No 91 -  Old Methodist Chapel, Stoke

Wesleyan Methodist Church, Cross Street, Stoke
in the mid 1950's Cross Street was renamed to Epworth Street

© The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery
Staffordshire Past Track

"WESLEYAN CHAPEL, Cross-street.—Superintendent Minister, Rev. J. Whitehead Clegg, 2, The Villas, Stoke. 

Organist and Choirmaster, H. Jeffreys, 28, Edward-street. Honorary Secretary of the North Staffordshire Mission, George Butler, Harding terrace, Stoke. Mission Stewards, George Hewitt, Oaklands, Oakhill, and Thomas Lewis, 55, Etruria Vale, Hanley. 

Sittings, 800. Services—Sunday morning 10.30, evening 6.30. Hymn Book used, Methodist Hymn Book; 

Sunday School, Cross-street. Other Organisation in connection with the Chapel—Stoke Brotherhood, 600 members ; Boys' Brigade ; Children's Services; Wesley Guild; Holiness Meetings; and Wood Yard."

from: 1907 Staffordshire Sentinel 'Business Reference Guide to The Potteries, Newcastle & District'

"The Old Methodist Chapel in Hide Street is one of the oldest buildings in Stoke. It was built in 1806, with accommodation for 1,000, and remains to this day almost unaltered.

Incredibly, only 40 years before the building of this chapel, Stoke was just a small village in the united township of Penkhull and Boothen; it consisted of only five or six houses near to the church, the old hall, and the curate's house. 

During the latter part of the 18th century, and in a very short time, many enterprising manufacturers settled in the town and extensive building took place. 

Foremost among the many eminent potters who founded businesses in Stoke were Josiah Spode, Thomas Minton, and Thomas Wolfe. The Newcastle branch of the Trent and Mersey Canal, opened in 1795-96, passed between the factories of Spode and Wolfe, and past Mintons.

Concurrent with the rapidly-developing industrial scene was a population explosion, and the building of rows of terraced houses, shops, offices, inns, and other amenities in the centre of Stoke.

By the turn of the century, extensive wharfs for receiving and forwarding goods by canal had been built, and a tramway for horse-drawn traffic lain to Longton in 1815; it operated from a wharf and basin on the east side of town, where large warehouses had been erected. 

Firms such as Pickfords introduced regular services to and from Stafford railway station after the opening of the Grand Junction Railway in 1837. There was a steam cornmill containing four pairs of stones, which was the largest flourmill in the district. 

Then there was the gasworks, opened in 1840, which supplied the factories, inns and houses.

It is only possible to mention a few of the many places of worship established in the town: St. Peters must take pride of place, having origins in the distant past, probably during the 8th century. 

The Wesleyan chapel of 1806 is the oldest extant place of worship, followed by the Methodist New Connexion in Hill Street, built in 1815. The Quakers had a small meeting house in Chapel Street which they bought from the Independents, who had built it in 1823."

Neville Malkin 7th July 1976