THE NENT AND THE ALLEN
“John Flesher, gentleman, and minister of the gospel in the Primitive Methodist Connexion; Isaac Walton, of Appletree Shield, refiner of lead; John Walton, of the same place, lead ore miner; Henry Bell, Wellhope, lead ore miner; John Armstrong, of the same place, lead ore miner; Thomas Bell, Hexley Well, lead ore miner; and William Routledge, of Colacleugh, lead ore miner.”
It may he taken for granted that many residents of Alston, Nenthead and the neighbourhood had been in Weardale, had been witnesses of the remarkable scenes accompanying the preaching of the word there, and had been partakers of the joy of the believing souls, before Anthony Race missioned Nenthead and Garrigill in the spring of 1823. Others followed, and before the close of the year the revival in the Wear valley had reached the head of the Nent. From the first the people waited patiently on the ministrations of the missionaries, and wanted to pay for them by taking up a collection. On one of his visits, Thomas Batty took his stand on a flag by the door of Isaac Hornsby, an official of the lead works — the same flag on which Mr. Wesley had stood to preach — and after he had finished his discourse, a collection was taken, which, though it was a week-night, reached three pounds.
Occasional visits were only paid at first — once a fortnight on week-nights, and not at all on the Sabbaths; but the work grew so mightily, and the excitement became so intense, that more frequent ministrations were imperative. Meanwhile, however, numbers of the converts joined with other societies, which was then generally the case wherever our missionaries went. Isaac Hornsby, a man of influence in the district, received the pioneers into his house (supposed to be Ivy House, near the Workmen’s Reading Room), and became a class-leader. The religious awakening assumed extraordinary proportions. A man who was seized with such deep convictions while going to his work that he lost his bodily strength, leaned against a wall, and shouted for mercy. When the neighbours gathered round him, he declared: “We are all going to hell together,” and exhorted them to turn from their sins, and to walk in the way to heaven. There is a tradition that a Mrs. Wilkinson, who occupied then the tavern now known as the Broad Inn, invited Mr. Batty to hold services in her house, and that in the first service she was converted. Two elderly women are said to have dropped into a discussion on their return homewards from one of Mr. Batty’s meetings. “Aa tell tha,” was the final deliverance of one of them, “he’s nea batty (a small loaf); he’s a hee’al kee’ak” (a whole cake).
John Hewson, John Flesher, G. W. Armitage, and John Oxtoby also laboured in this locality with conspicuous success. Powerful camp meetings were held at Nenthead, followed by lovefeasts whereon “the sanctifying glory rested.” A lovefeast held by Oxtoby is described by him as “a great day of God. Two men came twenty miles to get sanctified; one of them caught the holy flame, and carried it to Middleton, and now it is spreading there.” Many stories are told of Johnny’s eccentricities. One Sunday (in 1827) Mr. Flesher failed to reach his appointment, and Oxtoby had to take his place. “Now, friends,” he said, when he entered the pulpit, “Johnny Flesher hasn’t come to-day to shoot his paper pellets, and I must take his place.” After that sally at the man who was the rising orator in the Connexion, the meeting proceeded, and the unpolished messenger had many tokens of his acceptable service.
While the names of such places as Nenthead, Garrigill, and Allenheads are found in the early books of the Barnard Castle branch, no mention is made of Alston, which, as is well known in the North, is the highest market town in England, and in a hilly district, forming the point of juncture between the Nent and the Tyne. But while the Barnard Castle missionaries had penetrated to within five miles of it, Alston had been missioned from another direction. William Garner was there in 1823, and he was not the first from the Hexham branch, which then stretched from Tynehead above Alston, to Dunston, close to Gateshead, a distance of forty-five miles. In 1825 Alston and Allendale were visited with a wave of revival power, and upwards of a hundred united with the former society in three months. “The Lord is extending our borders,” reports John Garner, “and opening our way in Alston Moor and East and West Allendale.” Joseph Grieves did a good work in 1826-7, and during John Flesher’s term, 1827-9, crowds rushed to hear him.
Coalclough is now a stony desolation, but when the mine was working services were held during the week in the mine shop. Fluctuations of trade have caused other places to be abandoned, even though chapels had been erected. A reference to chapels brings up the courage of the early members at Garrigill. There were seventeen of them in 1825 when they built a chapel, 24 ft. by 30 ft. The church flourished, and in a few years the north end was taken out and six feet added. In 1856 the whole structure was pulled down, and a stone building capable of accommodating four hundred persons was erected. Nenthead Chapel must have been built at the same time as the first Garrigill edifice, for it bears the date 1825, and it claims to be the “highest place of worship in England,” being about 1,800 feet above sea level. The first meeting place at Nenthead was Matthew Latimer’s barn, at the foot of Dykeheads Road, and in it marvels of grace were wrought. The entire character of the place was changed, and some of the greatest reprobates were savingly converted. Recently a vestry has been added to the chapel. It is conjectured that Hayring (Nentsbury) Chapel was opened in 1829. When the present sanctury was erected on the opposite side of the river in 1868 (Joseph Ritson, the editor, assisted in drawing the plans), Hayring was closed. A new Sunday School has been built, the foundation-stones of which were laid on August 17th, 1907, by Lady Dorothy Howard, of Naworth Castle, and, on behalf of Joseph Hodgson, of Alston, by Mrs. Pinchen, wife of the superintendent minister. All the stones were quarried and the foundations cut by the members free of cost. It is believed that Alston Chapel was put up in 1825, but it had to be rebuilt in 1843, and further improvements have since been made.
Alston became a circuit about the year 1836, and n 1838 it included within its radius Allendale Town and Allenheads on the north and Penrith westward, as many as three ministers being stationed in the circuit at one time. Again and again “the heavens opened” upon the faithful labourers. Revivalism was the aim of the preachers and members. As to the “fallings” and being overwhelmed with the glory, that was a common occurrence, and there are men and women living to-day who have had the latter experience. “Considerable awakenings to prayer and holy action” took place frequently in the societies, and notable conversions were frequent. According to the venerable Thomas Carrick, Primitive Methodism, under God, succeeded on account of the free hand and the direct message: “Go! enter every open door, and stay there so long as God works!” “No gin-horse, perfunctory circuit work! When I was at Nenthead fifty-five years ago (1852), the circuit said ‘Stay there till your work is done.’ I stayed sixteen weeks, and hundreds were saved.” These were composed of nearly all classes, from the comparative child to those on the “downhill of life”; from the outwardly moral and sober, to the inebriate and immoral. “Husbands and wives, parents and children, brothers and sisters, companions and their associates have been embracing each other as though they had risen from the dead, shedding tears of joy together, and mingling their voices at the throne of grace.” The fifties had barely run their course when there was another great awakening; and Thomas Stephenson (who afterwards went into business at Crook, and died there) was one of the promoters in the establishment of a Sunday School, which subsequently, with Jonathan Walton as its superintendent, attained a high position in the Northern District. Barnabas Wild gives a fine description of a revival in which John Gill and Miss Bennett, of Chester, were engaged. (The latter’s fame spread over the North of England, and she became one of the foremost women preachers of her time.) Thomas Featherstone, who declared that he had been a mere moralist, cried out at one of the meetings: “I have got to-night what I never had before.” Thirty-six souls prostrated themselves before the Lord, and the outside comment was: “If Thomas Featherstone needed converting, the Lord help us!” Years afterwards, when Mr. Wild returned to the station, he found a great number of useful men and good local preachers, the fruit of that revival. Luke Stafford tells of four months’ meetings without a break in the hard winter of 1870-71, and reckons amongst the heroes of Primitive Methodism the men and women who worked, sang, and prayed with such tenacity all the time.
Yet another remarkable revival season — this time at Alston — was experienced in the winter of 1891. Miss Bulmer was the missioner, and she was accompanied by Miss Flora Walton (Mrs. Ridley). Miss Walton sang gospel solos, and the sweetly cultured tones and powerful expression with which they were given no doubt led many a soul to a better life. There had been trouble in the Alston society, and it was in a low condition. For a few nights the work was very hard; but during an all-night of prayer there “came such a light and glory” around the pleading few that some laughed, some fell, and others wept. “Victory!” shouted “good old Brother Dixon.” Thenceforward conversions went on for weeks.
The membership of the circuit is about 270. How many valuable members and officials have gone from it from time to time to more promising fields of labour at home or across the seas it would be impossible to tell. Like John Shipley, who was converted under Jane Ansdale in 1823, and who went to the Isle of Man in 1831, and rose to eminence in the island, many of the highland sons became a social and spiritual power in the localities in which they settled. Of those who remained at home, tributes to their strength of personality, depth of conviction, tenacity of purpose, warmth of devotion, and generosity and hospitality, are beyond count. The Latimers, the Harrisons, the Pearsons, the Waltons, the Hills, the Thompsons, the Doyles, the Shields, and the Hendersons; W. Thomason, of Garrigill; John Hall, John Holmes, John Davidson, John Wilkinson, Thomas Moffatt, Edward Greenwell, Isaac Watson, and multitudes more among the living and the dead have surrounded Alston, Nenthead, Nentshury, Lilaygill, Garrigill, and the country round with traditions (and nourished them), the recital of which can never cease to inspire generations to come.
Nenthead gave Robert Hind to the ministry. In his recent lamented death a prince has fallen in our Israel. In addition, there have gone into the itinerancy from the circuit G. T. Lovatt, Isaac Cousin, and W. Robson. M. H. Barron, who died at Fernando Po, was born at Wellgill, Nenthead, though his parents afterwards went to reside at Durham.
DOMINANT METHODISM.
“Methodism and the Established Church divide the land between them; but it is a very unequal division. The little Methodist chapels are dotted all over the Dales, and sometimes seem to have dropped down in the most unlikely places.” So wrote one who knew the tract of country lying between the Tyne and the Wear in the extreme south-western corner of Northumberland, and called Allendale. With a shade of difference, the characteristics of the people are similar to those of the Weardale folk. As it has been with the other dale, the population of the East and West Allen has been depleted through the closing of the mines. In later years, however, Allendale Town — “the toon,” as the natives call it — has obtained much popularity as a health resort, though the railway abruptly ended in the middle of a field at Catton (about a mile away) about forty years ago, and it has got no further yet.
Allenheads is the first society in this dale of which there is any positive record, and it may be accepted that the high part of the dale was missioned from Weardale when it formed part of the Barnard Castle branch. Mr. Wild says that one day two strangers appeared In the village, and began to sing about being soldiers of Christ. Their song, of course, would be the old ditty: “I a soldier sure shall be, happy in eternity.” The lads employed in washing lead ore rushed from their work to hear the strange men, and many of the mothers, thinking the newcomers were recruiting sergeants, whose object was to get their sons enlisted into the King’s Army, with more force than politeness ordered the strangers to be “off about their business.” Tradition has it that Thomas Batty was the chief actor in this scene; but William Lister, recording the death of Henry Phillipson, of Shildon, Northumberland, says curiosity led Phillipson and other young men to attend the ministry of the missionaries at Allenheads, in 1822, and he was converted in the revival then going on. The inference, therefore, is that the two strangers who had to pacify the excited mothers, and tell them that they were recruiting for the army of King Jesus, were on the ground before Batty.
The fact, as Mr. Wild has presented it to us, that Catton, as well as Alston, appears on the Hexham plan for the year 1823, indicates that the lower part of the dale was missioned by that circuit. William Garner’s journal shows that he was at Allendale Town and adjacent places in the December of that year. When Alston was made into a circuit all the places in Allendale became part of it, and remained so until 1848, when the dales of the Allen were formed into an independent station. In “the toon” services were first conducted in a “heckler’s shop” (a branch of business long since extinct in Allendale), and there the nucleus was formed of what afterwards developed into a numerous society. As elsewhere, cottages, barns, workshops were the initial homes of the societies in Allendale. Apple Tree Shield had the honour of having the first chapel. That was in 1829, and the following description of the trustees was copied from “an old deed, about the size of a man’s hand”:—
Though the structure was plain in the extreme, a gracious influence passed from it to the surrounding neighbourhood. Many years afterwards a much better place was built on the same site; unfortunately, in consequence of the depression in the mining industry causing an almost complete exodus of the population, the chapel had to be closed in the later seventies.
Next in the order of erection stood Sinderhope Chapel, built in 1830, which has since been superseded by a commodious and tasteful building. Allenheads society, because of “despotic agents of high churchism” and “the sectarian bigotry and insidious policy of a sporting reverend,” did not get a chapel until 1841, and laboured under many disadvantages therefrom. Land, however, was secured by an influential local preacher, and the society grew so rapidly that in 1849 a much larger place, galleried on three sides, had to be put up. Whiteley Shield society strove for more than twenty years to get a site, and it was not until 1857 that the members were able to enter upon premises of their own in which to worship. Corry Hill Chapel was largely the outcome of the efforts of Joseph Ritson (of whom more anon).. Of the eleven chapels now in the circuit, Allendale Town has a neat building, and Catton a creditable village edifice. This station has the honour of having been the first circuit in these northern parts to build a minister’s house. The great event took place in 1861, during the superintendency of Mr. MeKechnie.
In the valleys of the Allen mighty seasons of power from on high have been experienced from the days of Batty, Garner, Flesher, and Harland onwards. Such was the case in a marked degree in 1825, in 1831-2, in 1844, in 1852-3, in 1859-60, and so forth. Catton was baptised in a marvellous manner in 1831. During the next year at Keenley many were converted, Joseph Ritson among the number; his sweetheart, Jane Clemitson, and seven months afterwards she became his wife; and his companion, “Neddy” Henderson, who served Allendale and North Shields Circuits as a local preacher in after years. Joseph Ritson was subsequently the leading figure in Primitive Methodism in West Allen, and he gave to the Connexion one of its foremost ministers of the present time. Joseph commenced business at Ninebanks as builder and joiner, built up a prosperous trade, and was known and trusted all round as a man of character and probity. Frank, manly, free from cant, inclined to sternness and severity, yet having the heart of a child, his worldly success never cooled his devotion in the Lord’s service, and a revival was his joy. His house was the home of the preachers, and his attachment to them was very close. On a Sunday in July, 1878, he attended services at Corry Hill conducted by his son — the present editor — prayed with much fervour in the prayer meeting, and within a fortnight “passed on.” His eldest son Thomas is a local preacher in the Haltwhistle circult; John, the second son, was a class-leader at Ninebanks when he died some years ago; Ann, the second daughter, deeply spiritual, morally beautiful, cultured even, remarkable in many ways, became the devoted wife of Robert Clemitson, but was taken away in the fulness of her powers; Joseph, the youngest born, far and away the chiefest of them all, who, when a boy dedicated his life to the Lord, was made a local preacher at sixteen, when he returned home from Elmfield College, at seventeen returned to Elmfield as a teacher, at twenty went as a master to Woodhouse Grove, the Wesleyan school for ministers’ sons, simultaneously received invitations from both Connexions to become a minister, entered the Primitive Methodist itinerancy, used untiringly his versatile gifts of mind and soul by speech and pen in some of the leading circuits in the Connexion, administrator and evangelist, pastor and social reformer, preacher and politician, controversialist and novelist, and now Connexional Editor, influencing very many thousands of minds, and displaying an aptitude for the office which has brought to him commendations from the entire community.
Of the many commanding movements In the circuit, that in 1852-3 at Allendale holds a high place, and some day may be told with the deserved and inspiring fulness of the phenomenal work at Allenheads in 1859-60. Allendale society In the early fifties was In a low condition, and the minister (J. Watson) and members toiled hard to bring about a better condition of things. Want of success discouraged them, but they held on, and at length sinners began to tremble and cry for mercy. Excitement waxed stronger, and it spread through the two dales. There is a story about a local brass band which Mr. Wild tells with enthusiasm. The members of it had decided to go into the street to drown the processionists. They went. The noise produced by the bandsmen and the singers was tremendous, the excitement indescribable; all the people in the little town seemed to be in the street. In the Contest the band utterly failed, and the processionists sang lustily to the chapel, where a glorious meeting was held. The bandsmen retired to a public-house, with a sense of humiliation, several members declaring that that was their last night in the band. One of them, a young man named Robert Clemitson, consecrated his life to the Lord, was called into the ministry in 1858, for 43 years preached his cheering evangel principally in the old Sunderland District, and, after his settlement in Gateshead, has been engaged in preaching for all sections of the Free Churches, particularly the Presbyterians, for his Border blood has strong kinship with the spirit and traditions of the dominant confession of Caledonia. John, the drummer, lived to honour Christ in his own sphere, and many other youths and maidens were found in after years in useful positions in the church who had been made anew in that revival. John Gill, another youth of that period, must be specially named. “A droll lad, full of playfulness and tricks,” when converted, his high spirits found an outlet in earnest service in the church, and he was not long in becoming a travelling preacher. To qualities of heart were added qualities of mind, and these he exercised amongst the people. Superannuated In 1901, he retired to Enfield, close to the residence of his only child, the wife of a minister (John Pinchen), where he died soon afterwards. William Clemitson, John Foster, Robert Clemitson, John Gill, and Joseph Ritson form a good quintette of ministers to have been the product of one circuit.
It is no derogation to any of the good and faithful men who have ministered in Allendale to say that the most illustrious name in the history of the station is that of Cohn Campbell MeKechnie. He was its first superintendent in 1848, but he was removed by the Conference before the great plans of aggressive work which he and the officials were contemplating could be put into operation. He was back again, however, in 1859, and it was in the winter of that year when the notable awakening took place which has been so well told by Mr. MeKechnie himself and by Mr. Ritson. Allenheads was the chief place of powerful manifestations, though these were felt for miles around. The conversion of Jamie Weatherburn, known “from Sparty Lea to the Heads and to Allendale Town” as a drunkard, a blasphemer, a moral wreck, had an electrical effect in both the dales. People were touched to the quick by the sight and words of the healed man, and the converting work broke out on all hands. Four hundred members were added to the societies, and the Wesleyan Churches participated in the harvest. Joseph Reed, who became a well-known local preacher in Newcastle, and his father, who fell to the floor in an excess of joy when he saw the truth, were among the saved. Stephenson Stobbs, too, who was long regarded as one of the most eloquent local preachers in the country, and many more devoted souls found the Lord in that visitation.
Beyond those who have been mentioned, Matthew Lee; of Swinhope; John Little, of Sparty Lea; Nichol Carr, the quaint local preacher; Nicholas Phillipson, known at Ballarat as “Father Phillipson”; Hannah Harrison, chief among the worthies of her time; Barty Harrison, whose kindness Mr. Clemitson speaks tenderly of until this day; John Moore, an able man; Joseph Bell, the schoolmaster, and his wife, a beautiful spirit; and William Snaith, born at Tedham, one of the firstfruits of the early preachers, and who died at Ramshaw, deserve naming, as do hundreds more of those who have finished their course here, as well as of those who are still loyally in harness.