(200 years of Primitive Methodism)

I have chugged up and down the Macclesfield Canal several times during the last twenty years and each time I would find my eyes drawn upwards to a solitary hill rising from the flat Cheshire plain. On its summit, even with the naked eye, I could see what appeared to be an interesting ruin, a castle, a religious edifice, perhaps? In fact, it is the remains of a folly built as a two storey summerhouse in 1754 for a Mr Randle Wilbraham of nearby Rode Hall. Now in the hands of the National Trust, it is a popular climb for the inhabitants of Cheshire.

This is Mow Cop and 200 years ago on 31st May 1807 it was the scene of a remarkable event. Over 2,000 people gathered at what was the first of several "camp meetings" and this was the flowering of Primitive Methodism. It lasted over fourteen hours covering a variety of activities, prayer, praise, exhortation,

testimony and even poetry. The principal organiser was Hugh Bourne, a carpenter and wheelright from nearby Bemersley. The other main speaker was William Clowes, a Burslem potter. There were four preaching stands around the site and the preaching was shared with others including Captain Edward Anderson from the East Riding and a descendant of a slave from Jamaica. He was Samuel Barber whose father Francis had been a manservant to Samuel Johnson of dictionary fame. Johnson had freed Francis and set him up with property and he in turn gave his son a good education.

Camp meeting grew in popularity and some gatherings claimed to have had up to 20,000 attending. Often the outdoor event was followed by an indoor love feast which was a fellowship service based on the breaking of bread in the New Testament and again it would include prayer and testimony.

Many of the congregations consisted of working folk, coal miners, potters and those employed in the new trades of the Industrial Revolution. They had come off the land and had their old way of life destroyed by industrialisation. They felt lost and demoralised now living lives that were hard and cheerless. The message they heard preached was of love and it restored their sense of dignity and hope. The appeal of the meetings was perhaps in their informality and accessibility. Some of the worshippers might have felt uncomfortable in a church building and also excluded by the established church of the day.

Shortly after the meeting on Mow Cop the Primitive Methodists (as they were called) split away from the Wesleyan Connexion. The Methodist leadership felt uneasy about the fervour and emotion expressed at camp meetings. They were concerned about the anti-establishment stance of the Primitives and even suspected some of their leaders of republicanism. Field preaching was frowned upon and women and girl preachers were not to be tolerated. Methodism had been viewed with suspicion in its early days by both the political and religious establishments but had become "respectable". In the eyes of the Wesleyans, the Primitives were stirring up memories of times past.

Happily, fears of countrywide unrest and revolution were not realised. The working classes embraced the Christian message and eventually the Primitives and the Wesleyans, who in reality had much in common, came back together in the Methodist Union in 1932.

The great revival on Mow Cop will be celebrated once again on Sunday 27th May this year. A service will be held at the site shared by the President and Vice President of Conference. The singing will be led by the North Shropshire Methodist Youth Choir. A group from Wolverhampton and Shrewsbury District plan to walk the whole way (in the best possible Primitive Methodist tradition). It would be wonderful if 2,000 people were to attend. It should be quite an event and hopefully the singing will be heard for miles around!