wfn.org | At the Roots of Methodism: Wesley didn't overlook villages

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May 9, 2001 News media contact: Tim Tanton·(615)742-5470·Nashville, Tenn.
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NOTE: This is a regular feature on Methodist history by John Singleton
prepared especially for distribution by United Methodist News Service.

A UMNS Feature
By John Singleton*

With large parts of rural Britain suffering economic deprivation, it is good
to know that John Wesley paid as much attention to building up Methodist
communities in the hamlets and villages of 18th-century England as he did in
the large towns and cities.

In the North Riding of Yorkshire, for example, "beyond the nervous haste of
cities and amid the pure air of everlasting hills," there is a group of
villages once closely connected with the northern travels of Methodism's
founder between Newcastle and Northallerton.

Although he visited the neighboring villages of Potto and Hutton Rudby, and
the little town of Yarm, Wesley generally seemed to find more to interest
and encourage him in a moorland village with the memorable name of
Osmotherley.

He first visited the village at the invitation of a Roman Catholic
Franciscan friar, who was curious about the Methodists. On Easter Monday
1745, Wesley arrived at Northallerton in the evening and preached at the
local inn. His hearers included several inhabitants of Osmotherley,
including the friar and Elizabeth Tyerman, a local Quaker. When the service
was over, they invited Wesley to return to Osmotherley with them and --
although he had ridden 60 miles and preached three times that day -- he
agreed to do so.
	
It was 10 p.m. when they reached Osmotherley, and darkness reigned in the
remote village. Undaunted, Wesley's friends went around to the neighboring
farms and cottages, waking the villagers and bidding them leave their beds
to come and hear the great preacher. This they did, and many of them
remained up all night in order not miss his next sermon at 5 the next
morning!

Soon after, a Methodist society was formed at Osmotherley (the original
society book dating from 1750 is still in existence), and four years later a
chapel was built. A very plain structure, it was used as a Methodist chapel
without interruption until 1865.
	
Though seven miles from the direct road between Newcastle and London,
Osmotherley became one of Wesley's favorite haunts. He loved the old-world
village that bordered the moors and visited it at least 18 times. Gradually,
he included neighboring villages in his visits, until he was known and
welcomed throughout that far corner of the North Riding of Yorkshire.

In March 1747, Wesley reached the village on a Sunday morning, just as the
Anglican clergyman was walking to his parish church. Wesley offered to help
him in the morning service. A "hearty assent" was given, and large
congregations are said to have filled the church both morning and afternoon.
The clergyman invited Wesley to preach in his church whenever he passed that
way and regretted that his house was too distant for him to offer
hospitality to his guest.
	
But on Wesley's return from Newcastle during the same spring, he visited
Osmotherley again and found that persecution had reached even the seclusion
of this hill country.  The vicar had been vehemently attacked for giving up
his church to Wesley, so this time a service was held in the churchyard,
with Wesley preaching from a tombstone.

In his journal, he says: "How wisely does God order all things! Some will
not hear even the Word of God out of church. For the sake of these, we are
often permitted to preach in a church. Others will not hear it in a church.
For their sakes, we are often compelled to preach in the highways."

On this occasion another Methodist stalwart, John Nelson, who traveled from
Birstall, near Leeds, to meet Wesley, had encountered great misadventure on
his journey. At Heworth Green, outside York, he was attacked by a company of
"gentlemen" who came out from the city. He was felled to the ground by a
huge brick but was rescued by an "honest citizen," who took Nelson into his
house near the city gates. After a surgeon had dressed his wound, Nelson
rode quietly on to Acomb, but the same mob followed him there in a coach and
again attacked him until he was left on the ground for dead.

After being carried into a house and receiving a night's rest, he was able
to ride on to Osmotherley the next day.
   
During his round of visits in the area, Wesley went to the neighboring
village of Hutton Rudby, where Cardinal Wolsey was once rector of the
parish. In the days of Wesley it was, like many a North Riding village, the
center of a great linen trade, carried on in the cottages on hand looms.
When two or three "webs" were finished they were placed on each side of a
pony's back and carried over the steep, winding roads, through the quiet
country to Newcastle.
  
In 1784, Wesley mentions in his journal that he "preached once more to his
old friends at Osmotherley." However, his final visit to the North Riding
took place in 1790, shortly before his death, when he passed by on his way
to Whitby to preach in a new chapel described as "one of the most beautiful
in Great Britain".

Modern-day travelers to Osmotherley can follow in Wesley's footsteps as they
visit the original 1754 chapel, now restored and still in use. The
Benedictine monastery -- formerly the Old Hall where Wesley once stayed and
preached -- is open daily. So is the parish church where he preached inside
by invitation ... and outside in the graveyard when he was excluded.
#  #  #
*Singleton is assistant editor of the weekly Methodist Recorder newspaper in
London. He can by contacted by e-mail at John.S@methodistrecorder.co.uk.

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