During a difficult period for Methodism it appears that Methodist bloggers missed this wonderful little item which appeared in The Guardian last Friday:
In praise of.......Englesea Brook
The chapel and museum in a Cheshire hamlet is celebrating the founding of Primitive Methodism
When visitors arrive at Englesea Brook chapel and museum in a Cheshire hamlet near Crewe, they are offered a smile, a cuppa and maybe a chocolate digestive. Which is more than they will be given at the British Museum or the Tate.
This year (and rather more next year) Englesea Brook is celebrating the bicentenary of the founding of Primitive Methodism by Hugh Bourne, a Staffordshire wheelwright, with the help of William Clowes, who was a potter, an evangelist and an exceptional dancer.
In 1807 both attended, on the hill known as Mow Cop, an open-air meeting that mixed fiery preaching and noisy hymn-singing, and which drew inspiration from the gatherings of the Great Awakening that revived American evangelicalism. Such associations soon saw both men evicted from Wesleyan Methodism. The museum tells the story of the duo and their working-class nonconformity simply and with affection.
The chapel, whose exterior resembles the comfortable home of a farm worker, has been Victorianised downstairs but retains box pews in the gallery. Next door in the Sunday school room are banners, piously inscribed cups used at love feasts, and celebratory tea sets (Stoke's potteries are not far away) featuring portraits of the two preachers.
One case holds Bourne's right boot, which had been cut to ease the pressure on a foot swollen from the hundreds of miles he walked to preach to the faithful. His simple grave is in a peaceful little burial ground across the road from the chapel.![]()
In praise of.......Englesea Brook
The chapel and museum in a Cheshire hamlet is celebrating the founding of Primitive Methodism
When visitors arrive at Englesea Brook chapel and museum in a Cheshire hamlet near Crewe, they are offered a smile, a cuppa and maybe a chocolate digestive. Which is more than they will be given at the British Museum or the Tate.
This year (and rather more next year) Englesea Brook is celebrating the bicentenary of the founding of Primitive Methodism by Hugh Bourne, a Staffordshire wheelwright, with the help of William Clowes, who was a potter, an evangelist and an exceptional dancer.
In 1807 both attended, on the hill known as Mow Cop, an open-air meeting that mixed fiery preaching and noisy hymn-singing, and which drew inspiration from the gatherings of the Great Awakening that revived American evangelicalism. Such associations soon saw both men evicted from Wesleyan Methodism. The museum tells the story of the duo and their working-class nonconformity simply and with affection.
The chapel, whose exterior resembles the comfortable home of a farm worker, has been Victorianised downstairs but retains box pews in the gallery. Next door in the Sunday school room are banners, piously inscribed cups used at love feasts, and celebratory tea sets (Stoke's potteries are not far away) featuring portraits of the two preachers.
One case holds Bourne's right boot, which had been cut to ease the pressure on a foot swollen from the hundreds of miles he walked to preach to the faithful. His simple grave is in a peaceful little burial ground across the road from the chapel.
