Etruria: Etruria and Josiah Wedgwood (1760 onwards)

 

 Etruria Wesleyan Methodist Chapel 

 

Location 4 on the index map

Josiah Wedgwood was a dissenter and prominent member of the Unitarian Meeting House in Newcastle­under-Lyme. However he does not appear to have made any special provision for dissenters at Etruria. 

Meetings of Methodists took place in private houses in the village in the late 18th century. The first Wesleyan chapel was built in 1808 in a field south of Etruria. 

In 1820 it was replaced by a new chapel on the main road near the centre of the village which is still standing. This is a brick building with a classical plastered front surmounted by a pediment and a date tablet illustrated in the drawing below. 

The ground floor plan shows a typical chapel layout of that period with a gallery above which accommodated an average attendance of 150 in 1851. 

There was a Sunday school at the back which originally occupied a thatched building. In 1851 this was attended by 180 children. By 1864 this had been replaced by the present building (see 1878 map) which has now (2000) been sold off and is occupied as a separate property. 

A Methodist New Connexion Chapel was opened in 1819 further up the village (see 1832 map). 

St Matthew’s, the Anglican church, was built in 1848-9 north of the village on a site given by the Duchy of Lancaster (see 1878 map of Etruria). Both the Anglican church and the original vicarage and the Methodist New Connexion chapel have been demolished.

 


 

next is the interior of  Etruria Wesleyan Methodist Chapel 


questions/comments/contributions? email: Steve Birks