In his book The Gospel among the Masses, Robert Key reported that in 1832, he was told that a Wesleyan preacher had come to Watton. When he began to preach, he was attacked by the mob, escaping only by the skin of his teeth. Nevertheless, a congregation was formed in the town and a Wesleyan chapel was built there in 1834 with 160 sittings.

In the Religious Census of 1851, 90 people attended the afternoon service as well as 28 children in Sunday school. A total of 82 were at evening worship. There was no morning service. The form was signed by Charles Ames of Watton, the chapel steward. He was a grocer, draper and glover.

Early attempts by the Primitive Methodists to establish a cause in the town also came to nothing. Robert Key, the great East Anglian evangelist wrote of his experiences there on 16 August 1832. Standing in the market place, he received ‘very rough handling from the infuriated rabble.’ However, Key was not to be deterred.

An article in the Bury & Norwich Post, submitted by an observer of the scene, described the event as an uproar, with blowing of horns, ringing of bells, beating tin kettles, shouting and yelling. ‘The preacher was twice thrown down from his stand to the ground, but with unabated zeal he as oft resumed his labours.’

Beer was circulated to encourage the rioters and it was affirmed that the violent protest was organized by a few prominent people in the town whilst an Anglican clergyman was ‘a prompter acting behind the scenes.’ Suddenly, several of the drunk ringleaders took Key’s part and saw him safely out of Watton.

The kitchen of a retired tradesman in Worm’s Yard belonging to a man named Took was first used for worship. He subsequently built a small chapel for the Primitive Methodists next to his house which was sold to the Connexion. It was built of clay lump with a brick floor and had two windows at the front. Rail-back forms were used for seating, providing 105 places, and light was provided by dip-candles.

Services were held in the afternoon and evening. Steward William Hart who completed the 1851 Census form reported 100 at the afternoon service on 30 March with 70 in the evening. Sunday scholars both in the morning and afternoon numbered 32. The numbers look suspiciously rounded, but were probably roughly correct. William Hart added, ‘we have a morning service for members of this place of worship exclusively 30-40’.

A replacement chapel was built in 1868 costing £500 and the old chapel became a house for the minister stationed in the town. The new chapel was prominently sited in the High Street, but it was sold to a resident in Watton when the congregation joined with the one at Saham Toney, presumably to strengthen the society there. The building was used as a Lecture Room until 1881 when it was bought back by the Primitive Methodists. A porch and schoolroom were added.

In 1913 the Primitive Methodist trustees bought a parcel of land from a Mrs Frost on which to build a new chapel. It had the proviso that no windows were to overlook the garden of Clarence House, the home of Mrs Frost. Two years later, it was felt that not enough land had been bought and so a further 10 feet were purchased for £25. A wall was erected in order to enclose the disused maltings there and all the land. A foundation stone was laid by Miss Moore in the east wall. However, building a new chapel was deferred until 1926.

A stone-laying ceremony for a new church was held on 7 July 1926. It was opened a year later on 7 July by Mrs C.K. Fisher of Coney Weston and Mrs G. Starling of Hilgay and the dedicating sermon was preached by the Rev. Professor A.L. Humphries, President of the Primitive Methodist Conference. It was built next to the old church which became the Central Hall and a Sunday school. The architect of the new building was Theo Scott of Norwich, son of the founder of the firm, A.F. Scott. The builder was Melville Peeke-Vout.

The cost of the new project was £3600. This included the alterations needed to convert the old chapel into a Sunday school and Institute of which £1577 was to hand as well as a £500 mortgage from the Primitive Methodist Chapel Aid Association. The huge sum of £176 was collected on the opening day. The organ, which had originally been installed in the old chapel in 1903 was restored and rebuilt by Messrs William Hill of Norwich.

Musical services were held on Sunday afternoons. The first in the new church was taken by Brighten Hardy, a farmer of Ovington, a ‘fire and brimstone Wesleyan preacher’, a JP and ‘possessing of a voice which could be depended on to wake every living thing within a quarter of a mile. And that was when he was speaking softly’.

A baby, Lyla Leggett, the daughter of John Leggett, a dairyman and his wife Louise had been baptized in the old church in 1884. She became a missionary in Nigeria and for a time worked in a leper colony there. Her name was inscribed on one of the foundation stones of the new building. She maintained close ties with the church where she had attended Sunday school both as a pupil and teacher and was the honoured guest there on many occasions.

At Methodist Union in 1932 the Wesleyan chapel on Saham Road closed and the congregation joined that at the ex-Primitive Methodist church.

In the 1980s, the old chapel, after refurbishment became the Watton Christian Community Centre. Its management was shared jointly by the Church of England and the Methodist Church. At the outset, it received support from Norfolk Social Services. It was opened in 1989 by Gillian Shephard, MP. The sharing agreement came to an end in 2019, as it was no longer required, and the building once again became a Methodist Centre.

[Click to view the complete entry]

Tradition tells that the first Methodist preacher who came to Southwold in 1778 was accompanied by a Mr S. Crisp of Wrentham and several others. Ordered to desist by the magistrates from preaching and singing in the open air and marched out of town, the group returned and Mr Crisp was put in the stocks from where he denounced those who were preventing the preaching of the gospel.

The young preacher Richard Reece was stationed in the extensive Norwich Circuit in 1788-89. He wrote in his journal,

Southwold is a new place where we have not yet formed a society. The sea comes close up to the town and surrounds it when there is a spring tide. The inhabitants are heathenish to an exstream [sic] although there are many Calvinist Dissenters among them.

The Calvinist Dissenters were Independents [Congregationalists] and Presbyterians, both of whom had a congregation in the town.

In 1792 a Methodist society at Southwold was listed in the Norwich Circuit book. A class of twelve was led by Elizabeth Voice, school mistress. It consisted of three men, one of whom, Thomas Brown, was a coal seller and another, Philip Child, a sail maker. The occupation of the third was not given. Two of the nine women were mantua makers. The occupations of the others were not noted. The following year, another school mistress was listed whilst Thomas Brown had changed his occupation and was now working at the Customs’ House in the town, an occupation also given for another of the class members. By 1796 Thomas Brown’s occupation had changed again and he was described as a shoe maker.

By 1797 there were fourteen members meeting in class although a much larger number would have been informal attenders at services and swelled the congregation.

Robert Wake, who wrote a history of the town in 1839, stated that a small Wesleyan meeting house was built in 1799 in Mill Lane for about 150 people. The society was incorporated into the Lowestoft Wesleyan Circuit.

In 1806, a Wesleyan, a Mr Tory, began a Sunday school and also a free day school, both of which were conducted in the chapel. However, they failed to thrive and closed down after a few years.

In 1823, a further attempt was made to start a Sunday school, but again it closed after a brief period. A final effort in 1827 was successful and by 1839 it boasted 146 children and 25 officers and teachers.

By the early 1830s, the congregation had become too large for the little chapel and so a larger building was set up on East Green. This could hold 350-400 people. It was opened in July 1835 by the Rev. A.E. Farrar and Rev. George Cubitt, both of London and T. Cutting of Bungay. A school room was added in 1845.

The 1851 Census of Religious Worship recorded a morning attendance at the chapel of 40 adults and 101 Sunday scholars. The afternoon saw 80 people at worship with ten scholars. In the evening, 226 attended the service. The census form was signed by the chapel steward, Thomas Henry Jellicoe who was also a trustee of the building. He lived in the Market Place.

The vicar of the parish church had reported that considerable numbers of people attended services at both church and chapels in the town. No evening services were held in the Anglican church and this may well explain the very large attendance at the Wesleyan evening services. The other nonconformist places of worship showed increased congregations at evening worship.

The Lowestoft circuit often found itself in financial difficulties. Several letters were sent to the Southwold society reminding them that they must fulfill their responsibilities and remit their portion of money to the circuit funds.

Circuit meetings considered the problem of supplying Southwold with preachers when the congregation was at such a distance from Lowestoft.

In November 1860 the Halesworth Times and East Suffolk Advertiser announced the re-opening of the Wesleyan chapel in East Green at Southwold. The old chapel had become too small to accommodate all those who wished to attend services and so it had been resolved to substantially enlarge it in order to seat 350 to 400 people.

A building fund was set up and almost immediately £100 was raised. The building work was quickly completed and a harmonium was installed. The cost of the enlargement was £110.The reporter for the newspaper concluded. ‘A spirit of great zeal pervaded this body and we hear that much good is being done among the fishing portion of the population’.

The re-opening sermons were preached in the afternoon by the Rev. William Limmer of Lowestoft and in the evening by the Rev. Graves of London.

In spite of this hopeful report, severe problems loomed. In September 1867 the circuit committee decided that it would be helpful to engage a Hired Local Preacher who would be based at Southwold. The society offered to raise £16 each year towards his employment. However, arrangements for him to live in the town broke down and so, instead, application was made to the Connexion to provide a Home Missionary. Conference declined this request, much to the disappointment of the Southwold society.

The matter continued to drag on. In 1882-3, a Mr Farr was working as a Lay Agent in Southwold. In the summer of 1883, he was replaced with a Mr J. Howlett who remained for two years. At the same time the circuit Quarterly meeting became increasingly frustrated at the very small amount of money sent from Southwold to the circuit. After meeting the circuit committee, the Chairman of the District then advised the Southwold officials to form a new circuit together with other nearby congregations. This proposal did not materialize.

There was much support for Mr Howlett amongst the Wesleyan congregation and also in the town. Faced with his likely imminent departure, suggestions were made as to how he could remain and continue his work in Southwold. Collections were taken and, with the money, an iron building measuring 48 feet by 24 feet was bought and Mr Howlett became the pastor of the congregation who began to meet there. This entailed a loss of about half the Wesleyan membership.

Services continued in the iron building for several years, but when Mr Howlett finally left the town, the cause there dwindled and finally the Anglicans bought the building, dismantled it and re-built it near the church to be used as a parish room. Numbers at the Wesleyan chapel slowly grew once more and in 1898 the East Suffolk Mission was formed.

The Yoxford Circuit, which now included Southwold, was subsumed into the Mission and a young minister was secured who would live at Southwold. In 1906, Southwold was returned to the Lowestoft Circuit.

A new Wesleyan Sunday school was built in 1902 with room for 200 children. The architect was F.R. Hunter and the builders R.J. Allen and Son of Southwold. The following year substantial alterations were carried out in the chapel with the old pulpit removed and the front of the gallery lowered.

Adult numbers continued to grow and the society started a mission at Reydon and erected a room for worship there.

Adjustment of circuit boundaries in 1906 resulted in the Southwold society, together with Reydon and Wenhaston, all in the East Suffolk Mission, being included in a new circuit called the Lowestoft and Beccles Circuit with Southwold being the resident of an unmarried minister.

A war memorial tablet listing the names of those killed in the 1914-18 war from the town was placed in the Wesleyan Methodist Church. It was made of wood with a carved crown and wreath in a roundel. The names of the 52 men were picked out in gold.

Primitive Methodists came late to East Anglia following a mission from the Nottingham Circuit in 1820.

William Dawson, travelling preacher stationed in Norwich, made dozens of applications to register premises for worship and one of these was for Southwold on 21 October 1823. It was for a house and premises in the town ‘now in the holding and occupation of Thomas Browne’. The licence was granted the same day.

In September 1835 the Quarterly Meeting instructed the travelling preachers to try and purchase the old Wesleyan chapel in the town. It is not clear whether or not they were successful.

The return for the Religious Census in 1851 reports that the congregation was meeting in a chapel which had been opened in 1844 and described this as ‘part of a building’ exclusively used for worship. There were 50 free sittings and 46 rented ones. In the morning 20 people attended worship while 50 were present in the afternoon and 70 in the evening. Of the attenders only fourteen were formal members.

The cause seems to have been a quiet one with very few references in the Lowestoft Quarterly Meeting minutes. At times it came on and off the plan. In 1864 it was agreed that Southwold should be re-missioned and two preachers appointed every Sunday, but a year later it was determined that Southwold should come off the plan as people would not come to the cottage preaching. The few members were advised to join the Primitive Methodist congregations at Wangford or Walberswick.

Southwold Methodist church closed in March 2022.

[Click to view the complete entry]

Wellington is a market town in Somerset, south-west of Taunton.

Wesleyan Methodists

John Wesley preached in Wellington in September 1775 and opened the Methodist preaching house there in September 1785. This rented cottage in Bowerman's Lane was purchased in 1813, extended in 1826, and replaced by a purpose-built chapel in Mantle Street in 1850-51. This was extended in turn in 1875.

Bible Christians

The Bible Christians were meeting in Wellington by the 1840s. Their Bethel chapel, largely funded by the ex-Wesleyan Richard Thorne, was opened on 1 January 1849. A new chapel was opened in 1899, with a Sunday School added a year later.

During the 1960s discussions took place about amalgamating the societies and it was decided to sell the Mantle Street chapel and upgrade the chapel in Waterloo Road. This scheme came to fruition in April 1971.

[Click to view the complete entry]

John Wesley broke journeys at Uxbridge on at least fourteen occasions and preached in the parish church on 12 February 1758.

Wesleyan Methodists

A room was licensed for worship in 1821, but the cause does not appear to have survived for any length of time. The society was re-established in 1845, when Luke Tyerman was the local Wesleyan minister, and a chapel was built in 1847 in New Windsor Street. This was replaced by a Central Hall in 1930 and in 1972 the Central Hall joined with the Congregational Church to form Christ Church.

Primitive Methodists

PM work in Uxbridge began in 1868, using rented rooms. A chapel was opened in Lawn Road in 1876; this building closed in June 1957, and the congregation joined the society at the Central Hall.

[Click to view the complete entry]

John Wesley recorded that there was a society meeting in Staines and a house just fitted up for preaching by the time of his visit on 28 November 1771.

Wesleyan Methodists

A small chapel in Kingston Road, in existence by 1845, was enlarged in 1865 and replaced by a new building in 1889-90. Urban redevelopment led to the building of a new church in Thames Street in 1987-88. The foundation stone was laid by Eric Goldhawk, using the same mallet used by his great-grandmother to lay a foundation stone in 1890.

Primitive Methodists

Open-air services in the 1870s preceded worship in the Academy, Gresham Road, and then a PM chapel in Richmond Road, opened in 1878. A little over a decade later, this chapel closed, following the opening of a PM chapel in Egham.

[Click to view the complete entry]

Wesleyan Methodists

The first Wesleyan meetings began in 1834, some eight years after the scheme to develop St Leonard's as a seaside resort was launched. A chapel in Norman Road was opened in 1836, extended by W.W. Pocock in 1863, extended again in 1884, and replaced, after a devastating fire, in 1900-01. This building closed in 2008.

A school chapel in the Bohemia district of the town was replaced by a larger building in 1892 and this now houses the St Leonard's Methodist Church.

Primitive Methodists

The Primitive Methodists established chapels in Gensing Road (1862) and Newgate Road, Bohemia (1866-1939).

[Click to view the complete entry]

Draper and local preacher, largely responsible for the establishment of Wesleyan Methodism in Sleaford, Lincolnshire. Born in Sleaford, his apprenticeship included time working for John Broadhurst, the Manchester Band Room Methodist. While in Manchester, Fawcett was converted through the preaching of Joseph Benson. He began Methodist meetings in Sleaford in 1795 and was responsible for hiring a former Dissenting meeting-house (1799) and then for the construction of the first Wesleyan chapel (1802) and its subsequent enlargement (1823). As well as his activities as a Wesleyan local preacher and class leader, Fawcett was also a successful businessman, as a draper and a timber and coal merchant.

In 1825 Thomas Fawcett married Elizabeth, widow of the Rev. Thomas Blanshard. He died on 13 August 1831.

[Click to view the complete entry]

Sleaford is a market town in Lincolnshire.

Wesleyan Methodists

Regular Wesleyan preaching in Sleaford began in 1795, through the initiative of Thomas Fawcett, a local preacher and draper. A former Dissenting meeting house was rented in 1799, and replaced by a chapel in Westgate in 1802. This was in turn replaced by a larger building on the same site in 1823 and then by a new chapel in Northgate in 1848. A day school was added in 1865. Structural problems led to the building of a new church in 1971-72.

Primitive Methodists

After three unsuccessful missions, the Primitive Methodists established a presence in Sleaford in 1840 and opened a meeting room in 1841. This became the Westgate chapel, extended in 1871, rebuilt in 1906-07, and closed in 1964, when the congregation joined the Northgate society.

[Click to view the complete entry]

Born in Pocklington, Yorkshire, Blanshard entered the ministry in 1795 and served in several circuits before appointment in 1808 as the Book Steward for the Wesleyan Connexion. Over the next fifteen years he oversaw the relocation of the Book Room from the City Road chapel to 14 City Road, acquired premises for book sales at 66 Paternoster Row, at the heart of the London book trade, and launched new publications, like the Youth's Instructor and Guardian (1817). He also navigated tensions between the Book Committee and authors like Daniel Isaac, who wanted the Connexion to promote their works. He held other administrative roles, including the secretaryship of the Committee of Privileges. A fire close to the Book Room in February 1820 caused the death, through shock, of Blanshard's wife, Susanna (1764-1820); this sudden bereavement affected Blanshard's own health, and he returned to circuit work in 1823, with his second wife, the former Elizabeth Massey. He died on 20 February 1824.

[Click to view the complete entry]

Methodist missionary to Burma (now Myanmar) and India, born on 4 March 1910. Her parents, William Owen and Jane Mackley, were Londoners, who moved on marriage first to Suffolk and then to Bradford where William worked for the council. Dorothy was born in Bradford and baptised at Richmond Terrace Wesleyan Methodist chapel. She attended Hanson Girls’ Grammar School and then Furzedown Training College, Tooting, initially returning to Bradford to teach. Subsequently she trained as a missionary at Kingsmead College, Selly Oak, and in March 1940 sailed for Burma in a wartime convoy. In Upper Burma she was a teacher, including teacher training. In early 1942, with the threat of a Japanese invasion, she first moved to Monywa and then to India, working at Madras and Trichinopoly before returning to England. After the war she returned to Burma. Twenty year later she moved to Halifax to nurse her mother and brothers. After their deaths she again returned to India, before retiring in 1970 to Halifax, where she died in 1985.

[Click to view the complete entry]

Rochester is a town on the River Medway, south-east of London. Until 1998 it had city status, and still has a medieval cathedral.

John Wesley visited Rochester several times, but is not recorded to have preached there.

The Wesleyan Society in Rochester was formed by 1760 and the city was the head of a circuit from 1790. The first chapel was built in 1770, in the High Street. This was replaced in 1810 by the Bethel Chapel, which was renovated in 1875 and 1886 and acquired a Sunday school and vestries in 1896-7. Bethel closed in December 1951, when a new chapel was opened in City Way. This was itself rebuilt in 1964 and refurbished in 2016.

The Osborn family were leading figures in Rochester Wesleyanism in the early nineteenth century. George Osborn (1764-1836), a draper, was a Class Leader and Circuit Steward; his son was the Rev. Dr George Osborn.

The United Methodist Free Churches also had a presence in Rochester, using and then purchasing the former Vines Congregational Chapel in Delce Road. After sixty-two years of Methodist occupation, this chapel closed in 1927 and was taken over by the Elim Pentecostal Church.

[Click to view the complete entry]

The Wesleyan Society at Crowe Hill was founded in 1833 and held services under the ‘Great Oak of Crowe’ The first chapel was built in the mid 1830s and was replaced by the present chapel, built in 1890, which is now also used as a Retreat Centre.

Wesleyan services in Ringwood began in 1834, meeting in Westover Farm. Later in the same year the society was able to rent the former Society of Friends' meeting-house. A new chapel was built in Christchurch Street in 1873-74, and extended in 1904. Dialogue with the United Reformed Church began in 1975 and finally bore fruit with the formation of Trinity United Church in 2008.

[Click to view the complete entry]