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150 Years Anniversary of Bromyard Methodist Church

The early beginnings of Methodism in Bromyard

In the reading of it I am reminded of  the little meeting in Aldersgate Street on May 24th, 1738, when John Wesley felt his heart strangely warmed. It was on April 2nd of the following year that he preached at Bristol for the first time in the open air. Mr.Temperley. in the Cambridge Modern History, says "From this day may be reckoned a new era in the religious history of England." On April 4th he formed his first Society at Bristol, and in the same month his first Methodist Chapel was established. It was on June 14th. that the first Methodist lay-preacher began his work. Thus John Wesley, still a young man of thirty-six years of age, laid the foundations of Methodism.

I do not know whether John Wesley ever visited Bromyard, but I do feel that it is quite fitting to begin this little survey of its Methodism with him. In every town and village of England may be found men and women who have been influenced by his life and witness. His work had its results in the education of the people, the mitigation of our penal laws, the reform of our prisons, and the abolition of the slave trader Ever since he founded the first Society in Bristol his followers have been inspired to continue the good work. This happened in the case of Mr George Burrow of Leigh, near Worcester, when he started Methodism in Bromyard. Although John Wesley may not have come to the town, one of his followers inspired by the same spirit, founded a Society here. It may thus be argued that John Wesley did come to Bromyard during the years preceding 1850, in the form of his faithful follower George Burrow, a local preacher. The actual date of his first visit is unknown.

The Services began in the upper room of the Tan House in Pump Street, and we are reminded of what happened in another " Upper Room" so long ago when Jesus planned the future with His disciples. The owner of the premises was a Mr. Jenks, in a splendid way of business as a Tanner. He became a convert to Methodism and a strong suppor­ter of the work. In fact his name was so closely related to it that even when the chapel was built it went by the name of " Jenk's Chapel." It was during these early days that another business man of the town, a Churchman who became dissatisfied with the Church. named Mr J. W. Williams, joined forces with Mr Jenks. He became the first Superintendent of the Sunday School held in the Tan blouse, Both men gave very liberally of their time and money, and the school flourished. Mr Whitsey Williams who is one of our keenest supporters to-day remembers being a scholar in those early days. The work continued successfully under these men and in 1856 the New Road Chapel was built, the pulpit being supplied each Sunday from Hereford,

The Start and Rise of Methodism in Bromyard

(From the Bromyard News & Record Oct. 1933)  

Mr W. Madders a Bromyardian now living in Ledbury, writes that in going through some papers belonging to his late father, Mr. Thos Madders of Bromyard, he came across the following recollections of the rise and progress of Wesleyan Methodism in Bromyard.

In the year of 1835 Mr John Amiss plumber and painter, and Mr. Burrough Inland Revenue Officer, also of Bromyard, met and considered as to the best means of spreading Methodism, and extending the Kingdom of Christ among men.

            These two men secured an upper room in the business part of the Tan house, Pump Street, and fitted it up for the purpose of divine worship. And he goes on to say that the former remembered quite distinctly as a child going to the opening of this room, which to him had the appearance of being made out of several small ones, the partition between the supporting posts being removed.

            These posts were left for a double reason, firstly to support the ceiling, secondly to hang the candlesticks on which lighted the room. Plain seats had been made and placed on either side, with a way up the centre, at the top of which stood a small pulpit.

            Into this pulpit entered the preacher for the first time his name being the Rev Brotherwood, superintendent of the Hereford Circuit. His (the writer's) father, being only a child, evidently had no clear recollection of either the singing, prayers or the sermon, or the numbers of the congregation (he would be eight years old) and he left no record of these things, but he remembered the chapel keeper, a Mr. Thomas Hinksman, whose duty it was to attend to the stove and candles.

            Hinksman, he wrote, was a sturdy man and it amused him much to see his ponderous figure threading his way through the congregation to reach the candles which had to be snuffed before the hymns were sung. His was of a genial nature cheerful and obliging.

            The leader of the singing was a Mr. Stephens and it was his custom to invite his assistants to meet him in the morning at six o' clock bringing his fiddle with him. First of all they made the fire afterwards they selected the new hymn tunes, which they learned by ear, because very few could read at sight.

            My father speaks highly of the ministers and local preachers who supplied the pulpit Sunday by Sunday for so many years, and who mainly came from Hereford.

            He mentions a Mr. Hook, who had a commanding figure and who towered above the diminutive pulpit, and whose clear voice would ring out in the singing and the delivery of the sermon. Mr. John Burrough of Leigh, and a Mr. Wood of the Sough, were two other locals that he remembered.

            And so the work went on in the upper room in Pump Street until the year 1857 when the chapel in the New Road was built.

            He did not recollect who, or how many, generously contributed to the funds of building, but there are two he did not forget, and they were the late Mr. J.W. Williams of High Street, and the late Mr. James Jenks, who was a Tanner in Pump Street.

            There was no accommodation as yet for the scholars of the Sunday school near the chapel in the New Road. The school was still carried on in the Upper room in Pump Street, under the superintendence of Mr. Williams, who was assisted by two of his daughters, Miss Rose and Miss Margery, and his younger son, Mr. Albion Williams. There were besides, Mr Thomas Hinksman from Flaggoners Green, Mr. W. Box, of High Street, Plumber and Glazier, Miss Stevens, who was a lady assistant with Mr.Pumphrey, Draper.

            In the year 1877 the new schools and vestry were built at a cost of five to six hundred pounds, during the ministry of the Rev. J. Chappell. I believe he was the first Wesleyan minister stationed at Bromyard, and here again Mr. J.W. Williams and Mr. J. Jenks responded most generously, and so did all the older friends to the best of their ability.

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