was Joseph Brown who with his wife Ann invited visiting Methodist preachers to preach in their home. The second Class-Leader was Samuel Roberts. Another Whitchurch resident John Parsons (1730-) had his curiosity about the Methodists aroused when he read about them in the Gentleman’s Magazine. On a visit to London he heard John Wesley preach on Blackheath and decided that he wanted to hear more Methodist preachers proclaim the scriptures. On his return to Whitchurch he built a large preaching room in the back yard of cottages he owned in Clay-pit Street and invited the Methodists to hold their meeting there. The Whitchurch Society was put onto the Chester Circuit plan but in 1803 the Conference assigned Whitchurch to the Wrexham Circuit which had been formed out of the Welshpool Circuit. The Whitchurch Society felt the growing need to have their own chapel. A chapel was built in 1809 in St Mary’s Street and opened on 8 July 1810 by [[Entry:656]Rev Dr Thomas Coke] (1747-1814) and [[Entry:2878] Rev Samuel Warren] (1781-1862). In 1815 Whitchurch became a Circuit. On 25 October 1877 [[Entry:1771] Sir Francis Lycett] (1803-1880) and others laid the foundation stones on a plot in St John Street for a larger and gothic cruciform chapel, opened in April 1879.
Primitive Methodist.
Both the Burland and Frees Circuits missioned Whitchurch but had little response so they stopped sending preachers. Thomas Bateman (1799-1897) and other officials from the Burland Circuit arranged to hold a Camp Meeting at Whitchurch on 1 September 1822 near the canal wharf but the constable ordered the meeting to stop. Thomas Bateman and the people then processed to another site on the other side of the town and continued the meeting. Even though the town was frequently missioned over the following years no Society was formed until 1838, when Mr J. Goulburn went to live in the town and opened his home for the Primitive Methodists to hold their meetings. When it overflowed with listeners the Baptist Chapel leaders offered them the use of their premises. By 1840 the trustees had procured a piece of land for a chapel. The chapel was opened on 27 December 1840. This building was replaced in 1866: the foundation Stone was laid by [[Entry:4324] Samuel Heath] (1816-1882) of Crewe on 13 June and the opening services were on 16 and 23 December.
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Oldbury is a Black Country market town in the West Midlands and the historic county of Shropshire. In 1768 James Bridley’s original Birmingham canal was cut through the town and Oldbury became an island surrounded by canals. Oldbury was a coal and ironstone mining area.
There was a Wesleyan Methodist Society and Sunday school in Oldbury by 1801; nineteenth-century growth was reflected in the building of new chapels and Sunday school premises and in the formation of the Oldbury Circuit in 1859. By 1877 the Wesleyans had a flourishing cricket team and two football teams who played in the Birmingham leagues. Meanwhile, in 1846 special sermons were preached in the chapel to raise funds for the families bereaved by an explosion at Round Green New Colliery on 18 November, which killed 19 men.
The New Connexion, [[Entry:2214] Primitive Methodist] and [[Entry:2939] Wesleyan Reform] traditions were also represented in the town.
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Oldham is a large town and Metropolitan Borough in Greater Manchester and in the historic county of Lancashire. It is on the foothills of the Pennines with the rivers Irk and Medlock flowing through the town. In the mid-18th century Oldham became a centre for hat making and evolved into a major centre of textile manufacture.
John Wesley visited Oldham five times between 1770 and 1790.
Wesleyans
The Wesleyan Methodist Society started in the mid-18th century. John Murlin (1722-1799), who was arrested for street preaching, described Oldham as a place of daring and desperate wickedness. The Wesleyans opened a chapel in Bent Brow in 1775; this housed a Sunday School when the Society moved its worship to Domingo Street. The Sunday School met at 9 am then at the end of the session the children and adults walked to St Peter’s Anglican chapel to attend the service led by Rev. Hugh Grimshaw (1743-1793) who occasionally raised money for the Wesleyan Sunday school. In 1789 foundation stones were laid in Manchester Street for a chapel opened on Good Friday 1790. Mount Pleasant chapel was built in 1832 and in 1858 the Society moved to a new chapel in Greenacres Road.
A Methodist New Connexion chapel was built in Manchester Street in 1805 and was sold to the Baptists in 1816, when the MNC Ebenezer chapel opened in Union Street.
Primitive Methodists: Oldham was missioned by Manchester preachers in 1820. The Society opened two classes in the homes of members. Some 14,000 people attended the Oldham Bardsley Camp Meeting held on 19 May 1822, and in the same year Oldham became a Circuit. The first place of worship was at Ashworth’s stable in Duke Street. They then moved to a former machine shop in Grosvenor Street. In 1826 they built a chapel in the same street and used the machine shop as a Sunday school. In 1836 the Society built a more commodious chapel in Boardman Street which Hugh Bourne opened. In 1850 the Lees Road chapel was built, followed by a chapel in Henshaw Street in 1871. Primitive Methodism developed so well in Oldham that the denomination had four Circuits in the town.
A United Methodist Free Church' chapel was built in 1834 in King Street.
Independent Methodists: Oldham was an important centre for the Independent Methodists. Around 1806 a group of worshippers in St Peter’s parish church formed a group who met weekly under the leadership of Joseph Matley. At one of their meeting John Neild took a scripture text and began to expound it. This let to split in the group. The friends of John Neild left the group and began to meet in an old disused mill in Whitehead Square. The incumbent of the parish church asked them stop holding their meetings. They refused and called themselves Independent Methodists: they were the first group to use the name Independent Methodists. The denomination did not adopt the name until 1898. In 1816 George Street chapel was the first purpose built Independent Methodist chapel in England. In the same year they started the first of seven Sunday schools in the town and neighbouring area.
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Market Drayton is an historic market town in North Shropshire, close to the Staffordshire and Cheshire borders and with good communications by road, river and canal.
Wesleyans
Around 1799 the Methodists met in houses in Tinkers Lane and Ranters Gullet. In 1808 the Wesleyans built a chapel on land between Keelings Lane (Salisbury Road) and Street Land (Shrewsbury Road), with an extension added in 1817 and a gallery in 1842. In 1864-65 a new chapel was built, seating 400, designed in the Gothic style in brick with stone dressings and a spire, at a cost of £1666. The old chapel continued to be use as a Sunday school, and a Wesleyan day school.
Primitive Methodist
A PM Society appeared on the 1824 Burland Circuit Plan. The first recorded Primitive Methodist chapel was opened in Ranters Gullet off Cheshire Street. It was licensed in 1826. The 1851 Religious Census reported that it had 150 seats with a congregation of 140 in the afternoon and 150 in the evening and 90 children at the Sunday school. It was replaced by Ebenezer chapel built on Frogmore Road, opened on 10 November 1867. In 1869 Market Drayton became the head of its own named Circuit.
Methodist Church
As a consequence of the severe damage caused by a tornado on Monday 23 November 1981 the former Wesleyan chapel was demolished in 1982. A new chapel was built on the site and was opened on 28 September 1985. The congregations of the former Wesleyan chapel and the former Primitive Methodist chapel united in the new building and the former Primitive Methodist chapel in Frogmore Road was then sold.
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Samuel Heath, born in Haslington, Cheshire, in 1816, was the eleventh and last child of John Heath (1766-1846) and Catherine Heath (nee Stockton) (1772-1850). John Heath was a bricklayer; John and Catherine were Primitive Methodists and their home was a preaching centre. From a very frugal childhood, with limited opportunities for education, Samuel became a timber merchant, builder and farmer, owning land in Crewe. The siting of the engineering works for the Grand Junction Railway in Crewe led to the development of the town and Samuel held several civic offices: he was surveyor of highways from 1848 and a founder-member of the Coppenhall Local Board (and chair of the Board in 1868-69). Converted in the Burland revival in the early 1840s, Samuel was a Local Preacher and was instrumental in the building of the Market Street PM chapel (1845) and in successive and larger chapels in Heath Street (1854-55) and Ramsbottom Street (1865-66). His financial support for some twenty PM chapels was recognised in a resolution of thanks from the PM Conference and in the later naming of Ramsbottom Street as the Heath Memorial Chapel.
Samuel's daughter Mary Alice Heath (1849-1912) married the PM minister Thomas Powell (1841-1915) in 1868. They emigrated with their family to Queensland, Australia, in 1881, as PM missionaries.
Samuel Heath was married three times: to Martha Boden (1816-55), Betsey Steele (1816-77) and Mary Davies (1831-1900); five children outlived their father. Samuel died on 23 August 1882.
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Born in Bradford and baptised in St Peter's Church on 22 September 1811, Richard Crabtree followed his father James's trade, becoming a stonemason. Later he became a builder, stone merchant and contractor, first in Bradford, where his projects included Lumb Lane mill, and then in Morecambe. He was a member of the Bradford Town Council for many years and when resident in Morecambe he was a member of the Local Health Board and a Director and Chairman of the Morecambe Tramway. He managed the major civil engineering scheme to erect the Morecambe sea wall and promenade, and his generosity to the town was marked by a banquet sponsored by the Morecambe Local Board on 16 March 1877. During his time in Bradford he became a Wesleyan member and benefactor. In 1875 he was the contracted stone mason to the Green Street Wesleyan chapel in Morecambe. In 1884 he donated the land for a Chapel-school in the West-End of the town. When the memorial stone was laid by Sir Henry Mitchell of Bradford for the new chapel in 1896 it was laid in memory of Richard Crabtree the ‘Father of West-End Wesleyan Methodism’. Richard died on 24 March 1896, in Morecambe. After the funeral service in the West End Wesleyan chapel, the mourners went by train to Bradford, for interment at Undercliffe Cemetery.
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Henry Gorton was a stonemason, builder, architect, surveyor and property developer. Born in Whittle-le-woods, Lancashire, on 16 May 1826, he was apprenticed to a Leyland stonemason. He married Alice Coupe in Preston in 1848 and they raised a family of seven sons and three daughters. Around 1850 Gorton moved for work to the rapidly developing seaside town of Morecambe and he soon joined the local Wesleyan Society. Almost immediately Henry was asked to hold office and was appointed the Society treasurer. He oversaw the erection of the modest wooden chapel, underwriting the finances of the project. In 1852 a Sunday school was started in the home of Henry and Alice, and Henry served as its Superintendent until his death.
Henry Gorton was not only an important person in the development of Morecombe Methodism but also in civic life. He built residential and commercial property, as well as the market and shops. He was an elected Parish overseer for Poulton, and an active committee member of the Morecambe Ratepayers Protection Association. He was elected to the Morecombe Board of Health after an acrimonious election campaign in April 1870, but died a month later, on 31 May 1870. He was buried in the churchyard of Holy Trinity Church, Poulton le Sands. The inscription on the tombstone is 'Thanks be unto God, who always causes us to triumph in Christ.' (2 Corinthians 2:14)
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Morecambe is a town on the Lancashire coast, facing the Irish Sea. It was created in 1889, from the townships of Poulton, Bare and Torrisholme. Linked by rail to Scotland and to the Yorkshire mill towns, these scattered fishing villages grew into a seaside resort which flourished from the late nineteenth century until the 1970s.
Wesleyan Methodism: There were occasional visits to Poulton Beach in the first quarter of the 19th century by Local Preachers on the Lancaster plan. Roger Crane (1758-1836) a Local Preacher from Preston, preached from the fish stones in Poulton Market Place. On his first visit, Crane was attacked by a mob and dragged to the nearby pond where they intended to drown him. He was rescued by a bare knuckle boxer who recognised him as the person who had shown kindness to him in Preston. Other visiting preachers at this time were William Bramwell (1759-1818) and Ann Cutler (1759-1794) known throughout the Fylde as “Praying Nanny”. When Moses Holden (1777-1864) was sent to the village in January 1811 there were 10 members in the society. In 1819 a chapel was built in Poulton. One of its members was John Stirzaker (1813-1854), who became a Wesleyan Minister. In 1836 when stationed in the Lancaster Circuit Rev John P Sumner (1809-1871) preached in Poulton le sands.
Worship and a Sunday school started in Morecambe in 1852 in the home of Henry Gorton (1827-1870) architect, builder and surveyor and his wife Ann (1828-1906). A wooden chapel, accommodating around 60 people, was opened in August 1853 by the Rev Joshua Hocken (1799-1853) Superintendent of the Lancaster Circuit. Plans were soon laid to build a permanent chapel, and the foundation stone for a chapel in Pedder Street was laid by Robert Bickerdike (1805-1881) of Lancaster in February 1855 The chapel was opened four months later and the seating was increased by a gallery in 1860. An organ was installed in 1863. In 1867 Sunday school premises were built behind and attached to the chapel. The chapel west wall and gallery was removed so that the Sunday school’s lower hall could be used during the holiday season as an overflow. The Sunday school superintendent was Henry Gorton. When these premises became too small for the congregation Mrs Kussep of Newcastle upon Tyne proposed a scheme to build a new chapel and promised a gift of £200 to the project. At a trustees' meeting in April 1874 to discuss the new chapel project there was a split vote. The majority were in favour of the scheme and the estimated cost. As a result of the vote several of the dissenters left the Wesleyan chapel and started the Morecambe United Methodist Free Church. The memorial stones for the new Wesleyan chapel in Green Street were laid on 19 July 1875. The first stone was laid by Miss Waller the daughter of Mr Charles Waller (1820-1893) of Bradford, and the second by Mrs Richard Crabtree (1824-1903). Special trains ran from Bradford and Leeds bringing friends to the ceremony. The land was given by Charles Waller and an extra adjacent plot was bought and donated to the scheme by Richard Crabtree (1811-1896) a Wesleyan in Bradford who was the contracted stone mason. In 1884 a Sunday school was added.The architect was Samuel Wright (1852-1929)
West End Wesleyan Chapel
On 25 April 1883 4 memorial stones for the West End Wesleyan chapel were laid on the site given by Richard Crabtree. A Sunday school had been started some years earlier. By 1886 an extension was added. With a growing congregation and increased summer visitors this building became too small. In 1895 a new chapel was planned with the 1883 chapel to be retained as the Sunday school. On 11 August 1896 the first foundation stone was laid by Sir Henry Mitchell in memory of Richard Crabtree who had donated the site and was affectionately known as the Father of West End Wesleyanism. The church was designed to seat 830 by Samuel Wright. Morecambe became a Circuit in 1894
United Methodist Free Church: The society was formed in April 1874 with 44 members who had seceded from the Morecambe Wesleyan chapel. They held their first service in the Music Hall on 12 April 12 1874 which they continued to use for worship and a Sunday school until October 1875. Mr Gallimore of Sheffield, a summer visitor to the chapel, promised £300 towards the cost of building a new chapel if the local people could raise an equal amount. Immediately a building committee was formed. A site in Clarence Street was purchased for the new chapel. On 18 October 1875 the foundation stones were laid, and the partially built chapel was opened on 18 October 1876. By 1881 enough money had been raised to complete the project which had 700 seats and a school room to accommodate 300 scholars.
Primitive Methodists: On 25 August 1862 Edward Dawson J.P.(1793-1876) of Aldcliffe Hall, Lancaster, laid the foundation stone. On Sunday 19 October 1862 a gale severely damaged the building which delayed the opening till Sunday 15 February 1863. As part of the celebrations on Monday 23 August 1863 there was an open air demonstration on the water front which attracted over 2000 people, many coming by an excursion train from Bradford and West Yorkshire. In 1864 the Sunday school was started. In 1883 the trustees bought the former Wesleyan chapel and schools in Pedder Street for £1200 and spent £400 on repairs and alterations.
West End Primitive Methodist chapel, Parliament Street. The congregation worshipped in a room over a shop in 1893. The following year they hired the Central Hall. A site for the chapel was secured in 1896. On 5 July 1897 memorial stones were laid for the Assembly Hall. On Monday 13 September 1897 the memorial stones for the chapel were laid. The chapel was opened on 4 May 1898 when the preacher was Rev James Travis (1840-1919), President of the 1892 Conference.
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St Helens is a town in Merseyside and in historic Lancashire. It is around six miles north of the river Mersey. During the Industrial Revolution coal mining, glassmaking, copper smelting, sail making and chemical businesses were important to the town's economy, contributing to its rapid growth in populationand status.
John Wesley visited St Helens on Saturday 13 April 1782 and preached in the home of Joseph Harris which was next door to the Navigation Tavern.
Wesleyan Methodism was introduced to St Helens by Joseph Harris who came from Kingswood to manage the Ravenshead Copper Works around 1780. The first Wesleyan meeting house was built in Market Street around 1801 and was replaced by a chapel in 1814 in Tontine Street. On Thursday 16 April 1868 Mr Thomas Hazlehurst (1816-1876) laid the foundation stone for a larger chapel in Cotham Street. The chapel was opened on Thursday 3 June 1869 when the preachers were Samuel Romilly Hall, president of the Wesleyan conference and Rev. John Bedford (1810-1879) ex-president of the Wesleyan conference.
A Primitive Methodist society was formed as a result of missions in 1842. From 1845 the society rented a chapel 'in a back street in a bad situation, few people attended it.' In 1857 the society leased a site in a better area and built a chapel, whuch was opened on 20 December 1857; the preacher was Rev James Garner (1809-95), of Liverpool. On 30 August 1875 the foundation stone for a chapel on the corner of Westfield Street and Kirkland Street was laid by Alderman Cook. In July 1902 Richard John Seddon PC (1845-1906) the 15th premier (prime minister) of New Zealand visited Kirkland Street Sunday school to view his mother’s plaque (Jane J Seddon (1816-1868)) recording her years as a teacher at the school which he attended as a boy.
The United Methodist Free Churches opened a chape in 1861 and the Independent Methodists opened Zion Chapel, West Street, in 1892.
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