The Temple of Youth: Jimmy Butterworth & Clubland ... one to read ... from Bob Dodson

‘Jimmy Butterworth was a legend… This amazing book is the first complete biography…The detailed research is brilliant and throughout the book there is excellent historical/social comment … insightful and very interesting.’ ....Rev Steven Wild, Methodist Recorder, Sept. 2020

‘It is very well researched … It reflects on a time and approach that we may never be able to replicate.’  Peter Stevenson Reform Oct. 2020

‘This book is a magnificent read. It should be in every Methodist minister’s study and on every youth worker’s bookshelf.’    Rev. Norman Grigg (Minister at Walworth 1994-2010) 

‘…a compelling, moving, and honest account of an engaging personality and his lifelong dedication to the service of youth. The personal reminiscences and the wealth of photographs make this a beautifully illustrated book, as well as a lively narrative.’ Martin Wellings Wesley and Methodist Studies, 2021 vol. 13-2

The Temple of Youth tells the fascinating life story of one of Methodism’s most acclaimed and controversial figures. He was born in 1897 to a life of poverty and hardship like so many of his generation – working from age 12 in Oswaldtwistle textile mills, and leaving only to serve on the Somme and at Arras with the Lancashire Fusiliers. On his return from France in 1919, and against the odds for someone mostly self-educated, he won admission to Didsbury Theological College in Manchester, and whilst there established a thriving youth project at Beech Road, Chorlton.

Following graduation he was posted as a probationary minister to a failing church in a neglected and deprived area of South London. There he strove to raise the funds and support to build Clubland, a church youth club like no other, remaining as its charismatic head for over half a century, contrary to orthodox Methodist procedure. The Club transformed the life chances of thousands of  boys and girls and young adults who, like him, had  been dealt a poor and unequal start in life. Sir Michael Caine, who was himself a teenage member of Clubland, said of him:  “I owe my personality, my life, and my career to this man. The most important person I ever met.”  

Whilst his life’s work was in London, Jimmy Butterworth never forgot his Lancashire roots. He returned frequently, preaching to packed congregations at Green Haworth and in Accrington, where he is still remembered and revered. Stanhill Methodist Heritage Church (Oswaldtwistle) is holding a commemorative service, exhibition, and book launch on Sunday 26th September, 2021. All welcome.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Authors: John Butterworth and Jenny Waine    JB Club Press, 2019

Format: Hardback; 416 pages; 120 photographs    ISBN: 978-1-5272-5017-8     

Price 20.00 (including post & package)   

For information or to order online,  go to  www.jb-clubland.co.uk or email: press@jb-clubland.co.uk

or with cheque to JB Club Press:  61 Black Bull Lane, Preston, PR2 3PY  

Goodbye to that College in Didsbury ............ part four a link with Chorlton.

For nearly 70 years the college at Didsbury has been turning out students.

I should know I was one of the class of ’72, newly graduated from Manchester Polytechnic and ready for a year’s teacher training.

The chapel in 1908

Now what I didn’t know at the time was that for a century before it had been a theological college, bought by the Methodists and only vacated by them in 1942.

Nor until recently did I make the connection with Chorlton, which is all the more surprising because there has been a Methodist presence here for a long time.

So the popular story goes Methodism came to Chorlton in 1770 when a soldier and a few companions arrived in the township and began preaching.  The message took hold and by 1800 a Methodist Society had been formed and Wesleyan ministers were visiting each Sunday.

At first they had worshipped on the green and in barns, and then in their chapel on what is now Beech Road.

This was rebuilt in 1826 and later still a new church built on Manchester Road which relegated the old chapel to occasional use.

Rev. James Butterworth

 “Then in 1918 a young student from Didsbury Ministerial Training College, just out of the army, happened to be cycling through Chorlton when he saw this dark and closed building next to a brightly lit and lively public house and thought to himself ‘this is wrong’, he saw in his mind’s eye, the Chapel as warm and inviting as the pub. 

So he went to his tutors and asked permission to start a boys club there, and he and some other students canvassed the roads in the immediate area and had a very good response.

Since then preaching re-commenced in 1921 and the boys’ and girls’ club provided a youthful choir. Fellowship classes were started, the women’s meeting had a membership of 50-60 and there were concerts every Saturday night.

The name of the young trainee minister was Rev. James Butterworth, and having cut his teeth here in Chorlton went on to found ‘Clubland’ in the East End of London, which did mighty work among the poor and dispossessed of that area.”*

Philip first told me the story a few years back and since then has kindly provided me with an extract from an article he wrote on the chapel on Beech Road.

*Philip E. Lloyd, January 2008

Pictures; Wesleyan Bazaar Souvenir Hand book, 1908, and Rev. James Butterworth, Walworth Methodist Church

See also James Butterwoth, Christian youth work work and Clubland, http://infed.org/mobi/james-butterworth-christian-youth-work-and-clubland/