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  

John Wesley and Methodism .. today on the wireless

The story of how Methodism came to Chorlton is an intriguing one and involved a visit from a soldier and his friends to the township in the 18th century. 

Having walked in from Manchester they began preaching and drew an small group of people.  Within a few decades, there were a number of Wesleyan families who worshiped in each other's homes, or in barns in the winter and in the open air in the summer.  They built their first chapel on Beech Road in the 1820s, and were an important part of the community.

So this episode of In Our Time is one I shall listen to with great intrest. 

"Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss John Wesley (1703 - 1791) and the movement he was to lead and inspire. As a student, he was mocked for approaching religion too methodically and this jibe gave a name to the movement: Methodism. 

Wesley took his ideas out across Britain wherever there was an appetite for Christian revival, preaching in the open, especially the new industrial areas. Others spread Methodism too, such as George Whitefield, and the sheer energy of the movement led to splits within it, but it soon became a major force.

With, Stephen Plant, Dean and Runcie Fellow at Trinity Hall at the University of Cambridge, Eryn White, Reader in Early Modern History at Aberystwyth University, and William Gibson, Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Oxford Brookes University and Director of the Oxford Centre for Methodism and Church History.

Producer: Simon Tillotson"

Picture; Wesleyan Chapel, Beech Road, 1908, Wesleyan Bazaar Souvenir Hand book, 1908

*John Wesley and Methodism, In Our Time, Radio 4, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000q3m2

150 years of that Methodist Church in Withington

Now I am not a great one for anniversaries but here is one I think it is worth taking note of because this year is the 150th birthday of the Methodist Church in Withington.

And to celebrate the event Peter Topping painted the church on one of those fine summer days earlier this year.

For me the building is only part of the story but an interesting one.

It was opened in 1865 and was the second chapel built by the Methodists in Withington and continued to serve them well until 1992 when after a survey of the premises, “the church members decided that rather than spend over £100,000 on repairs to the ageing building they would take the bold step of redeveloping the church. 

The redevelopment scheme involved the demolition of ancillary buildings at the rear of the church and the erection of a new floor within the main worship area, to create the space for exciting new projects.”*

And in this respect they were only reflecting the same flexible approach which had led earlier groups of Methodists across south Manchester to worship in cottages barns and even open fields while at the same time working hard to raise the funds to build their first chapels.

In Withington  it all began with “two twelve-year-old girls, Hannah Hesketh and Hannah Langford, who in the 1790s heard the gospel in neighbouring Burnage and asked that a bible class be run for them in 
Withington. From this class held originally in farmhouse kitchens a worshipping community developed who, in 1832, erected a small chapel in old Moat and subsequently built the present building in 1865.”*

A large part of the money for the new church was contributed by Mr Ralph Waller a wealthy industrialist with a factory and showrooms in Manchester. **

He lived at Groombridge House opposite the old green and according to the Manchester Guardian gave a third of the total cost to the building of the 1865 church, which brings us back to that birthday and Peter’s painting.

Painting; Withington Methodist Church, © Peter Topping, 2014, Paintings from Pictures,
Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk
Facebook:  Paintings from Pictures

* Withington Methodist Church, http://www.withingtonmethodistchurch.com/history.html

**Dale Street, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Dale%20Street

One cottage in Furness Vale ............ a story from David Easton

The story of the early years of Methodism is much the same whether it is about Chorlton, Didsbury or here in this case in Furness Vale from David Easton who is a memberof the successful Furness Vale History Society.*

John Wesley was a frequent visitor to towns such as New Mills, Chinley and Chapel-en-le-Frith. His journal records that between 1745 and 1788 he preached on a number of occasions, often having travelled over from Macclesfield.

It is known that Wesley preached a sermon at Waterside, the little hamlet by the River Goyt just across the water from Furness Vale. There is a stile by Waterside cottage where he is said to have stood to address his congregation.

Methodism was first established in Furness Vale in 1812 and without a chapel or mission, it is probable that worshippers met in peoples’ homes.

The row of three cottages at 30 to 34 Yeardsley Lane was built in 1822 and one was rented to the Methodists for £5 per annum to become the village's first mission hall.

In addition to worship, it provided a Sunday School, teaching not only scripture but also the "three R's."

On weekday evenings, adult literacy classes were held.

As the village population and attendance grew, there came a need for a purpose built chapel and this opened in 1840.

The centenary of Furness Vale Methodists was celebrated in 1912 and on that occasion, a commemorative cup was produced.

One of these has just been donated to the History Society by Beth Kucera, an antique dealer from Wisconsin, USA who came across it when on a buying trip some years ago.

The Methodists did not reach their bicentenary.

A reduced membership could not afford essential alterations to the chapel and it closed about ten years ago.

The building was converted to apartments which have never been popular.

The cottage on Yeardsley Lane became in 1840, a private house.

The row eventually came to be owned by Miss Webb who is seen at the door of number 32 and whose guests have arrived by car. Number 34, the original mission is now my home, the smallest dwelling in the village.

Furness Vale History Society meets regularly, and their newsletter can be obtained from the link below.

© David Easton

Pictures; from the collection of Furness Vale History Society

*FURNESS VALE LOCAL HISTORY SOCIETY, http://furnesshistory.blogspot.co.uk/