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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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).
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Reigate is a market town in Surrey: a medieval settlement which expanded greatly with the arrival of railways in the nineteenth century and is now part of the London commuter belt.
John Wesley visited Reigate several times, but found it unfruitful ground, comparing its residents unfavourably with those of Dorking as 'dull indeed as stones'. Wesley preached on at least four other occasions at Reigate Place, the home of Richard Ireland (1700-1780), and a former Augustinian Priory.
Wesleyan Methodists
The first Wesleyan chapel was not opened until 1858 in Nutley Lane. A day school was added in 1872 and the present High Street church, designed by Frederick Boreham, opened in 1884, a Sunday School having been started in 1878. Membership of the Society at the time was no more than 30-40, but by the 1920s this had increased to about 140. After suffering bomb damage in World War II the interior of the church was refurbished, with a central aisle and the organ, installed in 1899, was rebuilt. A new 'Joseph Rank Hall' was built at the rear of the church in the 1950s with support from the Rank Trust. Membership reached 329 in 1962, with a flourishing Sunday School in the afternoon.
Discussions with the Congregationalists next door in the 1960s about a possible united church in a new building came to nothing and the Congregationalists moved to the present Reigate Park URC site.
Primitive Methodists
A PM chapel was opened in Lesbourne Road on 5 October 1871. Services ceased in 1947 and the building was sold in 1948.
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Conservative politician, born Mary Elaine Kay on 8 July 1923. Educated at the Quaker Mount School, York, and at St Anne's College, Oxford, she was called to the bar by the Middle Temple in 1964. She was a governor of the Methodist Culford School from 1963 to 2003. With her first husband Charles Norman Kellett, who died in 1959 following a car accident, she managed a farm near Dereham. Following the death of his first wife in 1970, she married Edward Bowman (1931-2020), who likewise was an active Conservative and served as a Member of the European Parliament; from 1974 he was a business and management consultant in a private practice.
She served on Denbigh Borough Council, 1952-1955 and Camden Council, 1968-1974. She stood unsuccessfully for Parliament at Nelson & Colne, 1955; South West Norfolk (twice) in 1959; Buckingham in 1964 and 1966. In 1970 she was finally elected MP for Lancaster, continuing until 1997. Meanwhile, from 1979 to 1984 she represented Cumbria in the European Parliament. She was awarded the DBE in 1988 and died on 4 March 2014.
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Trade unionist and Methodist local preacher, born on 14 February 1908 at South Walsham. He began work as a farm labourer and was a member of the National Union of Agricultural Labourers, becoming the Swaffham Area Organiser. He was a local preacher from 1932 and a member of the Swaffham Methodist Church. From 1936 he was the Labour Party’s full-time agent in East Norfolk and a union officer. He was a member of Norfolk County Council from 1951. In the 1959 parliamentary by-election, caused by the death of fellow Methodist Sidney Dye, MP, he was returned for the marginal South-West Norfolk constituency, but was defeated in the 1964 General Election. In 1961 he was elected to the Labour Party’s National Executive Committee. From 1964 Hilton was the President of the National Agricultural Workers' Union and in May 1965 he became a life peer as Baron Hilton of Upton. He was also chair of the National Brotherhood Movement. He died on 3 May 1977.
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Redhill is a town in Surrey, south of London. The arrival of the railways from the mid-1840s transformed a small settlement into a thriving commuter town.
In the 1860s the Wesleyans worshipped in the Corn Exchange, before the building of a 500-seat chapel in 1866-67. The chapel was opened on 9 May 1867 and demolished in 1934 as part of a scheme to build a Central Hall in the town. This building was remodelled in 1959 and then replaced by a new church in Gloucester Road, opened on 21 March 1992.
The PM cause in Redhill developed from open-air preaching in the early 1850s via use of rented rooms to a chapel in Lower Road, Meadvale, opened on 22 July 1855, and then renovated and extended in 1872. This chapel closed around 2010.
A second PM chapel, in Brighton Road, was built in 1870 and replaced in 1884. The chapel suffered damage from air raids in World War Two and closed in the 1950s.
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Primitive Methodist local preacher and printer, who from the 1850s to the 1860s was the Connexion’s best-known publisher. Born in Hull, with a Unitarian father, there John and some friends began attending the Primitive Methodist services. Following his marriage to Ellen Obee (1808-87) in April 1833 he moved to Halifax and first appeared there on the plan in March 1836. He was also a class leader and Sunday school teacher.
By 1839 he had moved to Leeds where initially much of his income was derived from jobbing work. Between 1847 and 1856 his business grew from printing sermons and other works, as well as working closely with the Book Room; he became its leading provincial printer. A reduction in business from the late 1860s may have been linked to declining health. Parrott died in August 1871; his estate was valued at £200.
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Primitive Methodist preacher and author, and later minister of the Catholic Apostolic Church, was born on 23 April 1821 in Whitehaven, Cumbria, and baptised in the local Wesleyan chapel. He trained as a compositor, probably on the Cumberland Pacquet before moving to Liverpool in the early 1840s, where he became a PM local preacher and then, in 1843, an itinerant. In his second station, Manchester (1844-45), Simpson met Mabel Ireland (1827-90), daughter of a local preacher, and they married in 1848.
From the beginning of his itinerancy Simpson contributed biographical sketches and obituaries to the PM Magazine. An obituary first published in the Pacquet in 1841 and expanded in the Magazine in 1843 formed the basis of his first book, The Prodigal Son; or, The History of Charles Beardslee. Produced by the Leeds PM printer ??? for the Connexional Book Room, it reached a fifth edition by 1850 and continued to sell well through the 1850s and 1860s. Simpson's partnership with Parrott led to a stream of books and periodical publications, some reflecting the style of contemporary Realist fiction. Meanwhile, Simpson was a popular preacher for Sunday school anniversaries and other special occasions.
In 1866 Simpson published a work criticising Joseph Barker, drawing attention to Barker's chequered career as MNC itinerant, Unitarian, and PM. Five years later, Simpson resigned from the PM itinerancy and joined the Catholic Apostolic Church (the Irvingites), justifying this change in Reasons for leaving the Methodist Ministry and for embracing the Work of God under the restored Apostleship (1871). He continued to speak at PM events, including a camp meeting at Middleton, near Oldham, in 1881, but he remained in the Catholic Apostolic Church, first in Manchester and then in Oldham, until his death on 17 January 1897.
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Paignton is a market town and seaside resort on the south coast of Devon, which developed as a popular holiday destination from the mid-nineteenth century.
Wesleyan Methodists
John Footman, a Royal Navy pensioner, licensed his home as a place of worship in May 1824 and when the society grew, meetings were held in the home of John Jenkins, father of the Rev. Dr Ebenezer E. Jenkins. After worshipping for some years in a converted barn, a new chapel was planned, and the building, on Polsham Road, was opened on 12 November 1868. An extension and refurbishment followed in 1881 and in 1895-96 the chapel was replaced by a larger building, seating 550 people, in Palace Avenue.
Bible Christians
The Bible Christian cause began with meetings in Dartmouth Place around 1840, moving in 1884 to the former Independent Chapel on Cecil Road. This building was renovated in 1904, later renamed Southfield Methodist Church, and closed in 2022.
Primitive Methodists
A PM missioner preached in the town in 1864 and the Weston Mission Hall opened in Winner Street in 1881, but the cause seems to have been short-lived.
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John Wesley visited Ramsgate once, in December 1766.
Wesleyan Methodists
The Wesleyans opened their Bethel chapel and Sunday school on Hardres Street in 1810. A new Sunday school was built in 1885 and the chapel was renovated in 1886; a new hall was added to celebrate the centenary in 1911. Following wartime bomb damage a new chapel was built in 1955 and these premises became the home of the Hardres United Church (a Methodist and United Reformed Church LEP) in 1979. The United Church was joined in 1988 by the congregation of the Northwood church, opened as a Wesleyan mission in 1931.
Primitive Methodists
The first PM chapel in Ramsgate was the former Beulah Baptist chapel, purchased in January 1841. This building closed in 1868, when the congregation joined the newly-built Queen Street chapel (constructed in 1868-69, and then rebuilt in 1873-74, following a major fire). A Mission Hall was established in Denmark Road in 1869, but this was destroyed by enemy action in December 1940.
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High Wycombe, formerly Chipping or Chepping Wycombe, is a town in the Buckinghamshire Chilterns. A significant local industry was the manufacture of chairs.
John Wesley visited the town between 1739 and 1790 at least 47 times and preached on 32 occasions. In June 1740 Charles Wesley and the vicar of Wycombe ministered to a man who had been shot by a highway man just a short distance from the town. The following day Charles ministered to the apprehended murderer.
The Sunday school pioneer Hannah Ball (1734-1792) lived in the town most of her life. In 1769 she started the first formal Sunday school in Britain and possibly in the world. She taught the children working in the local inns how to read and instructed them in Chistian faith and scriptural knowledge.
Wesleyan Methodists
On 11 November 1779 John Wesley opened the new chapel which had been built in the garden behind Mr Batten’s house in St Mary’s Street. By the time Wesley returned in October 1787 three galleries had been added. A Sunday school was started in 1801. In 1815 the High Wycombe Circuit was formed out of the Oxford Circuit. In 1824 the chapel was enlarged but because there was no school-room the children were taught in the chapel. In 1832 a building scheme was started to build a school-room. By 1861 the chapel and school-room had become too small. Two houses were bought so that a large new chapel could be built. The plan was reviewed and it was decided to find a better site and a plot was secured in Cemetery Road (later Priory Road). On 3 October 1865 Lord Carrington laid the memorial stone. The chapel was opened on 12 July 1866; in 1872 the school rooms were opened, and in 1893 a large three storey school extension was added. Wesley Methodist Church Priory Road continues to be a vital Methodist presence in the town.
The Wesleyans extended their work in the town with chapels in Victoria Street (1882-1977), London Road (1893), and Sunnybank, Downley, where the original chapel of 1824 was enlarged and renovated several times during the nineteenth century.
Primitive Methodists
The first Primitive Methodist mission was in Downley, a village on the outskirts of High Wycombe. In 1835 the Rev. James Pole (1806-1846), who was stationed in Hounslow, walked some 20 miles to High Wycombe, launching a mission which lasted six months. The first chapel was built in 1864 and closed in 1965.
There were four other Primitive Methodist Chapels in the town. Frogmoor school chapel was opened on 3 September 1848, enlarged and reopened in 1861, and replaced by the White Hart Street chapel in 1875. Slater Street chapel opened in 1873 and Westbourne Street in 1877, where a school chapel was followed by an iron chapel in 1883 and a new building in 1897. All three chapels closed in the late 20th century. Wycombe was also the centre of PM outreach into the neighbouring villages.
The Wesleyan Reformers also maintained a presence in Wycombe and its rural hinterland, tending to adopt the name 'Free Methodists', although belonging to the Wesleyan Reform Union rather than the UMFC.
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Methodist local preacher and miners’ union official, born at Felling. At an early age he began working at Seghill Colliery, Northumberland. Progressing to deputy overman, he resigned after eight years in opposition to management methods he was told to enforce. Active in the Northumberland Miners Association, he was a branch delegate for three years, also served on the union executive and was President of the Association. After military service in France in the First World War he became active in the Labour Party, being elected to both Seghill and Northumberland County Councils. He died on 18 September 1940 when the SS City of Benares, carrying mainly children to safety in Canada, was torpedoed.
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Belfast industrialist, politician and Wesleyan, born in Co. Londonderry, 27 September 1810, where he began work as a carpenter. On moving to Belfast in 1831 he associated with the Primitive Wesleyans being from1840 to 1860 the Belfast representative to Conference. He supported their uniting with the Wesleyan Methodists, which took place in 1878. In Belfast he became a building contractor responsible for some of the largest contracts in Northern Ireland, including the Belfast County Courthouse, 1848-50. He married in 1839 Anne, daughter of Henry Hall, a gentleman whose wealth came from the cotton trade. In 1851 James Carlisle went into partnership as a flax spinner with Philip Johnson, (later Mayor of Belfast,1871), at Brookfield Mills, Crumlin Road, as the cotton trade declined. Originally trading as Johnston & Carlisle, in 1857 it became a limited company, Brookfield Linen Co. Ltd, with Carlisle as its first chairman. The business would never recover from a slump in 1921 and ceased in 1933.
In politics Carlisle was a Conservative Unionist. He was elected as a councillor for the Belfast Dock Ward, later becoming an alderman, but refused the mayoralty. He was also a member of the Belfast Harbour Commission.
The Carlisles were generous benefactors. Their son John Henry Carlisle, born 3 October 1852, died on 21 December 1870, and the family funded the Carlisle Memorial Wesleyan chapel, Belfast, a substantial Gothic church, opened in 1876, in memory of their children.
James Carlisle died on 25 November 1882 and Anne Carlisle died on 8 March 1900.
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Both John and Charles Wesley visited Hatfield on several occasions, the latter to visit his sister Anne (Nancy) and her husband, John Lambert.
Wesleyan Methodists
In 1829 William Clerk licensed his house for Methodist preaching. A chapel was opened in a stable annex in 1851. In 1870, 1880 and 1886 the St Albans Circuit approached the Marquess of Salisbury, the principal local landowner, for a site for a new chapel, but to no avail. This apparent obstruction was raised with the Committee of Privileges, with R.W. Perks taking a leading role. An expensive site was secured in 1889 and the chapel opened on 30 October. By 1902 it was reported that the building was in a poor condition.
Subsequent development brought chapels at Birchwood (built in 1936-38; closed in 2024) and Oxlease (1961).
A PM chapel was recorded in the 1851 Religious Census, but it had closed by 1853.
Queenswood School, opened in Clapton in 1866, moved to Brookmans Park, Hatfield, in 1925.
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Wesleyan Methodists
A Wesleyan Society was meeting for worship in private houses in Herne by 1814. The first chapel was built in the 1830s; this structure, in what became called Chapel Row, was replaced in 1887 by a chapel and schoolroom on the High Street, opened on 21 September 1887.
After some false starts in Herne Bay in the 1840s, a new work began in 1883, with a congregation worshipping in the Town Hall. A church was built on the corner of High Street and Beach Street, and opened on 26 August 1885. In 2002 the Methodist congregation combined with the United Reformed Church and the High Street chapel was closed.
A new initiative at Beltinge, launched in 1952, closed in 2013.
Primitive Methodists
There was a PM Society in Herne from the 1860s to the 1880s.
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Harlow, an ancient village and small town on the Essex/Hertfordshire border, north-east of London, was designated in 1947 as the site of a new town, intended to relieve overcrowding in the metropolis. An area with a population of around 3500 in the early 1930s thus expanded to a town of 90,000 by the late 1960s.
The Wesleyan Methodists began to hold services in Harlow in the 1880s. George Searle, a postman and baker, hired a room for preaching and this led to the opening of the Jubilee chapel, named for Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee, at Burnt Mill on 13 June 1887. Meanwhile, outreach from the neighbouring Bishop's Stortford chapel and preaching by the Rev. Caesar Caine, District Missionary of the First London District, resulted in the opening of a school chapel at Mulberry Green on 15 May 1886.
The initiatives of the 1880s reflected Wesleyan efforts to extend village Methodism. The Harlow New Town development was met by the stationing of a minister, the Rev. Eryl W. Hughes, by the Home Mission Department in 1952. A new church, named St Andrew's, was planned, beginning with the construction of a hall in 1953-54. The hall was opened on 30 October 1954 by Sir Richard Costain (1902-66), chairman of the Harlow Development Corporation and member of a family with Methodist connections. The church envisaged in the 1950s was never built; instead, the hall was replaced by a purpose-built church in 2008-09.
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Wesleyan Methodists
There was a Wesleyan presence in Hasting from around 1797. Around 1809 local people and soldiers were meeting for worship and fellowship in a hall in Waterloo Place, supported by the Lewes Circuit. When Henry Beck (1783-1868) a Local Preacher, baker and grocer moved from Eastbourne to Hastings in 1817 the Society began to grow. In 1821 Henry Beck started to hold services in his house in 3 Russell Street. When the congregation became too large, a room was hired in Winding Place; later the Waterloo Chapel was built in Waterloo Place.
In the summer of 1834 the Wesleyans bought Hastings Theatre for £780 and it was opened as Wesley Chapel on 13 September. The chapel was replaced in 1939-40 by Wesley Methodist Church, now closed.
During the jubilee celebrations of Wesley Chapel in 1867, plans were laid for a new building. On 25 May 1875 the memorial stone for the Central Wesleyan chapel was laid by Mrs Anna Brassey (1839-1887) the wife of Mr Thomas Brassey (1836-1918), the M.P. for Hastings. The chapel was built on Cambridge Road and was designed by W.W. Pocock (1813-1899). The church closed in May 1974 and was demolished in 1980.
Calvert Memorial: Around 1871 Mr John Surman (1843-1934), a gardener, moved to Bohemia, Hastings, and held Wesleyan services and opened a Sunday school in his house. On Wednesday 6 July 1881 the Wesleyans opened an iron chapel on the corner of Park Road and Shornden-terrace, Bohemia, Hastings. On 16 July 1890 a memorial stone for a building to replace the iron chapel was laid in St John’s Road, Mount Pleasant, and the chapel, seating 750 people, was opened on Sunday 24 May 1891 by Rev. James Calvert. Shortly after the death of Rev James Calvert in 1892 the chapel was renamed Calvert Memorial Chapel (later renamed Calvert Methodist Church). On 7 and 8 October 1953 a major and successful fundraising event was held to clear the debt on the Central Methodist Church and to raise money to restore the Calvert Memorial Church. The money raised allowed a major restoration to take place, including the creation of a large hall. Further improvements were undertaken to celebrate the centenary in 1981.
Primitive Methodists
The first PM Quarterly Meeting in Hastings was held on 6 June 1859. The Society hired a room over a laundry at 39 High Street and worshipped there until 1874, when a former Baptist chapel near the Albert Memorial clock tower was purchased for £3000 and the Memorial Primitive Methodist chapel was opened. In 1882 the Society left the Memorial Hall and eventually bought the Beach Terrace Mission Hall, whch opened on Monday 7 April 1890 as the Hastings Primitive Methodist Chapel. The chapel closed when Beach Terrace was demolished in the early 1930s.
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On Thursday 29 March 1739 John Wesley stopped at Egham to have dinner. His next visit was on Sunday 30 January 1743, when he walked from Windsor to Egham. Wesley recorded that the incumbent 'preached one of the most miserable sermons I ever heard.' Later the same day Wesley preached from the same text (Matt. 7: 16), 'in an endeavour to rescue the poor text.' There is no record of Wesley preaching at Egham again.
Wesleyan Methodists
There was a Wesleyan chapel in Egham by the 1840s, supported by the Pocock family. Thomas Wilmer Pocock (1817-1889) paid for the building of a new chapel in memory of his son Seth Smith Pocock (1851-78), killed in a boating accident. The Pocock Memorial Chapel was built in 1879-80 and was renovated and enlarged in 1892. At the reopening on 17 November 1892 Seth's brother Percy Wilmer Pocock (1856-1942) took the chair and the preacher was the Rev. Dr James H. Rigg, President of the Conference. In 1970 the chapel joined with Egham Hill Congregational Church to form the United Church of Egham.
A second Wesleyan society formed in Englefield around 1860, meeting in a house. T.W. Pocock donated a school chapel, built in Alexander Road in 1882, and a new chapel was built on adjacent land in Victoria Street in 1904. This 250-seat building was opened on 3 May 1904 by Miss Elizabeth R. Pocock (1845-1913), of Wakehurst. The chapel closed in 2002 and the Methodist congregation formed a United Church with the parish church of St Jude's.
Primitive Methodists
A small corrugated iron chapel opened in Wendover Road, Egham Hythe, in 1898. This was replaced by a second iron building and then, in 1952, by a brick chapel, which closed in 2015.
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Although Clacton-on-Sea was not developed as a seaside town until 1871, there was a Wesleyan presence in the area centred on Great Clacton, which is a mile inland from the present Clacton-on-Sea.
Wesleyan Methodists
A Wesleyan society in Great Clacton appeared on the 1794 Manningtree Circuit plan, but it does not appear to have survived very long. The Society was revived in 1822 by the ministry of Revs James Gartrell (1764-1844) and William Pollard (1795-1839). A wooden chapel was built to seat 120 and opened on 8 November 1824. A Sunday School was established later and the chapel was enlarged in 1876; extensive restoration followed in 1902.
In 1875 the Clacton-on Sea Wesleyan Circuit was formed out of Manningham Circuit. The Trinity Society was the head of the Circuit. After meeting in the Assembly-Room for a few years, on 10 April 1877 the foundation stones were laid for a chapel to seat 500, on the site given by Messrs Harman, Young, and Page, on the corner of Pier Avenue and Rosemary Road. The stones were laid by Sir Francis Lycett (1803-1880), John Bawtree, Esq., and George J. Sizer, Esq. The chapel was opened on Tuesday 11 September 1877. A Sunday School was added in 1886-87 and on Monday 27 June 1887 a Wesleyan Day school was opened in the premises with Mr A. E. Brown as the headmaster. A new Wesley Hall was added in September 1931.
Primitive Methodists
There was a PM Society in Great Clacton from around 1845. After worshipping in a cottage from 1859-63, the Society secured land and held a foundation stone laying ceremony on 20 April 1863. The chapel was opened on 7 June 1863 and enlarged in 1882.
The Society built a chapel near Magdalen Green in Clacton-on-Sea in 1863. In May 1899 a site for a new chapel was offered, and the foundation stones were laid on the corner of Osyth Road and Old Road on Whit-Monday,19 May 1902. The chapel was opened on 11 February 1903 and the school premises followed on 10 August. At the time of Methodist Union the chapel was named Zion Methodist Church. Around 2018 Zion closed and the Salvation Army took over the building.
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John Wesley preached in a summer-house near Chertsey on 5 February 1750. The crowd was so large that the main floor beam broke; Wesley continued preaching in the grounds. Wesley preached in Chertsey itself on 12 February 1750.
Wesleyan Methodists
The Wesleyans first met in a chapel in White Hart Yard around 1846. In 1860 Joshua Richards of Addlestone promised to build a chapel for £500 if the trustees could find a suitable plot. Land in London Street was secured but the contract to build was given to Mr Newlands of Cobham. Work started in April 1863. On the 10 June 1863 the commemoration stone for the replacement chapel was laid in London Street by James S. Budgett (1823-1906). The chapel was opened on Friday 23 October 1863. In 1867 the premises were extended with the building of a school, and this was further extended in 1906. In 1980 the church closed and united with St Peter’s Anglican Church.
Primitive Methodists
In 1876 the Primitive Methodists held a series of open air services in the Goosepool area of Chertsey. The Society met in a small room. Through the efforts of John Wilson, a Primitive Methodist Missionary, the Society grew and a plan was made to build a chapel. Freehold land on the corner of Station Road and Laburnum Road was given by Mr James Johnson (1802-1885) an Anglican of Addlestone Moor. The memorial stones were laid on Wednesday 31 October 1877. The chapel was built with seating for 200 people. On Whit-Sunday, 9 June 1878, a service to celebrate the opening of the chapel was held. On Thursday 29 July 1880 around 100 Primitive Methodist children and teachers marched in the Chertsey and Addlestone National Sunday School Festival parade celebrating the Centenary of the Sunday school movement. In November 1888 the Revs Barzillai Beckerlegge (1854-1934) and Isaac Brentnall (1857-1920) held a series of revival services in the chapel. The chapel closed in 1936 and joined the London Street Methodist Church.
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Richard Hall was born on 24 February 1864 in Spennymoor, County Durham, son of Richard and Mary Hall; his father was the manager of an iron works. He entered Richmond College in 1884, intending to serve overseas, but after a year in Demerara his health failed and he returned to England, serving first in Mildenhall and then in a succession of urban circuits. In 1901 he was appointed to the Canterbury Circuit, where for two years he ministered mainly among the soldiers training to go to the Boer War. In 1903 through the influence of Rev. Dr Henry Pope he was appointed to Chatham. At the time there was no Wesleyan Society in the town. He hired the Town Hall for Sunday worship and held the first service on 27 September 1903. A forceful preacher and able administrator, Hall built the 2000-seat Chatham Wesleyan Central Hall, opened in 1908, and served as its Superintendent until his untimely death at the age of 62 in 1927. From 1924-27 he was also Chairman of the Kent District. Hall was Chaplain to the Naval and Military Forces in the Chatham Garrison and when the First World War broke out, he went to France with the British Expeditionary Force as an Army Chaplain. He was soon given responsibility for Wesleyan Camp Homes in England and France, and he rose to the rank of colonel and was awarded the OBE for his wartime service. When the Royal Air Force was formed in 1918 he was appointed Staff Chaplain. Taken ill at a meeting at Westminster on 14 October 1927, he died the following day and was given a full military funeral at Chatham Central Hall. Hall married in 1890 Hannah Jane Starforth (1866-1958); their eldest child and only son, Joseph Frederick Starforth Hall (1892-1941) served in the Royal West Kent Regiment in the First World War, entered the Wesleyan ministry soon after the War, but seems not to have completed his probation; by 1927 he was in Anglican orders.
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John Wesley first visited Chatham on 18 February 1768 and between then and 3 December 1790 he visited over 40 times, preaching on at least 20 occasions. On the first and second visits he preached to the soldiers in the barracks. On the third occasion he preached in George Whitefield’s meeting house because the Wesleyan Methodist meeting house was too small for the congregation.
Wesleyan Methodists
There was a Wesleyan Methodist meeting house opened before 2 February 1768 and a new Meeting House was opened by 3 December 1771.
Outreach to the Armed Forces in Chatham began with the chaplaincy work of Charles H. Kelly. In 1901 the Wesleyan Conference appointed the Rev. Richard Hall (1864-1927) to the Canterbury Circuit. He was the chaplain to the soldiers who were preparing to go to fight in the Boer War. Even though there was no Wesleyan Society at Chatham, in 1903 the Conference appointed Hall to the Chatham Garrison Circuit and stationed him in the garrison town and naval port of Chatham. Hall paid £220 to hire the Town Hall for 12 months for worship services and the first service was held on 27 September 1903. Soon the Sunday evening congregations grew and filled the Town Hall to capacity. A place for a permanent Mission Hall was sought. The site previously occupied by the London and County Bank was purchased for £2500. Work began in February 1907 and the Chatham Wesleyan Central Hall was opened on 11 March 1908. Richard Hall was the Superintendent Minister until his sudden death in 1927 at the age of 62. The Chatham Methodist Central Hall was sold in 1966 and it became a centre for culture and music.
Primitive Methodists
An Ipswich Primitive Methodist preacher missioned Chatham in 1844. A Society was formed and rented rooms for worship until they built a chapel in George Street. The foundation stone was laid on 23 October 1854 and the opening services were held in March 1855. In the 1890s the congregation had become too numerous to be accommodated in the George Street chapel so the Society rented the Gladstone Hall for Sunday worship. The Society purchased a plot of land in Mills Terrace and Salisbury Street adjacent to Magpie Hall Road and sold the George Street chapel. On 31 May 1893 the memorial stones of the new chapel were laid, and the chapel was opened on 14 February 1894. The chapel closed in 1954, its Diamond Jubilee year.
Bible Christians
In 1822 there was a Bible Christian Society in Chatham. They opened a chapel on Union Street in 1829, making it an early Kentish Bible Christian presence. It was also the head of the Chatham District. On 20 October 1889 the chapel was re-opened after a major renovation; it later became Union Street United Methodist Church, closing in 1960. There was a second Bible Christian chapel in Luton Road, opened in 1885.
The United Methodist Free Churches had a chapel in John Street in the 1880s.
Methodist Church
In the present century there are Methodist/Anglican partnerships at Christ Church, Luton Road, and Holy Trinity/St David’s in South Chatham.
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