HULME END
The present building, now disused, was built as a Primitive Methodist Chapel in 1834.
Of architectural interest, the door arch and inscription frame were
copied in Warslow Primitive Methodist Chapel,
1848. Newtown has a similar door arch.
The Warslow inscription suggests that the erased words at Hulme End
should read , "Primitive Methodist Chapel Erected 1834"
The Methodist society at Hulme End drew many members from the mines at Ecton, about a mile away. The closure of the mines inevitably affected the cause at Wetton as well as at Hulme End. Ecton also had a Creamery, housed in some of the 18th century mine buildings, but this closed in 1933. ("Bygone Days in Dovedale and the Manifold Valey", by L. Porter, 1997, has some interesting photographs.)
It would appear that the removal of the original Class to Brownhill in Hulme End left a vacuum which the Primitive Methodists later filled. Mr. W. H. Simcock records that Hulme End was the first P.M. Chapel in that part of the moorlands, the building being on what was then a strategic site on a busy cross-roads.
Extracts from J B Dyson, "Methodism in the Leek Circuit" 1853 (Leek Wesleyan Centenary Book)
After Thomas Bradbury's death, preaching was removed (from Sytch and
Little Brown-hill) to Mr. Nadin's of Newhouse, where a small chapel was
erected in 1840.
During the year, 1787, a gracious revival of the work of God took
place at HULME-END, where a large Class was formed, the
oversight of which was given to Mr. Ratcliffe of Biggin. Their names were
- Ralph Ratcliffe, L. John Ball, George Boden, Dinah Horobin, William
Phillips, Ann Phillips, Mary Slack, Mary Slack, Elizabeth Critchlow,
Thomas Austin, Hannah Horobin, Richard Gould, William Finney, Elizabeth
Finney, Elizabeth Gould, Hannah Gould, Joseph Bower, John Wilshaw, Ann
Bassett, William Birch, Ann Birch, Joseph Berresford, William Bassett,
Elizabeth Austin, Francis Burton, Joseph Barker, Elizabeth Platt, George
Handley. In 1790 this Class, which had increased to forty-two members, was
removed to Great Brown-hill, having John Ball as its Leader.
(Great Brown-hill, now called Warslow Hall, is noted on the 1798 Leek Local Preachers' Plan.)
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First draft August 2000
