Wesleyan Methodists
Did John Wesley ever visit Great Harwood? Many books about the town mention ‘a tradition’ that he did, and Louie Pollard in Miscellany states, ‘It was a warm spring morning when John Wesley rode into town on the 4th May 1747’ but finding actual evidence to support that assertion proved difficult. This short essay began as an attempt to find out the truth behind the tradition but has become a short history of the origins of Methodism in Great Harwood.
That Lancashire in the 17th and 18th centuries was a Catholic stronghold, particularly in the west of the county, is well known; what is perhaps less well known is that the non-conformist population was second only to Essex and that perhaps only half of Lancashire people accepted the Anglican Church. Prevailing social and economic factors influenced this; Lancashire was a place with large parishes and mainly non-nucleated settlement which both local landowners and the church would find hard to control. The dual-economy whereby many gained their living not solely from the land (and those in larger towns who did not rely on the land at all) and a rising population would contribute to the situation. At the beginning of the eighteenth century Great Harwood was a community of farmers, but with an increasing dependency on textiles. Enclosure had been taking place in the town for some time, and from about 1730 remaining parts of the waste and common were also enclosed. This situation may contributed to some of the population being receptive to new religious thought.
After John Wesley was ordained in 1725 he stayed in Oxford after this to teach, and with his brother Charles and he became part of a group that met to discuss the Bible, which earned them the name of Methodists. By 1739 Wesley’s passionate preaching had upset many churchmen and he was not welcome in many churches, which led to his preaching in open spaces and the homes of sympathisers. Over the next fifty years he travelled many miles and preached many sermons; he kept a meticulous journal, beginning in October 1735 and this would prove to be the best source to find the truth of whether he did in fact preach in Great Harwood.
William Darney was a Scot who began preaching in Lancashire and the West Riding of Yorkshire in 1743. He formed societies in Rough Lee, Bacup, Newchurch-in-Rossendale and perhaps Padiham. John Wesley, in his journal entry dated Monday the 4 May 1747 wrote “At his earnest request I began examining those that are called W. D.’s societies. At three I preached at Great-Harding; in the evening at Roughlee, where there was a large Society.” This then seems to be the origin of the statement by Louie Pollard – there being no other references in the journals to visits to the town. I have not been able to find any reference in published works to a connection with the town and William Darney, and most ignore the reference to Great-Harding with the exception of B. Moore in ‘The History of Wesleyan Methodism in Burnley and East Lancashire’ in which he wrote “at three he [Wesley] visited Great-Harding (? Harwood)”.
Of all the sources I have consulted the earliest to say that Wesley visited the town is in a pamphlet titled ‘The Rise and Progress of Wesleyan Methodism in Blackburn and Neighbourhood’ by the Reverend John Ward and written in 1871. He said “Although we can find no reference to it in Mr. Wesley’s journal, yet several authorities in the village seem to confirm a tradition that he visited Harwood and preached, once in an old thatched cottage in Church lane, where he was stoned during the time of service and on another occasion in or near the house of the late Mr. Frank Clayton, at the Back of Bowler (sic) Hill.” This was written 124 years after the supposed visit and therefore not the most reliable information, but as he mentions a descendent of the Clayton family it must be supposed that the event was passed through the generations of that family, and probably others in the town. However, as Rev. Ward did not find the reference to the visit of 1747, it can be seen his conclusions aren’t accurate.
It does appear that Wesley preached in the town, and on 4th May 1747, although we can’t say for certain exactly where – or what the reception to his preaching may have been. What is certain however is that Great Harwood became, during the following century, a stronghold of the Methodist faith.
Progress of the Methodist Church in Great Harwood
William Darney’s preaching area was incorporated into the Haworth Round in 1747, which itself was divided in 1776 and the Lancashire section now centred on Colne.
This was a large area and there were only three staff, with two horses and they each covered all the area in six weeks. Each place on the circuit was visited once every two weeks, usually on a weekday. In 1786 the circuit had added 800 members in two years but two years later was in decline.
It is not clear when Blackburn embraced Methodism, but would be sometime between 1751 and 1780, and in 1787 Great Harwood was a preaching place on the Blackburn Circuit. The following is from the Reverend Ward:
“Mr. Clayton, the grandfather of Mrs. Walmsley of Harwood, was a sincere Methodist who opened his house for preaching, where it was continued for some years. At his house it is said Mr. Wesley stopped when in the neighbourhood. Divine service was afterwards held in a room over an entry in Cross Gates. A while after it was removed to the School room at what is called the Cliffe, where a Sabbath school was carried on, as well as preaching. In 1822 a small chapel called the Butts was erected and occupied by the Methodists until 1853, when the present one was built. Prior to the erection of this chapel unhappy circumstances arose which it will profit no one to recite, and which had better be buried in forgetfulness for ever. [Taken over by the reformed church.] These circumstances, however, obliged the society to remove to a cottage for a while, and, through the liberality of the late vicar, the Rev. R. Dobson, the Sunday school was held in the Day school premises belonging to the Church of England. Sixty-two years ago [1809] the society numbered thirteen members, whose names were – N. Aspden, leader, Mary Clayton, Joseph Clayton, John Lighfoot, Ann Lightfoot, Isabel Vickers, Jane Taylor, Mary and Ellen Wolstenholme, Alice Swain, Ellen Peacop, Mary Barron, and Ann Folds.
Abram, in his History of Blackburn, and speaking of the Blackburn Circuit says:
A leading Methodist layman of this time [1798] was Dr Nathaniel Aspden, a surgeon of position in the town. He was a son of Mr. William Aspden, of Cliff, Great Harwood, born Jan. 21st 1766… He died, aged 32, in 1798. His epitaph at Clayton Street Chapel is inscribed: “In memory of Nathaniel Aspden, surgeon, who departed this life Sept. 24th, 1798 aged 32 years.
It would seem that the Aspden family, like the Claytons, were early converts to Methodism. The Lightfoots, mentioned by Ward above, later moved to Accrington, where a descendant became the first Mayor of that town. The Wolstenholmes are notable as Mary became the wife of John Mercer the noted chemist, himself later a convert and active in the faith in Clayton le Moors, perhaps not surprising as his mother was herself a Clayton.
For more information about the progress of the church and some of the early members see the following links:
Central Methodist Church: 1885 – 1985 Centenary Handbook
This includes a history of Methodism in the town by Louie Pollard in more detail than I have addressed above.
Windsor Road Methodist Church Jubilee Celebrations 1901 – 1951
Perhaps of the greatest interest to family historians: Blackburn Membership Roll – Great Harwood