ManchesterCircuitLogo

Manchester Circuit

Middleton Heritage Website

The Arts &
CraftChurch
artsandcraftsch

Stop Motion
Video of
Long Street Church

A Tour of the Quadrangle.

BuiltWithNOF
NObWindowOrgan0109 NObChurchRoof0102
NObChurchInteria01

The Coming of Methodism to Middleton.

John Nelson was a Yorkshireman from Birstall, a stonemason by trade, travelling around the country looking for work. He had heard John Wesley speak in London in 1739 and being inspired was converted.

In 1742 he travelled from his home town, in Yorkshire, no doubt using the ancient York /West Chester highway to Manchester the old road that runs through Middleton, no doubt passing the Olde Boars Head and the old cottages where Long Street Church now stands.

Did he stop and talk to the folks of Middleton, the silk weavers, the colliers, we will never know. His destination was the growing town of Manchester where he preached at the market cross. Most of the crowd that gathered were well behaved. However, someone threw a stone at him in the middle of his sermon and cut his head. That, he wrote in his journal, made the people give him greater attention, especially when they saw blood running down his face. So all was quiet until he was done and was singing a hymn.

It is not until a few years later, in 1760, that we have records of Methodism starting to make an impact on our town. From the records of the Manchester Round it is noted that in June of that year a certain John Fitton paid to the quarterly meeting on behalf of the Middleton Society 5/6, (Five shillings and six pence) in December of the same year the amount was 10/6 (ten shillings and 6 pence) and by 1766 it had risen to 14/- (Fourteen shillings) a quarter. There was an unbroken record of payments from 1760 until September 1791 when Middleton joined the Oldham Circuit.

Quoting an entry in John Wesley's Journal for Monday 14th, May 1766. " I preached at Middleton, six miles from Manchester. A sharp shower of hail began in the middle of the sermon but scarce any went away empty"

The first chapel to be erected in Middleton was on Boarshaw Lane this was opened in 1790. As the membership increased this was replaced in 1805 with the Wood Street Chapel (pictured below) which was built at the bottom of Wood Street nearer to the center of the developing town. The cost of this new venture was £1,550, one of the most influencial Methodists connected with this new Chapel was Mr. John Burton. a partner in the firm of John Burton & Sons who owned a cotton mill on the opposite side of Wood Street to the new chapel. Two of his brothers entered the Wesleyan ministry, Charles and James. Charles later entered the Church of England, he became the first rector of All Saint's Manchester.

In 1829, Joseph Fielding started day and evening classes at the chapel which recorded hundreds of pupils passing through its doors, lessons were held in the cellar under the chapel.

In 1867 a school building was added to the rear of the Chapel which vastly improved the teaching facilities for the ever increasing number of young people who attended and up to that time, had been taught in the cellar beneath the Chapel.

By 1890 larger premises were needed. In that year - to Celebrate the 100th anniversary of the first Wesleyan Chapel built in 1790 on Boarshaw Lane (Back o'th Brow) - the congregation of Wood Street Chapel started a building fund with the intention of commissioning a new Church. The building fund was established and a procession held around Middleton, in which 1,400 Methodists took part, 150 younger children also took part, conveyed in three lurries. Afterwards between 800 and 900 peoples sat down to tea in the Co-op Hall on Long Street. followed by a meeting to inaugurate a building fund for the development of new premises. A few years later work on the Edgar Wood designed Long Street Wesleyan Church began which, with due ceremony, was subsequently opened in 1901. Rev. Shrewsbury having been Minister at Wood Street presided over the building and continued as the Minister at Long Street

Extract from Booklet “There is Holy Ground” published to commemorate the formation of the Middleton Circuit in 1950

 

WoodStreetChapel0103

Wood Street Chapel
1805 to 1901
Replaced by the
Methodist Church
Long Stree
t

© - Bob Pedley

Visit Middleton’s Golden Cluster Open Days September

Middleton’s Community Website

www.middletonia.co.uk
 

Manchester & Lancashire Family History Society

ChaOS -

Self Compiling
Operating
System

chaos.ctpp.co.uk