Early Wesleyan Methodism in Oswaldtwistle

(Full disclosure – I went to the primary school linked to the Chapel mentioned below. The Head was Mr Chew. It was not the nearest school. My great grandfather David was as far as I know the first Wesleyan. Previous generations were linked to the Church of England)

My source only deals with the Wesleyan (mainstream) Methodists. There was no mention of the Primitive Methodists, nor of the Methodist New Connection. Ranked in terms of numbers of congregations (in 1851) the order is Wesleyan, Primitive, Calvinistic, Association, and New Connection. Wesleyans are by far the most numerous. This count excludes Independent (some of which may be Methodist and some perhaps Congregationalist) who are 2^nd to Wesleyan and Bible Christian. Baptists rank 3^rd. The Wesleyans seemed to regard the Primitives as disorganised and chaotic and did not speak to them. The Wesleyans wanted respectability, which they thought the Primitives did not attract. There was a big Primitive Chapel in my town that was founded in 1836. There is no mention of it in my source. The Wesleyans, New Connection and Primitives settled their (relatively minor) differences and merged around 1910. There were and are a few independent Methodists around. I think the differences are mainly organisational and discipline-related. The Methodists did have Calvinistic and non-Calvinistic wings. Since the Methodists had abandoned Episcopalian top-down church government, there was no authority other than John Wesley to enforce uniformity. John Wesley was said to be authoritarian, hence different branches appeared after John’s death.

Methodist services in Oswaldtwistle were commenced in 1796 in the home of one John Barlow, who was a lay leader, in Warren Lane. Warren Lane ran North from Badge Brow to Foxhill Bank Brow. The southern continuation of it ran to Blackburn and the northern through Church.  It became Union Road somewhat later. The greater part of the population lived in this area. The row of cottages was nicknamed Treacle Row (I have seen no documentary evidence for this name so I do not know where it came from) and the little congregation became unofficially the Treacle Row Society. They were initially part of the Blackburn Circuit with at least two preachers allocated.

Wesleyan Churches were organised by the “circuit” to which ministers were allocated. The circuit your chapel was in could and did change from time to time. Does this sound a bit like episcopal church government? It does to me. The society began to grow until the low point of 1799 when "dark and troublous days came" and they were reduced to three members. They faced bitter opposition from a sinister religious organisation known as the "Church of England". In 1800 they disappeared for a time but returned the following year. They then benefited from a growing population but had to face violent mobs. Around 1802, they moved to the house of Richard Haworth and his wife in nearby Duncan Square (East side, now vacant ground behind the vacant 1930 Palladium cinema). The Haworths faced harassment from the local Anglican Curate (reported on elsewhere). It was still referred to as the Warren Lane Society. The area including Duncan Square is often referred to as Moscow. (I will report on the Haworths separately as I am still working on them.)

They continued to face harassment from CofE activists. Services were  disturbed. Congregants were threatened with loss of employment and banishment. Were the Methodists hindering the CofE in the town? Were they sheep-stealing? No, the CofE was doing nothing in the town that I have found. The Wesleyans were the only church in town until the Primitives (mentioned above) and New Lane Baptist, founded 1820. You could argue that they were baptising children who would otherwise have been taken to Church Kirk, the nearest CofE. At this time, it was a chapel-of-ease and perpetual curacy with the parish church miles away at Whalley. As Church Kirk was High Church, it is possible that these working people preferred less ceremony. To be fair, the Methodists were probably a greater threat to the CofE than others such as the Baptists (with a distinctive doctrine). They were the closest alternative to the CofE.  I think these early Methodists deserve credit for pioneering church growth in the town in the face of undeserved opposition. I suspect that the CofE had to respond to them. The CofE did become active in the second half of the century when the population was growing rapidly but that is another story. Why did they not target the unitarians and Swedenborgians (heretics)?

In 1804 Accrington and Warren Lane were joined to the Bury Circuit for six years with two preachers. In 1810 a Burnley Circuit was created, with two preachers allocated, and Warren Lane is in the list of societies. So, for example, in that circuit at 6pm on 5 May 1811, J Walsh was allocated. A minister was allocated to Warren Lane on alternate Sunday evenings. As you can imagine, the preachers had to move around a lot, according to a pre-arranged rota. By this time, the Duncan Square house was too small. In 1810, a Mr Fielding moved his business out of Oswaldtwistle thus vacating a cotton warehouse. This became the new preaching room and Sunday school. This was a plain building entered by way of a flight of stone steps with iron railings.

The building (but not the society) was named Hippings Chapel "being immediately in front of the hipping or hopping stones which crossed the ford of Tinker Brook". I don't buy this story. I know the area well as I used to play here. The street is called Straits leading onto Mill Hill. This road is likely the medieval road through the town towards Blackburn. (The current Blackburn Road is a relatively newer turnpike road.) There is an old bridge called Hippings Bridge at the bottom of Straits, but how old is it? I think it existed in 1810, so there was no need for hipping/hopping stones. There would be no point in building it once the new bridge was in place. There could have been a ford before the bridge was built as the area is suitable. There are old weirs either side of it. I suppose there could have been a folk memory from before the old bridge was built but who hops across stepping stones? Stepping-hopping-hipping doesn't make sense. There was a Hippings Vale spinning mill that used to be next to Mill Hill but was a demolition site when I was a boy. Clearly the name stuck. Perhaps it will remain a mystery. There are some surviving old buildings along Straits, but I am unsure which one if any was the chapel. I think it was the recently re-furbished one on the corner next to the bridge. Perhaps someone else knows this. Services were once a fortnight in the evening. The modern bridge over Tinker Brook is slightly to the East of the old bridge. It and its associated stretch of new road was built about 1840 and widened about 1900. I played under it. I think it was referred to as Branch Road for a short time.

In 1813 an effort was made to improve the accommodation. There was added a pulpit, a "singing pew" for singers and instrumentalists (sorry no amplifiers, flashy lights, microphones, electric guitars or rock ’n’ roll drums) and a gallery with 28 pews in four rows. Four of these pews were respectively occupied by James Simpson, and others whose names are not yet familiar to me. But James Simpson is, of course, James Simpson of Methven, the calico printer, who moved from Clitheroe to Oswaldtwistle that year. The previous year James had dissolved his partnership with Thomas Peet operating at Barrow near Clitheroe. This is the first I knew of a link between James Simpson and the Methodists. There was now accommodation for 400 persons, and the frequency of services was increased.

By 1814 Warren Lane has become Hippings in the Haslingden Circuit. This circuit had two or three preachers allocated at various times. This arrangement continued in 1820 and now included Green Haworth. The Green Haworth chapel was built in 1836 where there were 24 members and 100 congregants. What is unusual about this is that it is South of the town on the moor top at 273 m (nearly 900 feet). It appears that there were plenty of small farms and businesses. It is possible that more people lived up here at this time. There was a pit, Broadfield, owned by the Simpsons. It was important enough to have a tramway running down the valley side and along Badge Brow to the print works. No trace of it remains. My sister’s house lies just to the East of the line on the map. There was also a pottery and quarry. During the early period, membership of the main Hippings chapel varied around 100.

A check on Lancashire OnLine Parish Clerks shows that they have on-line records for 284 Methodist baptisms from 1817-1837, the Hippings period. Most of the families are Oswaldtwistle locals living within 5 or 10 minutes’ walk. Many are employed in Mr Simpson’s print works. There are 46 occupational references to calico printer, 43 to printer, 37 to block printer, 7 to block cutter, 5 to print cutter, 6 to engraver, 3 to colour mixer. Most Methodist baptisms, marriages and burials are not yet up on the internet. In 1826, rioters went on the rampage destroying all the local power looms to try to protect the hand loom industry, but they did not touch the calico printers. This delayed the weaving industry for decades.

In the 1830’s there was a move to clear the £400 debt on the building in order to build a larger chapel and separate school. It was not until 1845 that a site was chosen in Pollard’s field. Unfortunately, the OS first edition map does not identify the tenants of the fields. When this site was chosen, nobody envisaged that in a few decades, all these fields would disappear beneath houses, and the chapel would be completely hemmed in on all sides. James Simpson was a big land owner (probably second to Sir Robert Peel), and he donated a plot of 1,000 square yards. Another plot of similar size was purchased, and then another for the school. Mr Simpson also subscribed £20 in addition to the plot worth about £90. Mr Simpson retired a wealthy man in 1830. He died aged 72 in 1847. The chapel was opened on 10 July 1846. The first CofE church in town was Immanuel, opened in 1831. It is located at the far South end of town up a hill, whereas the Methodist chapel is more centrally located.

In 1839 the Haslingden Circuit celebrated the centenary of Methodism with a fund-raising effort that raised £222,000. Hippings was on the list of contributors. In 1846, the Accrington congregation, whilst building their own new chapel in Union Street (now a shopping centre or mall for Americans) assisted the Hippings congregation in building their new chapel. In 1863 the Haslingden Circuit was divided, and an Accrington Circuit created consisting of Accrington, Hippings (193 members), Green Haworth and Huncoat with two preachers allocated and then three after a couple of years. At some point, and I am not sure when or why, Hippings became Mount Pleasant Chapel, although the Hippings name persisted. Of the 19 trustees, 8 were called Haworth (a common name in these parts). In 1880 there were 225 members.  In 1882, the Sunday School had 83 teachers and 529 scholars, with an average attendance of about 260, and 145 members. By the end of the century more chapels had appeared.

Not everybody was hostile. The Huncoat brethren wanted to obtain a site for a chapel, but the site owner was Charles Towneley of Towneley Hall, Burnley. The Towneleys were one of the oldest and most distinguished Roman Catholic families in North Lancashire. Despite the fears of some, a deputation was sent, and they got the plot.

Here is a curiosity. One Alexander Mather was called to the Methodist ministry on the Colne circuit in 1757. He was the first married minister. He had the confidence of John Wesley. He was on the side of the rebels at the battle of Culloden (1746), so he said. Was this a tall story? I wonder.