THE METROPOLIS OF FOUR COUNTIES
“The Lord was very present. I think there was a thousand people. Several wept. One woman, very richly dressed, kneeled down on the ground in the open-air; tears fell from her eyes, and she cried to the good Lord of heaven to have mercy upon her, until the Lord removed her burden, and she rose and praised Him. In the afternoon we had a lovefeast in Newcastle. After a few had spoken, the mighty power of God came down. Three couple fell down by two together, and they found the Lord. There was a mighty moving through the place, and I believe more than ten got liberty. We have near one hundred in society at Newcastle, including those on trial. At night Brother Wallace preached in the yard, and I gave an exhortation. We afterwards went into the place to hold a prayer meeting, and three professed to find the Lord.”
When dealing with the eastern section of Northumberland, we must naturally take Newcastle, “the metropolis of four counties,” as it has been called, as a centre. So far as can be gathered, Newcastle was the first place on Tyneside at which a Primitive Methodist missionary preached. Then, too, before John Branfoot held his historic service in Sandgate, William Morris and John Bagshaw, two Staffordshire local preachers, who had been associated with Hugh Bourne and William Clowes at Tunstall, and who had removed to a pottery in Newcastle, had been doing evangelising work. These were the men who invited William Clowes to visit Newcastle, though they had meanwhile sought a home amongst the Wesleyans.
Alluring as the topic may be, it is not our business to dilate on the commercial, social, and intellectual ascent of lower Tyneside. Suffice it to say, that the stream has been transformed into a majestic tidal river, upon which the enormous modern battleships and liners can float with ease from Elswick to the sea; and that the miles of pastures and arable land from Mickley Square to South Shields on the south side, and from Newburn to Tynemouth on the north bank, are now thronged with collieries, manufactories, docks, shipyards, engine-works, and towns after towns filled with swelling populations. The nineteenth century, and especially the latter half of it, saw the whole of the amazing evolution.
In his roving commission, as has been told, John Branfoot “found his way” to Newcastle from Hutton Rudby, and preached on the Sandhill on that memorable first of August, 1821. There had been a boat-race that day, and the rowdiness of the crowd around the preacher roused the ire of Mary Porteus. The meeting broke up in confusion, but Branfoot’s visit had not been fruitless. Mary Porteus and John Lightfoot were brought into direct contact with Primitive Methodism by it, and their names have been writ large in the story of the Connexion’s beginnings in the North. Mr. Lightfoot’s youngest son is a respected minister to-day.
“An incident occurred,” writes George F. Almond, of Gateshead, “at the Conference of 1842, which is of great interest to me. The first Primitive Methodist conference camp meeting was then held on Newcastle Town Moor, and was attended by Hugh Bourne and William Clowes. My wife, when she was nine years old, was taken to that meeting by her grandmother (Mary Porteus), and so connects the founders of the Connexion with one who is living at the present day.” ‘Since Mr. Almond penned the foregoing interesting note, his amiable wife has passed away, the sad event taking place in November, 1908.
William Clowes visited Newcastle in the autumn of 1821, and preached in the open-air at Ballast Hills— a place for ever memorable in the history of Northern Primitive Methodism. After attending the Loughborough annual meeting or Conference in 1822, Clowes remarks in his journal that he “returned to the Newcastle-upon-Tyne Mission,” but though he preached at North Shields on June 23rd and elsewhere afterwards, he does not seem to have taken an appointment in Newcastle itself until July 1st. Ballast Hills was again his stand, preaching in the open-air. After three weeks had passed he was there again, and “it was a shaking time.” John and Thomas Nelson were then in the locality, and the hand of the Lord was with them. On the 29th of July, after Thomas Nelson had preached, when “some cried for mercy,” a society of ten persons was formed by Mr. Clowes at Ballast Hills. It is therefore the parent society of Primitive Methodism in Newcastle, and was at the first included In the North Shields Circuit.
Additions were made to the little band in the following weeks, and one of the journals stated: “Some of the worst characters are turning to God here.” The Nelsons, Gilbert, Shaw, Baker, Spencer, and Wallace were in the region in 1823. On the next Sunday Jeremiah Gilbert preached at Ballast Hills, and in a letter, in which he eulogises the work done by the Nelsons, he says:—
George Wallace and Joseph Spencer also held successful meetings at Ballast Hills and Byker Hill. The very heart of the town had, however, been attacked, and the building in which the lovefeast referred to above was held was the Butchers’ Hall, in the Friars, which was opened as a preaching room on October 20th, 1822, and in which many were brought to a knowledge of the truth.
“Of this he was the superintendent for the long space of 59 years. After its formation, the school grew until it had 500 scholars and 60 teachers. It had its branches, to one of which the present St. Anthony’s society can trace its origin. The Revs. John Davison, the biographer of Clowes, and Thomas Greenfield, were two of many who had a new direction given to their lives by this Sunday School. About the year 1830, Mr. Leighton, then only a young man himself, invited a youth who was playing at pitch-and- toss to go with him to the school hard by. The youth yielded to persuasion kindly given, and from that simple incident Thomas Greenfield was accustomed to date his conversion. Then began, on his part, that course of mental cultivation which in the end qualified him to be a college tutor and principal, and made him an expository preacher of rare excellence. Thirty years after Mr. Leighton won this youth for his Master, the like process was repeated, and with the same happy results. This time it was William Pears—whose name stands No. 35 on the plan of 1837— who induced his young lodger to accompany him to Ballast Hills Chapel. That youth was Hugh Gilmore, than whom our Church can show no more interesting figure. But at that time the youth, though a lad of parts, was poor, untaught, and undeveloped as a lion’s cub. He went, and went again to Ballast Hills, and soon ‘experienced a complete awakening.’ Hugh Gilmore never forgot Ballast Hills or its Bible Class, of which the Rev. T. Greenfield was now the president. Nor did he forget William Pears for in the last sermon he preached, June 7th, 1891, he thus refers to him: ‘I lived with a plain, poor man, whose name was perhaps unknown beyond the people in the little row of cottages where we dwelt. I felt that there was something about that man—not from any natural cause—that made him separate from the men with whom I was mixing.’”
North Shields made Newcastle into a circuit in December, 1823, with three preachers to work it, Jeremiah Gilbert being superintendent. With North Shields, Newcastle, and Morpeth (a branch of the former) as bases, a magnificent work was carried on amongst the pitmen and keelmen. The preaching of the earnest missionaries was accompanied by an extensive revival of religion, and hundreds of the most profligate were converted. “Deep emotions, loud responses, and sometimes faintings and convulsions, attended the preaching and other religious services among the pitmen.” But the genuineness of the work was proved by its fruits, for a general reformation of manners was witnessed; and when one of the coalowners was applied to for aid towards the erection of a chapel, he replied: “Oh, yes; I will help you, for your preachers have done so much good amongst our men that we have much less to subscribe for policemen and for trials for misconduct.” Preaching rooms were opened, societies formed, and Sunday Schools instituted with amazing rapidity.
FROM SALLYPORT TO CENTRAL CHURCH.
From the Butchers’ Hall Newcastle society moved in April, 1824, to an old chapel in Sallyport, previously occupied by the Presbyterians, and capable of accommodating 500 or 600 persons. The next step was the securing of a chapel, vacated by the Independents, in Silver Street, which street had not even then the best reputation. For twelve years this was the circuit chapel, and many sterling men and women were born in it. Just the year before leaving Silver Street, the ten members in 1822 had swollen to 1,028 in the circuit in 1837; and Mr. Kendall, referring to the April-to-July plan of that year, says there were then twenty-eight places in the station, stretching from Wallsend to Wylam, and from Westmoor to Shotley Bridge. There were four travelling preachers—of whom one was located at Dundee for the “Scotch Mission”—and sixty-two local preachers and exhorters. John Lightfoot, Mary Porteus, Joseph Spoor, Jane Spoor, Thomas Jobling, John Matfin (converted in Sallyport Chapel in 1824), and S. G. Butterwick had gone into the ranks of the ministry before then, and Thomas Butterwick was soon to follow them. W. B. Leighton and Peter Kidman had already begun their long and honourable work at Ballast Hills. Speaking of the Sunday School Mr. Leighton started at Ballast Hills in 1829, Mr. Kendall says:—
The transition from Silver Street to Nelson Street may be ranked as among the boldest movements in the experience of any society in the Connexion at that period. William Clowes laid the foundation-stone of the notable chapel on November 21st, 1837, and those who heard his address and dedicatory prayer said the chapel was consecrated before it was built. The silver-tongued William Sanderson, together with John Bywater and Henry Hebbron, officiated at the opening of the sanctuary on October 7th and 14th, 1838. It was a tremendous undertaking, but there were practical men of high character in the society. Here are the names of the trustees :—John Scott, George Charlton, Joseph Salkeld, David Kell, Robert Barron, Ralph Cook, John Taylor, Andrew McCree, Thomas McCree, William Armstrong, W. B. Leighton, Edward Holmes, George Dodds, James Thompson, George Moore, Robert Foster, J. Lockey, Joseph Pattison, R. Robson, James Stewart, and James Gibson.
“As I approached the meeting, the congregation had just been singing the beautiful hymn by Bishop Heber, commencing ‘From Greenland’s icy mountains’; and, with that, up rose a tall and manly frame, and in clear and ringing tones, and with a powerful and pathetic voice, pleaded on behalf of the moral principles of Christianity in a way that I have never heard surpassed. Since then, gentlemen, I have heard the same cause advocated by distinguished dignitaries of the English and Roman Churches; I have heard some of the ablest ministers of the Presbyterian faith expound the Christian Gospel, amongst them the manly and eloquent Dr. Chalmers, one of the best and noblest of our modern divines; but I never heard the first truths of Christianity put with more power and pathos than by that plain Methodist preacher at the camp meeting in the valley of the Tyne—the man whose services we have met this evening to recognise and to honour.”
John Scott and John Taylor were tradesmen of known probity. Mr. Scott and his wife were among the 1,500 victims of the cholera in the fatal autumn of 1853. Others who fell in that terrible visitation included Ralph Walton, a pious and charitable member; John Gardiner, a useful local preacher; and Robert Foster and his wife. Foster was one of the first members in Newcastle, a local preacher in 1822, “went out to travel” in 1825, but could not bear the physical strain of the itinerant ministry, and returned to Newcastle, where he won many souls for his Lord. On the death of his parents, Robert Foster, jun., now “silvered o’er with four-score winters’ snows,” was the eldest in a family of six, and at once took up the burden of the maintenance and education of the rest most willingly. And now few men are better known in the Connexion than Robert Foster of Newcastle. All his life a student of the best literature, he has won and kept a position as a superior preacher. His election to the Vice-Presidency in 1901 was the estimate of his brethren as to the value of his life’s work. Marrying the daughter of John Day, whose memory is blessed, Mr. Foster is therefore the son-in-law of a minister. He is the nephew of another pioneer, William Garner, who married Elizabeth Pattison, his mother’s sister. John Day Thompson is his nephew, and T. Alex. Thompson, B.Sc., his grand-nephew.
William Thompson and Thomas Parker started a mission in William Street, Arthur’s Hill, out of which sprang Kingsley Terrace and Derby Street churches. Joseph Salkeld and his wife, from Cumberland, soon went to Howdon, and were willing workers. Andrew McCree, two of his brothers, and a sister were converted in Silver Street. Andrew was superintendent of the Sunday School for twenty-four years, and his youngest brother, George W. McCree, was a travelling preacher for a short time, and became a Baptist minister, and an able temperance lecturer and writer. James Stewart gave to the church and to the civic and commercial life of the town a son whose name will stand among the honoured of each for all time. William Stewart rose to be one of Newcastle’s leading tradesmen and “Sheriff of the town and county.” True to his church, he took an abiding interest in the work of the circuit, of which he was steward, of the District, and of the Connexion. The hospitality of Mr. Stewart and his generous wife— the daughter of Thomas Pattison—was also of service to the church. Ralph Cook, husband of Jane Spoor, was more closely associated with Ballast Hills and Heaton Road than Nelson Street.
And there are the two renowned Georges! Mightier men in the temperance world have been rarely produced than George Charlton and George Dodds. They had their hands on State affairs, too, and lived to see the enfranchisement of the workers and other reforms for which they laboured incessantly and with commanding force. The growing municipalities on the river also claimed their attention, and each borough in which they resided gave them the highest seats, for George Charlton was Mayor of Gateshead and George Dodds was Mayor of Tynemouth. A striking presence, with a mind of great activity and force, George Charlton never appeared more in his element than when taking part in leading a procession, or in preaching at a camp meeting. On October 29th, 1875, when his portrait was presented to Mr. Charlton in Gateshead, the late Joseph Cowen, M.P., in the course of a fine speech describing a camp meeting, said:—
Of Edward Holmes, who was a familiar figure in Nelson Street for many years, Mr. Kendall, who, as Newcastle’s “young man,” spent three years under his roof, gladly bears witness to his piety and solid qualities. It is over forty years since the “young man” was the colleague of Thomas Smith and Lewis F. Armitage in Newcastle; and as the years have sped, Mr. Kendall, as preacher, teacher, writer, editor, and connexional historian, has accomplished a work which will stand for him as a memorial. He had but opened his lips in Nelson Street as a probationer when his fame went out, and all casts of mind gathered to hear him. Says Mr. McKechnie, an authority Mr. Kendall himself quotes with avidity:—
“I don’t know whether I admired most the purity and sweetness of his spirit, or the gifts of intellect and genius with which he was so richly dowered. A more highly gifted young man I had never met.”
That was said in 1868-9. Since then no honour, including the presidential chair, has been too great for his brethren to place upon Holliday Bickerstaff Kendall, B.A.
Among the other Nelson Street notables were John Kidd, the sweet singer and composer, sought out by Richard Raine to lead the singing while the society was yet in Silver Street; Robert Barron, whose son Robert, now living at Monkseaton, has never been out of Sunday School work, first at Nelson Street, then Prince Consort Road, Gateshead. and now Whitley Bay; John Thompson, Ralph Winlow, one of the originals of Brunel society; Henry Pratt, who took charge of Bulman Village class, and went into the ministry—and that he was born at Benwell may account in some measure for the fostering care his son, his son’s wife, and family have taken in the society there; John Ingledew, the gentle; James Bruce, the demonstrative keelman; T. G. Snowdon, the Sunday School enthusiast; Robert Varty, the silent and generous; John Wilson, the genial restaurant-keeper; Thomas Stokoe and his family, rich in good works; George Morton, the faithful steward, and his family ; the Robsons, true in the dark days as in the bright; the Handysides, the Pickerings, Coates, Davenport, Reed, and many more; never forgetting the venerable divine—William Dent—who spent so many years of his retirement in Newcastle, and Mrs. Grace Wrightson, who died at Whitley Bay, in 1904, having been a member from the Sallyport days on to the Central Church period.
Some of the foregoing are in the Central Church today. And there is another not yet mentioned, who spent useful years in Nelson Street, and was called to the higher service when he was giving increasingly useful service in the new church—John Hewitson. His deep and tender interest in children was shown in the strenuous manner in which he discharged the duties of Connexional Orphanage Treasurer, and the Harrogate Homes will bear his name for all time.
After passing through many periods of trial, Primitive Methodism never had the position in Newcastle it holds to-day. The Central Church in the heart of the city, and the many fine buildings and enterprising societies on every side of it, are witnesses. The story of the inception and completion of the gigantic undertaking known as the Central Church is a substantial portion of the tale of Arthur T. Guttery’s thirteen years’ superintendency of the Newcastle First Circuit. But his prodigal expenditure of power was not confined to Newcastle, nor to his own denomination. The pulpits and platforms of the Free Churches of the United Kingdom, in a manner of speaking, knew him before he went to London to become the General Missionary Secretary. In the church which seats 820 people and cost £14,271—indeed, in the entire circuit—Tom Sykes and Arthur Lowe are already, in their own way, working out a new record. The station has opened a new place—Prestwick Colliery—which has at its head J. T. March, a devoted and able preacher.
With the story of Derby Street society the names of James Gow and William Goodrich are intertwined. The present chapel was built in 1883, after services had been held for a long time in a room above Robert Carrick’s shop. Along with the couple mentioned, McEwan, Wilson, Bainbridge, Greygoose, and Mather have done loyal and lasting work. Bulman Village was swallowed up long ago in Gosforth, that popular and extending place. Chiefly through the liberality of a working man —Alexander Robson—a chapel and school were erected. Many years of struggle have been the portion of the society, and no one will rejoice more heartily at the improved conditions than the leal-hearted Matthew Turner.
THE WESTERN SIDE.
Newcastle Second Circuit was carved out of the original station in 1874. It was the western side, extending up the Tyne to Mickley Square. James Young was its first superintendent, and it was a happy appointment. Except to a few, he was then unknown in the North; when, a quarter of a century or so afterwards he “retired from the active work of the ministry”—as it is called—and located at Cullercoats and Whitley Bay, no man was better known or more highly esteemed throughout the old Sunderland District. Maple Street Chapel and society became the head of the new station. This chapel was built in 1870, but a splendid company had been gathered in Brunel Street before that, when William Charlton, George Newton, Joseph Reed, Joseph Harrogate, and Alexander Swinney were prominent and active members. A more efficient Sunday School superintendent than George Watt would have been difficult to find in that day. For some years Maple Street increased in numbers and influence, but an unhappy rupture, and subsequent removals, have hampered its energies. In the most stressful times, however, the Watts, the Waughs, the Harrogates, the Parks, the Wedderburns, the Thews, the Hindmarshes, the Dodds, the Grays, the Tweedys, the Humphreys, the Waltons, the Whitfields, and others kept their hearts and their posts, and the women toiled incessantly.
Though the first Primitive Methodist meeting was held at Arthur’s Hill in 1834, when Mary Holmes started prayer meetings, it was not until 1842 that it was put upon the plan for regular preaching services, and much good was done in William Street. In 1864 the increasing band built a chapel in West Street. Many scenes were witnessed there which will never pass out of mind, not the least being the times of refreshing during Miss Bulmer’s mission in November, 1891. Clark Hallam did good work there before going into the ministry. After long thought, a new church and school were built in Kingsley Terrace, in 1897, the handsome sanctuary being opened on New Year’s Day, 1898. John Harryman Taylor did a great and lasting work in the building of “Kingsley,” and faithful men and women represented by the Reeds, the Waltons, the Vartys, the Allisons, the Thirlwells, the Robsons, the Stobbses, the Kirtons, the Wilsons, and others sustained his hands. Men of vigour and ability such as Anthony Oates, William Spears, Henry Potts, Thomas Dodds, Joseph Longstaff, and John Dodd have joined the front rank men there during the ten years; and the ministries of Sister Jessie, aided by the wives and daughters of the officials, have given the added fragrance of human sympathy and help to the dignity, beauty, and fervour of the worship in the fine church.
Strickland Street Chapel is the successor of a joiners’ shop in Elswick, and that many souls have entered the Kingdom in it William Barnes, Matthew Armstrong, Dranskill, and other leaders can tell. Strickland Street may claim to be the parent of Benwell society, which has blossomed into such vigour and promise during Henry Pratt’s term, and which has now a commodious school-chapel, in a first-class position, and a growing membership.
In 1894 Newcastle Second Circuit was divided, Blaydon and Lemington becoming the heads of new stations. Blaydon has already been dealt with. Lemington Circuit has now seven societies Lemington, Walbottle, Throckley, Mickley Square, West Wylam, Eltringham, and Branch End. Lemington was often missioned, but not until the later forties was a permanent society established, and the Old Engine, a pile ten storeys high, commonly known as the “buggy hut,” was secured. Here Robert Blackett and his wife were regular worshippers, and a family—George Nichol, his wife, and children—afterwards gave the society a decided lift up. Nichol took charge of the singing and introduced violins; and the Sunday School anniversaries became of great importance. The Nichol family—four sons and one daughter—were splendid workers in every institution of the church. William has been for some years one of the best known men in the Leeds District. John Wilkinson, Matthew Varty, Isaac Reed, George Fawcus, Henry Wheeler, John and Henry Wailes and their wives, Margaret Denton and her son Ralph, Mrs. Telford, Margaret Danskin, Thomas Danskin, and W. Lishman and his wife were among the honoured people of that time. Wilkinson and Lishman undertook to build a chapel, if the bricks and stones could be got. The bricks and stones were got, and the chapel was built. At the foundation-stone laying, the tea meeting was held in the Pot House, and seven hundred persons attended, a number larger than the then entire population of Lemington. It was in 1861 when the chapel was opened, and days of gladness and grace visited the village. In that decade the Wighams of Scotswood were useful members in the society. Thomas went into the ministry in 1860, but he died after having only travelled about eight years. The name of Wigham has been honourably associated with Lemington for generations, the later family having migrated there from Lumley about twenty years ago.
The congregations grew with the growth of the village, and in 1891 a chapel costing £2,100 was opened for worship. In this work Michael Dodd and his brother Tom, who were then residing in Lemington, and who were in the fulness of their power and popularity, took a prominent part; and among the fine lot of willing workers in the prosperous society to-day are R. Lowes and J. Johnson, circuit stewards; W. Stoker, R. J. Laybourn, T. Muxworthy, and his family of five Sons and two daughters, John and Robert Wigham and the family of the latter, John Blackburn, Thomas Gardner and his large family, William Gelley (son of the well-known minister), the Renwicks, the Bakers, the Wilkinsons, I. R. Wilson, Margaret Danskin, and Jonathan Southern, the picturesque local preacher, lecturer, and evangelist. The removal by death in the autumn of 1906 of Councillor C. Ferguson was a severe blow to the circuit.
The names of William Suddards and Jane Ansdale remained fragrant at Walbottle Colliery for a generation. It was one of the villages which felt the spiritual impulses given by the early missionaries, and there was a thriving society in 1824, Matthew Ledger, a native of Black Callerton, being one of the original members. When the cholera was raging in 1832, Peter Kidman, of Byker, preached there one night with such power that forty souls were brought to penitence and salvation. Prayer meetings were held down the pit, at one of which a frolicsome youth named Joseph Henderson was converted, and for thirty-five years he was an efficient local preacher. From first to last the success of the society, under trying circumstances, has been exceptional. Throckley society may be regarded as the outcome of one of Walbottle’s adversities, and the chapel there has been of service in sweetening the life of what was once a rough place.
Mickley Square and West Wylam originally belonged to the Shotley Bridge Circuit. George Hubbuck was a comparative youth then, and he, Proud, and Porter are well up on the plan now. Proudlock and not a few more who warred a good warfare have joined the church triumphant. Since the day they joined Newcastle Second Circuit much good has been done. From West Wylam John Foster and John T. Ridley were “separated unto the gospel of God.” Branch End, far up towards Stocksfield, is a recently-formed society, with the enthusiastic Battensby at its head, and the erection of a chapel there by about fifty members has created a new interest in the rising district.
THE EASTERN SIDE
Another big slice was taken off the first station in 1892. This time it was the eastern side. Newcastle Third Circuit has Heaton Road Church as its head, the other societies being Ballast Hills, St. Anthony’s, Westmoor, Wallsend, Walker, and Dinnington Colliery. Chillingham Road has since been added. The latter was opened and sustained largely through the zeal and liberality of George Nixon and his wife, and many a heart ached—the poor and the needy as well as those of the hundreds who knew him—when it was told that Mr. Nixon was dead.
Heaton Road society is the product of Ballast Hills. At its commencement it had amongst its members W. B. Leighton, Peter Kidman, David Wright, George Nixon, Jacob Beautyman, J. Hudspith, T. Scott, and W. Richardson, all men of striking personality, whose influence is still felt in this and other circuits, though they have passed within the veil. The Leighton Memorial Church and schools were built in 1877. That portion of the city was just being opened out then; the church and schools are now surrounded with a teeming population. Only T. Corby, I. W. Johnson, A. Morton, W. Robson (of Tynemouth), G. Temple (of Whitley Bay), W. J. Richardson, and C. F. Hunter remain of those who signed the trust deeds. The sacrifices and heroisms with which the story of the struggle of the trustees with an original debt of £3,600 is crammed are worthy of being acknowledged. “How amply repaid they have been by the splendid success they have achieved, and the position they have won,” is the reflection of a veteran minister.
Ballast Hills Chapel was built in 1841, the gallery being added twelve years afterwards. Here in the school and in the no less notable “Young Men’s Class” were influenced, in addition to those already named, William Gelley, Gleghorn, and Havre (now a Presbyterian minister), and local preachers of religious vitality and marked intelligence, the best-known representative of to-day being William Robson, whose name is now known in official circles of the Connexion. Of Philip Wears, who was thirty years acting-superintendent of the school, Mr. Robson says: “Few men ever so perfectly found their sphere in any service as did Philip Wears in the life of the Sunday School, and through the children into the life of the people.” Branch schools were opened from time to time at “The Fold,” Stepney, Leighton’s Buildings (Quality Row), Mr. Kidman’s schoolroom at Byker Hill, and in the Temperance Hall, Grafton Street, Byker. When Heaton Road premises were built, the two latter branches, in one of which John E. Mackay, of Whitley Bay, and others did useful work, were taken over, and made a good start in the capacious schoolroom. Another of the branches was removed to the Copperas Works at Bird’s Nest, William Bolton and Henry Berry being then at the head, and out of it sprang St. Anthony’s society and chapel. The work of the Jull family at St. Anthony’s will not soon be forgotten, and Ralph Robson, Thomas Craig, and Robert Whitfield laboured hard for the spiritual well-being of the village. The few—notably I. T. Potts and his wife, J. Broughton, J. N. Warhurst, and Mrs. Melvin—who now prosecute their self-denying work at Ballast Hills deserve the fullest commendation.
To hear Arthur T. Wardle tell of his reminiscences of Westmoor is to be thrilled. Sixty years ago this society exercised a marvellous power, which continued for almost a generation. The people were alive, prayer meetings sometimes lasted all night, and miracles of grace and mercy followed. Bessie Simpson, Tommy Lowrison, John Johnson, George Orton, William Simpson, Tommy Hymers, Tommy Barnes, and the grandfather of G. B. Gleghorn, of Peterborough, were to the fore in those days. Then there were the Wardles. Harry, the eldest, died in 1853. Arthur, father of Professor W. L. Wardle, B.D., went into the ministry in 1867, and William followed him six years later. Both have served the Connexion well. Their younger sister Pollie began to preach when she was sixteen, was popular in the Northern circuits, and is now the wife of a Methodist minister in America. The Hendersons, Hartleys, Watkins, with Wardle, Charlton, and others still keep the altar fires burning at Westmoor.
The Primitives missioned Wallsend in the early twenties, since which time it has grown from a small pit village to a municipality. After holding meetings in a long room behind George Swan’s Sand Mill (now the dilapidated property opposite the Cafe), the little society built a small chapel in 1829 on Kenton Waggon Way, now known as Portugal Place. Valiant men and women laboured there, conspicuous amongst whom were Henry Daglish, John Heads, John Thompson (a schoolmaster), Thomas Calvert, and William Oliver. A better place of worship was erected in the north end of the town in 1871, and T. W. Huntley and the school anniversaries will long be remembered. Years afterwards the present site was purchased, upon which a ball and schoolrooms have been built. When the church is erected the whole scheme will cost over £6,000. John Wallace, the saintly and cultured, has long since gone home, though there is yet a Wallace at Wallsend, and the Knoxes, Calverts, Liddles, Willises, Raines, Featherstones, Richardsons, with Middleton, Watson, Peart, Locke, Wilson and many more, lead the bands in this powerful church.
Benjamin Spoor was a spiritual product of Ballast Hills Sunday School, and after his marriage, in the early forties, he opened his house for preaching at Walker. Just before Benjamin’s departure for Witton Park, in the Providence of God, the late Thomas Scott went to Walker, and his house became the meeting-place when Mr. Spoor left. A deserted stable was afterwards renovated, and services and a Sunday School were held in it for years. Several “flittings” occurred until at length a chapel was built in Church Street. That was in 1868, and a great step forward was made in 1906 in the erection of the school-chapel in Welbeck Road. What Thomas Scott and his family did for Primitive Methodism in Walker cannot be computed. His son Thomas is the head of the well-known printing firm in Newcastle, and his daughter is the wife of a minister (Daniel McKinley). Associated with the Scotts at first were the Twentymans, Bruces, Gibsons, and Mrs. Earle. Then came the old Jacob Adamson period, after which the Guthries, Martin Fatkin, Henry Giles, the Atkinsons, William Jobling, William Mason, the Midcalfs, Thomas Holt, the Metcalfs, William Hood, James Miller, William Donnison, Thomas Richardson, the Bells, Gates, Burrills, Thomas Brandon, Arthur Wilson, Thomas Coulson, M. Masterman, William Edminson and his family, T. Moxham, the Shands, and Frank Maughan came to the front as the years went on, and the growing church is now well officered.
Early in the seventies Dinnington Colliery was missioned, a class was formed, with Thomas Gleghorn of Seaton Burn as leader, and eventually an iron chapel was put up. The society grew, and under the lead of J. Dodd Jackson (who had also something to do with the forward movements at Wallsend and Walker) a creditable village chapel was erected in 1898, the foundation-stones having been laid by Mrs. Coltman, Mrs. Cato, Mrs. Corby, and Mrs. Hunter, all of Heaton, and Mrs. Thomas Heads, of Dinnington. Mrs. Nixon, of Heaton, opened the chapel, and during the term of W. A. French the debt was wiped off. David Paxton, George Allan, Thomas Heads, Mrs. Greenfield, William Bennett, James Herbertson, and Thomas Reed are names which have a prominent place in the story of the church’s struggles and triumphs. The greatest men the Connexion has produced have ministered in Newcastle. Four Conferences have been held in the city—1842, 1859, 1876, and 1903—and the camp meetings on the Town Moor were unforgettable days.
THE SOUTHERN SIDE
Reverses and disappointments were the common experience of the early promoters of Primitive Methodism in Gateshead; yet during recent years few towns in the Connexion can show a more gratifying rate of progress. John Branfoot was the first Primitive Methodist missionary who preached in Gateshead. August 2nd, 1821, was the date, and the place was in High Street, under some trees, on the very spot where John Wesley once stood. Mary Porteus had done her best to get him a congregation, and the assembly was large and orderly. In the following year a preaching room was opened in Garden Street, and regular services were organised by a few members of the Newcastle society who lived in Gateshead. Being too poor to pay the rent, however, they had to give it up, and they migrated from room to room in various directions. One of the rooms was in the “Brandy Vault” public-house, from which they were expelled for making too much noise, and another was in Church Walk. Imprudently, as William Dent says, a large chapel was built in Mulgrave Terrace in 1838. Two years afterwards the treasurer absconded with the money, the mortgagee took possession of the property, the chapel was lost, and reproach was cast upon the cause.
The brave few once more began in the streets, then opened a room in Church Walk, and subsequently took larger premises in West Street. Their prosperity continued, and on New Year’s Day, 1854, Nelson Street Chapel was opened. William Brown, Martin Gleghorn, Arthur Hedley, J. Lough, T. Gibson, Bell, William Peel, John Thompson, Edward Gowland, Joseph Urwin, John Scope, John Cherry, William Gibson, and G. E. Almond were the earnest men of that time. The latter, as has been stated, is still alive, and his daughter— “that quiet and beautiful soul,” as one of the foremost women in the Connexion styles her—takes a conspicuous interest in missionary and other work.
In 1825 Isaac Thompson declared that “Gateshead was a place much noted for hardness.” Low Fell, Sheriff Hill, Wrekenton, and other places in the immediate vicinity, were more popular than the town. Jeremiah Gilbert writes of a camp meeting at Windy Nook, “near Newcastle-upon-Tyne,” on September 21st, 1823, when “a few got saved.” It was at the instigation of Gilbert that Mary Porteus started to preach, and he sent her to Wrekenton to take a service before her name appeared on the plan. Eighton Banks of to-day, where there is a vigorous church, is really Wrekenton, and it was also known as Galloping Green when South Shields Circuit had it. The locality, therefore, including Windy Nook and Heworth Colliery, has a special interest, in that the early preachers paid so much attention to it.
In 1837 Gateshead was made into a circuit. Possibly in consequence of the chapel episode it failed to maintain its position, and was re-united with Newcastle in 1841. That re-union existed for exactly twenty-one years, when Gateshead became fully able to stand alone. At the June quarterly meeting of 1873 it was decided to open a mission at Teams, and William Carr, Robert Scope, and Richard Dinsley were appointed to the work. With Robert Laidler at their head, and supported by a number of Nelson Street young men, recently converted, they took the place by storm. A room was first rented in Pianet Row, and larger places afterwards. In 1881 several influential members joined the mission, including George Charlton, John Thubron, Haswell, Aitchison, Ellis, Hamilton, and the wives of some of those named. Two years afterwards the Charlton Memorial Church in Victoria Road was opened, and gracious seasons have been experienced within its walls. This society owes much to the devotion of Alderman Thubron, his wife, and family.
A mission was started in Sunderland Road in 1874, and William Carr and Richard Dinsley were put in charge of it. A room was got in Somerset Street, and the success was such from the start that a schoolroom was built in 1878, and a chapel seating six hundred people in 1885. William Carr has been at the head of it all, and a more splendid work it would be difficult to find. Bank Street Chapel, built in 1891, Is the outcome of a mission in Askew Road, with which the names of Dinsley, Scope, Carr, Matthew Wotherspoon, George Miller, and others are associated. James Sallows, of Dunston, has done much for Bank Street. In Whitehall Road a commanding site was secured a few years ago, and an iron chapel erected. It was here where William Gowling worshipped until the gentle spirit went home in 1908. The first circuit has just entered upon a great scheme in Dryden Road, near Low Fell, a populous district, the site alone costing about £600, so that enterprise is still the watchword at Gateshead.
Suitable as the neighbourhood was when the chapel was built, Nelson Street deteriorated with great rapidity, and the building was sold in 1886. A site was bought in Durham Road, and a lecture hall and school were erected, followed in 1892-3 by the church and manse. The entire block cost about £7,000, and the property is now in very easy circumstances, a fact due to the devoted work of Henry Pratt and his wife, of George Armstrong, and of the faithful and generous men and women who worked so enthusiastically under their leadership. One name must be mentioned with special veneration—that of John Gowland, a son of one of the original Gateshead Primitives, a man of sterling character, one of the most successful Sunday School superintendents and class-leaders possessed by any circuit—William Robson, society steward at Whitley Bay, was one of his members —and held in the highest regard in the town and in the Council, of which he was a member. He died suddenly in 1907, and thousands mourned for him. The death of Mrs. Almond also made Durham Road poorer.
Dunston, Swalwell, and Whickham are places which have been connected with Primitive Methodism from the days of William Suddards and Jane Ansdale. The former is a growing society, going up rapidly since the coal-staiths were erected there. Whickham. where Charles G. Tetley has located, is a pleasant village. It was Joseph Spoor’s native place, and the chapel there is called the Spoor Memorial Chapel. SwaIwell has had a striking past. Robert Gillender, a leader in the memorable engineers’ nine hours’ agitation on the Tyne and Wear, was a tower of strength in the society. Two of his sons—Robert and John—have been long in the ministry, and Robert H. Gillender, M.Sc., headmaster in the Tiger Kloof Native Institution in Bechuanaland, is his grandson. For years, however, little progress was made at Swalwell; but a new chapel was built, and a new day begun, chiefly by families who had gone to the neighbourhood.
Prince Consort Road Church, the head of the Second Circuit, has been a conspicuous success. Like Durham Road, it has been the spiritual home of a generous and devoted people. Scope, the Bowrans, Barron, Ridley, Grainger, Hewitt, Johnson, Thirlwell, and a host more have been connected with the fortunes of this strong church for many years. As regards the Bowran family, their life has been interwoven with the society from its start. A few men from Nelson Street commenced a mission in Worcester Street, in an upstairs flat. The Bowrans lived near, and the children went to the Sunday School. The father, an engine-driver, was drawn to the chapel when it was built, having been invited there by R. Bell, who was also an engine-driver. From that day he became attached to the place, and in this way all the family was secured to Primitive Methodism. There are eight sons, and the success in life of each is remarkable. William, the eldest, is a local preacher in Sunderland, where he holds a position of trust on the Echo.” Robert has built up a large business, is the choir-master of Prince Consort Road Church, was the conductor of the District Psalmody Association which did so much for the improvement of the service of praise in scores of chapels, and is a member of the Town Council. John G. (“Ramsay Guthrie”) went into the ministry when only twenty years of age, and the mark he has made as a preacher, pastor, and evangelist is heightened by the popularity he has secured by his Methodist idylls. George and his wife are the leaders of the Poor Children’s Mission at Shieldfield, Newcastle, in connection with the United Methodist Church, where some eight hundred poor children are under their care. Thomas is a local preacher, the organist of Prince Consort Road Church, and one of the school superintendents. James is at Prince Consort Road also. David S. is a local preacher, and one of the circuit stewards; and Edwin was the musical director of the Central Church, Newcastle.
Much good work has been done at Carr’s Hill. W. Hamilton (now of North Shields), who has been in the front rank of Sunday School workers for many years, was a scholar in the Thorn Cottage, where the society was started. The chapel was built in 1858-9, when the Olivers, Kendalls, Proud, and Robson were leading the way, and a camp meeting resulted in a revival, which spread over the locality, the Cooks, the Olivers, the Nesbits, the Pattersons, and John Lowery taking a prominent part.
And there are Low Fell, Kibblesworth, and Bewicke Main, where worthy efforts have been made for the spread of religion. In Bewicke Main society the genial Luke Fenwick, who died in April, 1906, was a pillar of strength for many years. T. Cook and R. Brack also did nobly. Kibblesworth Colliery has often been visited with seasons of grace, and the unstinted labour of the society has been rewarded. Low Fell is a suburban church now. It was missioned by one of the Nelsons in the spring of 1823, and others of the early missionaries record many signal events at the Fell. Forty years afterwards John Lowery made the name of Low Fell extensively known in both counties. Some of the most devoted souls known in any church have been here engaged in Sunday School and other work, and the future is rosy.
Somewhere in the twenties services were held at Felling, in a thatched cottage belonging to Mrs. Shepherd, and afterwards in a large room connected with the Poorhouse. The first chapel was built in High Street, in 1833. In 1864, John Hallam, then travelling in the station, conducted a mission, in which he was assisted by Hugh Gilmore and William Gelley. They were all young men, and the kindness of Mr. Hallam to the other two has often been acknowledged. It was an epoch-making revival, for a new church was built immediately thereafter. There was another wave of blessing in 1877, the services being conducted by William Johnson, who was then superintendent; John Tyson, of South Shields, and others. The congregations continued to grow, and in 1896 the present commodious church was built. Felling Church has a large body of strong and progressive men in it, and bands of active women, and holds a prominent place in the life of the town. Under the able leadership of Councillor T. W. Huntley, the choir is in excellent condition. The society has had some loyal supporters, including Mrs. Hepburn, who had been associated with it for eighty years, and her children and children’s children; Thomas Thompson, now in retirement at Pelaw; William Taylor and his family; Mr. and Mrs. Buchanan, Samuel Hann, the Hutchinsons, Simon Lang and his wife and daughter Janet. Robert Gray has just celebrated his jubilee as a member, having been a prominent local preacher from his youthful days at Stanley. In recent years Gateshead has sent T. P. Ellis, David Cook, and J. J. Alderson into the ministry.
Gateshead Circuit was divided in 1891. The old station retained Durham Road, Sunderland Road, Felling, Carr’s Hill, Windy Nook, Eighton Banks, and Heworth Colliery societies. The new circuit consisted of Prince Consort Road, Victoria Road, Low Fell, Bank Street, Swalwell, Whickham, Kibblesworth, Bewicke Main, and Dunston societies. Whitehall Road has since been added. There are seventeen chapels in the two circuits, the estimated value of the whole property being £34,000. In 1868 there was only one chapel in the borough, with about a hundred members. There are now six places of worship, and about 800 members. But take a larger view, now that we have gone over the area of the original Newcastle Circuit. Within that compass in 1862 there were 952 members, three travelling preachers, and sixty-four local preachers, the quarterly income being £74 17s. 71d., and the chapel property (thirteen places of worship then recorded in the documents) valued at £7,750. In the seven circuits, formed out of practically the same area, and served by eleven ministers, the figures were in 1908:—
| Members | Local Preachers |
Quarterly Income |
Church Property |
|
| £ s. d. | £ | |||
| Newcastle I | 469 | 22 | 111 10 0 | 19,700 |
| Newcastle II | 350 | 22 | 61 7 0 | 14,650 |
| Newcastle III | 546 | 42 | 108 0 0 | 14,500 |
| Gateshead I | 660 | 54 | 110 0 0 | 19,250 |
| Gateshead II | 687 | 49 | 94 0 0 | 15,000 |
| Blaydon | 420 | 28 | 64 0 0 | 6,690 |
| Lemington | 358 | 32 | 50 0 0 | 6,090 |
| _____ | ____ | _______ | _______ | |
| Total | 3,490 | 249 | £599 7 0 | £95,880 |