William Clowes (1780–1851) was one of the founders of Primitive Methodism .
39-422: Hugh Bourne (3 April 1772 – 11 October 1852) along with William Clowes was the joint founder of Primitive Methodism , the largest offshoot of Wesleyan Methodism and, in the mid-19th century, an influential Protestant Christian movement in its own right. Hugh Bourne was born on 3 April 1772 at Ford Hayes Farm, Ford Hayes Lane, Bucknall , within the present-day boundaries of Stoke-on-Trent , Staffordshire. Hugh
78-553: A direct result of the Wesleyan circuit authorities' reaction to these Meetings. Camp Meetings were all day, open-air gatherings for Christian preaching and group prayer, usually followed by a Love Feast . They were based on evangelical revival meetings in America. The first such meeting in England was held on Sunday 31 May 1807, between 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., in a field at School Farm, Mow Cop , about
117-537: A large 14-hour camp meeting was held, leading to the founding of the Primitive Methodist Church in 1810. These camp meetings became a regular feature at Mow Cop, being held to celebrate the 100th, 150th, and 200th anniversaries of the first camp. The village and castle are featured prominently in the 1973 novel Red Shift , by Alan Garner . This novel was filmed by the BBC in the 1970s, and later released on
156-460: A one-mile running race from the railway level crossing on the western side of the hill up to the castle. The race was first organized in the early 1980s by John Britton. The climb is also well known among local cyclists and features in the 100 Greatest Cycling Climbs in Britain . On 22 December 1990, the body of Stoke-on-Trent taxi driver Steven Johnson, a 25-year-old married father of two children,
195-581: A personal journal. Themes found in the extant volumes of his journal include preaching activities, remarks in support of teetotalism , Sunday schools, and Methodist politics. Bourne travelled and preached widely in England, Scotland, Ireland, Canada and the USA until his death in 1852. He was a man of exceptional energy and organisational abilities. Bourne also wrote the History of the Primitive Methodists (1823),
234-545: A quarter of a mile south west of Mow Cop Folly (a mock castle ruins built in 1754). Mow Cop, on the Staffordshire–Cheshire border, was a bleak spot lying as it does on a limestone ridge rising to 1,091 feet above sea level. Nevertheless, during the afternoon, the Camp still managed to draw a crowd of up to 4,000 people. Although Mow Cop was supposed to be a one-off, the number of conversions confirmed Bourne in his belief in
273-697: A religious family and from the age of seven was increasingly troubled by existential and religious questions. He lived with a rather morbid fear of being condemned to Hell and spent, as he phrased it, "twenty sorrowful years" in pursuit of salvation. Naturally, the shy young Bourne read the Bible, but it was only when his mother brought him an anthology of Christian writings in 1799 that the Christian message of salvation really began to resonate. Bourne wrote, "I believed in my heart, grace descended and Jesus Christ manifested himself unto me, my sins were taken away in an instant, and I
312-437: A reputation as a zealous preacher but the Wesleyan leadership were uncomfortable with his radicalism. Initially, he conducted a recognisably Wesleyan form of service but, later, he rejected this as being boring and out of date; in short, the traditional service was 'not fit for purpose'. To engage with people, Bourne developed a style of open-air preaching, combined with public confession of sin, group prayer, and hymn singing. This
351-511: A restored HD DVD in 2014. Mow Cop and its castle also feature in Alan Garner's 1966 photo-story book for children, The Old Man of Mow . The castle has also been a magnet for artists and can be seen in everything from local watercolour and oil paintings and postcards to ceramics made in the nearby Potteries. An engraving of it also featured on a Royal Mail stamp book in 1981. Since the late 20th century, Mow Cop has been known for its Killer Mile,
390-537: A variety of theological tracts on subjects from baptism to salvation, edited the Primitive Methodist hymn book, and was editor of the denominational magazine for two decades. Whilst there were no essential doctrinal differences with the Wesleyans, Primitive Methodism was shaped by the experience of vilification shared by Bourne, Clowes, and others. Thus, whereas the Wesleyans concentrated a great deal of authority in
429-464: Is 24 miles (39 km) south of Manchester and 6 miles (9.7 km) north of Stoke-on-Trent, on a steep hill of the same name rising to 335 metres (1,099 ft) above sea level. The village is at the edge of the southern Pennines , with the Cheshire Plain directly to the west. For population details taken at the 2011 census , see Kidsgrove . The Cheshire section is the highest settlement within
SECTION 10
#1732844047054468-404: Is speculated that Dunnell invented the vision to leave herself in charge if what became known as "Mrs Dunnell's people". The Derbyshire followers were annoyed when Bourne revealed that Dunnell was a bigamist and she left, afterwards Bourne had to avoid the area. Clowes, and his followers ('Clowesites'), issued an invitation to Bourne, and his supporters, to form a new organisation. In February 1812
507-654: The Iron Age for milling grain; this trade ended during the Victorian period . The village also has a long history of coal mining. A 65-foot (20 m) rock feature called the Old Man O'Mow in one of the quarried areas is believed to be the site of an ancient cairn. A railway station , opened by the North Staffordshire Railway , served the village from 9 October 1848 to its closure in 1964. The most dominant feature of
546-646: The West Pennine Moors , Welsh mountains (including Snowdonia ), Shropshire Hills and Cannock Chase . The name is first recorded as Mowel around 1270 AD, and is believed to derive from either the Anglo-Saxon Mūga-hyll , meaning "heap-hill", with copp = "head" added later, or the Common Celtic ancestor of Welsh moel (= hill), with Anglo-Saxon copp added later. At the village's summit, men once quarried stone to make into querns , used since
585-640: The British Isles, Canada and the USA to Australia, New Zealand, Nigeria and South Africa. William Clowes (Primitive Methodist) William Clowes was born at Burslem , Staffordshire , on 12 March 1780. During the early 1800s, he started his preaching career. During 1810, the Primitive Methodist Connexion was co-created by him. Clowes introduced this to Hull nine years later. He was assisted by Sarah and John Kirkland , who were both experienced preachers, until John's health gave way and Sarah
624-536: The Church, found a new freedom and blessing from God. They held a Christmas Love Feast at Harriseahead, with many standing on or between the pews for lack of space. This began the time of revival when some key Primitive Methodist leaders, most importantly William Clowes, were converted. Bourne and Clowes' Primitive Methodism germinated in the Camp Meetings from 1807 onwards and its separate organisational form came about as
663-503: The Primitive Methodist Sunday Schools. Many early trade union pioneers were drawn from the ranks of Primitive Methodist Preachers, and a basic 'welfare state' used to operate among chapel-goers, their neighbours and families. In common with some other non-conformists, Bourne accepted women as of equal status with men by (amongst other things) appointing women Preachers. By the time of his death (11 October 1852), Bourne
702-484: The Staffordshire– Cheshire border. Bourne was appalled at the moral state of his new surroundings, saying, "There was not in England a neighbourhood that was more ungodly and profane. A stranger could hardly go over Harriseahead without insult and sometimes not without injury." Bourne was "constitutionally shy, somewhat dour, yet – strange union of opposites – courageous and doggedly persistent". He soon earned
741-619: The county of Cheshire. The 335-metre (1,099 ft) hill on which the village lies is a moorland ridge composed of sandstone and Millstone Grit rising eastwards above the Cheshire Plain. It is at the western edge of the Staffordshire Moorlands , forming the upland fringe of the southern Pennines, most of which are in the Peak District National Park to the east. On a clear day, the hill offers views extending to
780-430: The hands of their Ministers, the Primitive Methodists chose instead to trust the role of lay people. Another difference of emphasis between Hugh Bourne and some of the Wesleyans of his time was his desire to follow closely the teaching of John Wesley in the mid-18th century. Weary with persecution, many Wesleyans, though true to the same doctrines, had toned down their preaching in an effort to court respectability. This
819-482: The imagination in the former; but to those who judge of events by their significance and results, Norton overtops Mow. It is not always the first step that is the most difficult: sometimes it is harder to go on than to begin... [The Norton Camp Meeting] is, historically, the most important; for, before it was held, the Liverpool Conference of 1807 had given its judgement, and the judgement was adverse. Naturally,
SECTION 20
#1732844047054858-536: The mid-18th century.) Unlike Rev. Joseph Cooke of east Lancashire, who had been expelled by the Conference of 1806, Bourne and his supporters had no doctrinal dispute with the Wesleyans. Thus, for the next couple of years, the societies sympathetic to Bourne (known as 'Camp Meeting Methodists') continued to remain part of the parent body but things changed in 1811. After the Ramsor Camp on 3 June 1810 when Mary Dunnell
897-549: The ministers of the Burslem Circuit, the storm-centre of the movement, lost no time on their return in endeavouring to preserve their societies from complicity with what the Conference had pronounced to be 'highly improper and likely to be of considerable mischief'". After the Wesleyan authorities' reaction to the first three Camp Meetings, it was no surprise that, ten months after the Norton-in-the-Moors Camp, Bourne
936-503: The new body adopted the name 'Society of the Primitive Methodists', which is believed to refer to John Wesley's assertion that the early Methodists manifested the "Primitive" Christianity of the 1st century. The fledgling movement spread rapidly, first along the valley of the Trent. In 1819 the inaugural Primitive Methodist Conference was held at Nottingham (the site of a large Camp Meeting on Whit Sunday 1816 which had been attended by 12,000) and
975-546: The other joint founder of Primitive Methodism. Often overlooked is the change following what may be called "Hugh Bourne's Pentecost". In 1804, some "revivalists" from Stockport led the Michaelmas Love Feast at Congleton where they spoke of John Wesley 's teaching of "entire sanctification". Jesse Ashworth, who knew some of these revivalists, records the change in Hugh Bourne and his companions. Their preaching, and
1014-457: The relevance and effectiveness of Camp Meetings and others soon followed. There was a second Mow Camp Meeting (19 July) and a third at Norton-in-the-Moors (now a north-eastern neighbourhood in Stoke-on-Trent) on 23 August 1807. Others included Ramsor (Staffordshire) (two miles north of Alton Towers). "Men naturally turn to Mow Cop rather than to Norton, for there is more to engage and impress
1053-550: The second at Hull in 1820. Missions, often accompanied by Camp Meetings, were disproportionately successful in working-class mining and agricultural communities. Each circuit planned and carried out its own missionary work separately until 1825, when the Conference appointed the General Missionary Committee to centralise guidance. By 1842 membership had increased to almost 80,000 with 500 travelling preachers and more than 1,200 chapels. Beginning in 1803, Bourne kept
1092-689: The village is Mow Cop Castle , a folly of a ruined castle at the summit of the hill, built in 1754. Both Mow Cop Castle and the Old Man O'Mow are under the management of the National Trust and on the route of the Cheshire Gritstone Trail , a long-distance walking route. Mow Cop is noteworthy as the birthplace of the Primitive Methodist movement. Starting in 1800, Hugh Bourne from Stoke-on-Trent and William Clowes from Burslem began holding open-air prayer meetings . On 31 May 1807,
1131-477: Was also shaped by Bourne's joint concern for the spiritual salvation and social welfare of ordinary working people. For example, just like Keir Hardie in the early 20th century, Bourne understood that drunkenness was a major factor which kept working-class people down in base conditions. Also, In the face of establishment opposition, Bourne promoted working class education , including instruction in reading, writing and arithmetic, in addition to religious teaching, at
1170-421: Was clearly distinctive from the Wesleyan norm and provided the template for the later Camp Meetings. A chapel was established at Harriseahead and, by 1804, the religious 'revival' Bourne began in his new village had spread to the northern Potteries towns of Burslem and Tunstall and into south Cheshire. One notable achievement of this revival was the religious conversion of Burslem-born William Clowes (1780–1851),
1209-615: Was discovered by a dog-walker on a farm track near Castle Road in Mow Cop. His body was found close to his taxi. Johnson had last been seen picking up a fare in Hanley Road, Hanley to be dropped off in Packmoor at around 3:30 AM on 22 December. He then drove from Packmoor to Mow Cop. Johnson had been assaulted inside his taxi and his throat was cut, causing his death. It was reported by Staffordshire Police that cash and valuables were not taken from
Hugh Bourne - Misplaced Pages Continue
1248-599: Was expelled from the Wesleyan Methodists by the Burslem Quarterly Meeting. The reason given was non-attendance at Bible class but the real reason was explained by the Wesleyan superintendent who told Bourne that it was "because you have a tendency to set up other than the ordinary worship". (Ironically, this was the reason the Anglican Church of England gave for refusing to endorse John Wesley's mission in
1287-472: Was filled with all joy and peace in believing." Bourne's conversion at the age of 27 led him to join the local Wesleyan society at Burslem , one of the historical six towns of the City of Stoke-on-Trent . He continued as a wheelwright but, after a period of group bible study, soon became a Methodist lay-preacher. By 1800, Bourne had moved a short distance to Harriseahead , a mining village near Biddulph close to
1326-513: Was one of the factors behind the 1807 Methodist Conference's condemnation of Camp Meetings. The Minutes (widely quoted in Holliday Bickerstaffe Kendall and most histories of Primitive Methodism) say, "It is our judgment, that even supposing such meetings to be allowable in America, they are highly improper in England, and likely to be productive of considerable mischief; and we disclaim all connection with them." Primitive Methodism
1365-492: Was one of the speakers, William Clowes was excluded from the Wesleyan Methodists and, in 1811, Bourne and his brother founded the first Chapel since his expulsion in Tunstall, Stoke-on-Trent. Bourne visited Derbyshire where Mary Dunnell was making good progress around Darley Moor, Osmanton, and Rodsley. Dunnell told him that she had a vision that William Allcock and William Clowes had lost their faith and Boutnes set off to see them. It
1404-516: Was pregnant. They returned to Derbyshire in May 1820. In 1821 his evangelizing in Leeds was so successful that Ann Carr , Sarah Ecland and Martha Williams were sent from Hull to join him. These new arrivals caused some problems as they were both popular and undisciplined moving from circuit to circuit as the will took them. On 10 June 1842 he was placed on the superannuation fund. His journal and his life story
1443-474: Was published in 1844. He still continued his labours until a day or two before he died from paralysis, at Hull on 2 March 1851. One of his daughters married her cousin, John Wedgwood , an Anglican priest. Mow Cop Mow Cop / ˈ m aʊ ˈ k ɒ p / is a village split between Cheshire and Staffordshire , and therefore divided between the North West and West Midlands regions of England. It
1482-547: Was regarded as a father figure for the movement and his funeral procession was attended by more than 16,000 people. He is buried at Englesea Brook chapel in Weston , near Crewe , south Cheshire, not far from his home in Bemersley, near Tunstall, Stoke-on-Trent, north Staffordshire. By 1860 the international movement he helped to found and organise had 650 Ministers, 11,304 local preachers and over 100,000 members. It had extended beyond
1521-411: Was the son of Joseph and Ellen Bourne. In 1788, after basic training as a carpenter, Hugh moved to the nearby mining village of Bemersley (in the north-eastern fringe of the present-day Stoke-on-Trent) and was apprenticed to his uncle as a wheelwright. After 'serving his time' learning the trade, Bourne specialised principally in making and repairing windmill and watermill wheels. Bourne was brought up in
#53946