Day 47 - Sheffield

Memorial Plaque

Our last full day on our travels, as we need to return home tomorrow, as the day is overcast we set out for Sheffield, during the 18th century many people left their rural villages and went to the city to 

seek employment. John Wesley visited the town on 42 occasions, the first in June 1742, Charles came the following year. John's last visit was in July 1788, at the age of 85. It was on 15th July 1779 that John preached in the Georgian Paradise Square from the balcony of No 18, reached at the time by a flight of stone steps, making it an ideal place to preach after being "banned from the Parish Church". John records in his journal for that day that he 'preached to the largest congregation he ever saw on a weekday' today a wall plaque marks the spot.

Paradise Square

 A few yards from the square stands Sheffield Cathedral, which is Sheffield's oldest building, formerly Sheffield's Parish Church. It has its origins in the 12th century. Over the centuries the building has changed, notably in the 1960's and more recently in 2014. Wesley preached here in July 1780 are records, "there were afterwards 'such a number of communicants' as was never seen at the old church before."  We were keen to see the stained glass window recalling Wesley preaching in Paradise Square, which was to be found in the Chapter House which was not open to the general public.

However with the permission of the Verger we managed to sneak in and see it. In the same room the Cathedral also keeps a desk used by John Wesley to write his sermons whilst in Sheffield, however it seemed that someone had moved it to another place, as I commented to our guide, maybe the Dean was using it as inspiration for his sermons, - "could be" came the reply, "as they are always very good!"

Can you find John Wesley?

The Cathedral has another stained glass window showing John Wesley (bottom right panel) in the Chapel of the Holy Spirit which was part of an extension to the Cathedral complex in 1930's dedicated to the Te Deum. - We were grateful to the Cathedral guides for showing us these things.

 Is this liturgical Table Tennis? - saw this outside the Cathedral

Just a short walk from the Cathedral, though Chapel Walk is Victoria Hall Methodist Church found on Norfolk Street. We had coffee in the entrance area where they serving refreshments. The "Central Hall" style church is built on the site of a previous Norfolk Street Chapel, where John Wesley was the preacher at the official dedication/opening service in 1780. 

It was a busy building, but we only received a luke-warm welcome. The building cost £40,000 and could seat 2,350 in the main worship area. Upstairs there are 18 rooms which were originally all class rooms. In 1966 the building was refurbished at the cost of £80,000 twice the original when the Worship Area was reduced to 950 capacity by inserting a floor to create a lower hall. The glass ceiling is impressive!

The main Worship Area

Day 46 - Magna Carta, Lincoln, Prison!

I don't need to tell you that this year is the 800 anniversary of King John signing the first edition of the Magna Carta - signed not as the media has it at Runnymede but in Wraysbury - the other side of the river. To be fair the  Magna Carta Memorial is on the flood plains of Runnymede. I know this as I studied the area for both my History & Geography "O" levels back in the dark ages of the 1970's. Being close to where I grew up in the not so historic town of Egham and attending "Magna Carta School", I was keen to see an original 1215 copy of the Charter owned by Lincoln Cathedral and housed in Lincoln Castle. Although their were revisions of Magna Carta copies were given to each of the Cathedral Cities for safe keeping, only 4 exist today.

Lincoln Yard & Cathedral from the Castle walls

Victorian Prison

Stephen finds a friend!

This also fitted into our Wesley tour, as John and Charles Wesley father, Samuel was familiar also with the castle, as he too stayed there for "safe Keeping", when he was sent to the castle prison for a £30 debt. Whilst there he was allowed to preach to his fellow inmates!  His wife Susanna sent her rings to him in jail to cover the debt, he returned them and wrote to the Archbishop of York for help. The Archbishop a friend, paid of the debt!

Later John preached in both the Castle Yard and in the Prison Chapel, which was rebuilt in Victorian times. Wesley also admired the Gothic cathedral that stands opposite the castle, which he described as "being more elegant than York Minister" - I wonder what the Archbishop thought about that!

Lincoln Castle

The Prison chapel was interesting as prisoners attending were segregated into individual high box pew from where they could see the preacher but not each other - yet the preacher could see all of them!

Prison Chapel

Day 45 - Gainsborough Old Hall

Built by the Burgh family in 1460 and sold to the Hickman family in 1597, Gainsborough Old Hall is a "textbook of medieval architecture" says Simon Jenkins, despite various changes that have been made over the years to the building. Certainly it is one of the best persevered and impressive manor houses in England that has welcomed both royalty and the rich, including Henry VIII. However by the 1700's the building no longer paid host to royal visitors and by 1790 it served as the town's public hall and as a theatre. 

Across the centuries Gainsborough Old Hall seems to have been no stranger to dissenting religious voices. Early in the Reformation Lord Thomas Burgh III appears to be a keen convert to the Protestant faith and it is reported that he took a lead part in lively discussions that took place in Queen Anne Boleyn's household at meal times. Later records show that Lady Rose Hickman read an English language version of the bible that had been smuggled into England by her father from Antwerp. During the time of Queen Mary the family were involved in smuggling wanted Protestants out of the country. Some of the Mayflower Pilgrims worshipped here prior to fleeing to Holland.

Gainsborough Old Hall

Interior of the Great Hall 

It is no surprise that John Wesley records in his journal for Friday 3rd August 1759: "I preached in Gainsborough, in Sir Nevil Hickman's great hall... I was walking through a gaping, staring crowd, when Sir Nevil came and thanked me for my sermon, to the no small amount of amazement of his neighbours, who shrank back as if they had seen a ghost." Over the coming years Wesley would return to preach inside the Great Hall several times. At the the age of 84 Wesley wrote: 'In the evening I preached to a large congregation in Sir Nevil Hickman's yard! and how changed is that house since I was young....'

Stephen joins us today for his annual summer holiday.

Day 44 - Isle of Axholme - Epworth

Today we set off to visit Epworth, the birthplace of the Wesley brothers, set on the Isle of Axholme. In 1626 Charles I engaged Cornelius Vemuyden to drain 60,000 acres of wetland to produce some of the most fertile farmland in England.The village were holding a music festival, including events in the 'Old Rectory' garden.

Epworth Old Rectory
Famous for being the childhood home of John and Charles, the present building is an elegant Queen Anne building where the seeds of a religious movement were sown. It was in 1695 that the Wesley family moved to Epworth when Samuel Wesley was appointed Rector to St Andrews Church. The original Rectory was burned to the ground in 1709 by a mob of local people, whilst most of the family escaped, John aged 5 years was trapped in an upstairs room. Fortunately the crowd took pity on him and rescued him, causing his mother to describe him as a "brand plucked from the burning" - and believed he had been rescued for a special reason.

Samuel Wesley came from a "Dissenting " family, and decided to join the Church of England after weighing up the case for and against, he wrote poetry, and academic works and was recognised as a scholar of some stature, he was Rector at Epworth for 40 years. In the kitchen you  get a feel of Susanna home schooling the children round the kitchen table. The house boasts its own ghost, 'Old Jeffrey' who lived in the attic, despite Samuel's attempts to rid the house of it, he eventually disappeared of his own accord!

Ruth Lee

Outside in the garden we listened to Ruth Lee and Polly Brown in light drizzle. The gardens contain John Wesley Physic Garden - where plants used by John Wesley as herbal remedies for people who could not afford medicines or professional medical help.

Samuel Wesley Grave

St Andrews Church - dates back to the 12th century and built on a slight rise.
Samuel Wesley is buried in the grounds, and John when in 1742 he was prevented from preaching in the church, famously preached to the locals by standing on his fathers tomb. Most of the Wesley children were baptised in the church font.

Wesley Memorial Church

Built in 1889 the church and Manse are set in beautiful grounds, which include a sculpture of John standing on a globe world - representing that
phrase "All the world is my Parish". Inside is a wonderful stained glass window to John and Charles Wesley.

Kilham Memorial Church
Opposite Wesley Memorial Church is a building that commemorates Alexander Kilham, now used as a community centre. Kilham was also born in Epworth in 1762, son of a weaver. At the age of 20  he became part of the Wesley's band of travelling preachers. After Wesley's death Kilham led the first Methodist breakaway group in 1762 called the "Methodist New Connexion" who wanted
greater lay leadership involvement in the running of the church. The New Connexion eventually became part of the United Methodist Church, which in 1932 joined the Primatives and Wesleyan's to form today's Methodist Church. Although we had seen the outside of the church, this was the first opportunity to see inside.

A statue to John Wesley is located in Albion Hill, and is found on

the top right of my blog is  a photo I took when visiting last year. Just a short distance away  is the remains of the market cross where John Wesley delivered many sermons, the cross itself has gone, but as you can see the steps are a great place for children to play.

A short drive away is the village of Wroot. It was here that John was sent to be Curate to his father after completing his studies at Lincoln College, Oxford from 1727 - 1729 after it was added to Samuel's Living at Epworth in 1725.



St Pancras Church, Wroot.
The original Church and Rectory no-longer survives, but a memorial stone outside the Victorian church marks the fact. For a short period the family lived in the Wroot Rectory.
Often Samuel Wesley visited Wroot by boat along the "drains".
Samuel describes a journey from Wroot in a letter to John: " I am hipp'd by my voyage and journey to and from Epworth last Sunday; being lamed with having my breeches too full of water, partly with a downfall from thunder shower, and partly from the wash over the boat.... We can neither go afoot nor on horseback to Epworth, but only by boat as far as Scawsit Bridge, and then walk over the common."
We met two delightful ladies who were inside cleaning the church, telling us that they only have an average congregation of 6, but are supported by the local C of E School. They showed us a list of past Rectors including the original signature of Samuel Wesley. In the past  Wroot also had three Methodist Churches, reduced to one today.

Wroot Parish church

Later we travelled to Hull to visit the Maritime Museum to trace more of Anne's family History.

Day 43 - Clumber Park, Worksop

We left Berwick this morning, for the 200 mile trip to Clumber Park, in this final leg of our journey down the A1 took longer than we expected due to the various road works. Unfortunately their is no mobile signal and WiFi is very limited. For the first time there are children on the campsite, bringing the forest setting to life, we will see pitching  by the children's playground was a good idea!

Clumber Park was once part of Sherwood Forest until the Duke of Newcastle enclosed the estate as a hunting park for Queen Anne in 1707. It still retains features  to its grand past, although Clumber House was demolished in 1938. When Clumber was still the seat of the Dukes of Newcastle, there were upwards of 30 gardeners employed on the Estate, which today is owned by the National Trust.

I regret no photos, but will see what we can do tomorrow, but I leave you with a photo of a Berwick sunset.

Sunset over Berwick

Day 42 - Newcastle Upon Tyne

We return today to continue in the footsteps of the Wesley's and a 65 mile drive to Newcastle. John trip to Newcastle in 1742 marked a change in his itinerant life.  It was after much prayer and careful weighing, of all objections, he felt that he could still adhere to the views expressed in a letter to his friend, the Rev. James Hervey, some time before, and printed in his journal  (the famous phrase is found on the memorial tablet erected to John & Charles Wesley in  Westminster Abbey:) “I look upon all the world as my parish.” that he embarked on travelling to the North of England. Newcastle-upon-Tyne was to become Wesley's northern 'cornerstone'. in England, and with with Bristol and London, Newcastle formed the 'Wesley Triangle'. He visited Newcastle over 50 times, often staying for several weeks.

Wesley recorded his first visit to Newcastle in his Journal. 

Sunday 30th May 1742 - ‘At seven in the morning I walked down to Sandgate, the poorest and most contemptible part of the town, and standing at the end of the street with John Taylor, began to sing the hundredth psalm’. 

He preached again that evening to a large crowd.

Today an obelisk in "Wesley Square", a open space on the Quayside immediately in front of the Law Courts marks the spot. We were somewhat surprised to find that it was in the middle of a "pop-up" summer "beach", complete with beach huts and deck chairs! - Did you know that prototype deckchairs made their first appearance in Margate, Kent in 1898? Wesley Square is opposite the new Millennium "Blinking eye" bridge.

The Keelmen Hospital

Nearby in City Road is the Keelmen Hospital. Keels were wooden coal boats with a pointed stern John Wesley described Keelmen as: "much given to drunkenness and swearing".
Keelmen wore  distinctive uniform: blue jacket, yellow waistcoat, bell-bottom trousers and blue bonnet. The hospital built in 1701c  through contributions from the crews, comprises of a cloister of 50 chambers around a grassed courtyard for sick and aged keelmen and their families.
The Hospital became an early site for John Wesley's preaching services and  Charles, was appointed by the Keelmen to be their chaplain on his first extended visit in 1742.It became an important base for both John and Charles Wesley, Charles was  the founder of the first Tyneside Methodist Society. Unfortunately today the building has been abandoned after being used for several years as student accommodation, and is on the "At Risk" heritage register. Although we walked along City Road we couldn't find the building, this maybe in part due to the various building works/hoardings that are taking place.

Keelmen Hospital - Photo: Peter Maddiscon

The Orphan House

Only a blue plaque remains on the wall of the closed Banks Clothing shop in Northumberland street marks the site of John Wesley's Orphan House, although it never was an orphanage it was the second Methodist Chapel that Wesley built opening on 25th March 1743.The Orphan House was just outside the old town wall and was under threat from the cannon sited on the Pilgrim Street Gate at the time of the Jacobite threat in 1745. However the building survived but was demolished in 1856 and replaced by the Wesleyan Orphan House Schools until they were demolished in the 1950's.

Brunswick Church

Round the corner from the Orphan House site  is Bunswick Methodist Church, which this year is celebrating its 195 church anniversary. They have embarked on an extensive refurbishment to include a new entrance area with cafe.. Brunswick succeeded the Orphan House as the mother church of Methodist in north east England. In 1980, following amalgamation with Central, the former Primitive Methodist city centre church on Northumberland Road, the gallery was floored out and the ground floor is now used for many and diverse community activities. We received a very warm welcome from the cafe volunteers as we enjoyed lunch, and had a guided tour of the church and vestry - to view some of the historical memorabilia and paintings.

Brunswick Methodist Church

Worship Area

New entrance & Cafe area opened 2014

Methodist Memorabilia display in the Church Vestry

St Andrews Church

It is a well recorded fact that John Wesley was unlucky in love. He left Georgia in America under a cloud after upsetting the Governors daughter, In Newcastle he decided to ask Grace Murray, a widow who was housekeeper at the Orphan House to marry him. Charles got wind of this and did not approve and so engineered that she married John Bennet, a Methodist lay preacher, at St Andrews Church before John could do anything. Charles often preached at St Andrews when in Newcastle and to ensure the union between them he officiated at the wedding held at St Andrews church! John was not happy, and later he married a wealthy widow, Mrs Mary 'Molly' Vazielle. It was not a happy union and they separated. However Molly had a daughter, Jane, who married a Mr William Smith. John was very fond of Jane, who often accompanied him on his travels. William also became a long standing friend as well as becoming a leading member of the early Methodist community in Newcastle. his portrait hangs in the vestry of Brunswick church. Both William and Jane are buried in St Andrews graveyard. St Andrew is the oldest church in Newcastle.

Grave of William & Jane Smith

Tomorrow we move on to Clumber Park our final destination, where Stephen is joining us on Sunday for a few days. This gives us the opportunity to visit Lincoln and Epworth the birth place of the Wesley's.

Day 41 - Bedknobs and teeth!

Not the best start to the morning as I managed to break the bed in the caravan (Comments not allowed), followed by breaking a tooth whilst eating breakfast, then my shoelaces broke! One of things about caravaning is most things are simple to repair, so 4 screws later and a good amount of "no more nails" glue the bed was quickly repaired. It took slightly longer to sort out my teeth problem as I had to wait until the afternoon to get my tooth or as it turned out teeth sorted with an emergency filling. These don't come cheap especially as it is a short term solution and will need doing properly on our return but I like to ensure that Brad our normal dentist can continue to afford his annual holiday each year which I seem to fund. As for the shoe laces in all of the excitement of being able to eat again, I forgot to pick up a pair, so I have adopted a John Cleese (Monty Python - ministry of silly walks) style of walk whilst trying to keep one shoe on! If I don't get a pair of laces tomorrow will revert to the "Gaffer Tape" solution.
Today's exciting adventure took us to Paxton House, with a bit of skillful negotiation, I manged to get the  admission fee down to under half price, and could of reduced it further when they asked if Anne was a "concession" - I didn't think I could get away with it, with Anne if I replied "of course".
We had a excellent guided tour of the house led by "Richard" who I had met whilst negotiating the entrance fee, we seem to be kindred spirits. The 18th century Georgian  house is full of Chippendale furniture - the Ikea flat-pack of the period. Did you know that the Chippendale factory in London made all its large furniture in sections and then had assembled on site including 4 poster beds by using nuts and bolts? They also produced wall paper and soft furnishings - the complete Ikea store.
We also enjoyed the gardens, Anne now has a list of plants for our new manse in Bristol

After visiting the dentist - did I mention the broken tooth? - we visited Berwick Parish Church, Unique because it was only one of two churches in the whole of the country that was built during the

Puritan times and this is reflected in its style and appearance. There is no altar, steeple, chancel, bells, font. Originally it wouldn't have had any stained glass or organ, although today the church has both - notice the position of the organ.The church was funded by collecting money throughout England, and it was consecrated on 6th July 1662 by the Bishop of Durham, however the Vicar Rev Luke Ogle at the time was unable to accepted the Act of Uniformity and was required to leave.

Berwick Lighthouse from Spittal Beach
this evening

Day 40 - In the footsteps of St Cuthbert's Way

Today we decided to walk part of the Cuthbert's Way, to visit one of the most significant sites along the route to what is known as St Cuthbert's Cave. The cave is reputed to be where the Lindisfarne monks brought St Cuthbert's body to rest in 875AD when they fled from the repeated Viking raids on Holy Island until it was taken to its final resting place at Durham Cathedral. 

Around the site, the Leather family of Middleton Hall used this area for burials and names have been carved into the giants rocks in front of the cave. Others have also scratched names and dates.

Above the cave we had a wonderful view of Holy island and the Northumberland coastline. We follow the route through Mill Race Plantation.

On route we met several other fellow pilgrims and locals but also as we passed a farm we met one of the retired farm labours who was washing his caravan.. a Bailey, these are built in Bristol, and our first caravan was also a Bailey, after sharing caravan stories, he told us that the 30,000 acre was sold to a Dutch company a few years ago, the Diary herd of 450 cows sold, with the sheep and the diary closed down making 18 redundant. Today the farm only employs 3 part time staff and grows mainly cereals, the field being sprayed  is 50 acres of poppies - a trial venture as the seed will be used to go into poppy seed bread! 
The farm expects to get £1000 per ton, 
that a huge amount of poppy seeds!

A second retired farmer was also watching the spraying commented that no one knows how they are going to harvest it as they don't have the specialist machinery, and the combine would struggle. The consensus was next year there would be poppies growing anywhere and everywhere around the farm and fields. - Whatever happens the poppies we have seen are very beautiful.

We continued on our way.....

Day 39 - Alnwick, Downton Abbey, and John Wesley

Today we visited Alnwick, once a major town on the trading route from England to Scotland, famous today for its castle and gardens and another setting for (2014 Christmas special) Downton Abbey. There has been a castle on this site for over 1000 years. During the middle ages, the castle was used as a garrison and a defence for England’s border against attack from Scottish forces.

The Abbot’s Tower may have been a place of refuge for the head monks of Alnwick Abbey or Hulne Priory, both of which stood in Hulne Park just west of the castle. As its watchtower gives an excellent view to the north-west – the direction from which danger and Scottish attack was most likely to approach. The castle is still the country seat of the Duke of Northumberland. Alnwick’s Christian heritage is believed to go back as far as Saxon times – over 1,000 years – whilst recorded evidence covers more than 860 years. The remains of St Leonard’s Hospital Chapel stand in a field to the north of Alnwick, a short way up the hill from the Lion Bridge. The Hospital Chapel was founded between 1193-1216 in memory of King Malcolm III of Scotland, who was mortally wounded nearby in the Battle of Alnwick in 1093.

Alnwick Abbey was an abbey of Premonstratensian Canons, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin and St. James, founded in the year 1147. Only the defensive gateway tower remains.

The abbey housed between 17 and 30 canons until it was eventually dissolved by Henry VIII in 1535. The abbey was excavated in 1889 and the rough layout of the abbey buildings can be made out on the ground. 

Methodism began in Alnwick with the work of a local preacher who established a society. John and Charles Wesley arrived in 1748, and preached from the steps of the market cross,

John described the town as 'famous for all kinds of wickedness'.

However the Wesley brothers had a long relationship with Alnwick Methodist society and in 1786 John Wesley laid the foundation stone of the present chapel and Manse in Chapel Lane (which was remodelled 100 years later when the gallery was floored over, It remains in this form today.) Next door the Manse is now rented out as holiday apartments. John Wesley’s original 1786 pulpit is still preserved upstairs in the corner of the Chapel, originally it stood in an elevated position in the middle of the South Wall, and round pillars show the position and shape of the 1786 gallery that faced it. Wesley preached from this pulpit for the first time in May 1788, and for the last time on May 10th 1790, just a few months before he died.

Alnwick Methodist Church

Wesley’s journal records several of his visits including:

Sunday 17^th May 1761, I preached at eight in Alnwick, and about one at Alemouth, a poor, barren place, where, as yet, there is no fruit of the seed which has been sown: but there may be, since many are still willing to hear. In the evening a multitude of people, and a little army of soldiers were gathered in the Market-Place at Alnwick. In the morning they were to march for Germany. I hope some of them have “put their armour on”

Wesley House - Former Manse at rear of church

There have been other Methodist Societies in Alnwick: Bethel Chapel in St Michael’s Lane and a chapel in Bondgate Without.

A great catastrophe happened on Christmas day in 1806. A great winter storm and the church was blown down so that the village was left without an Anglican Church. The Duke of Northumberland eventually took pity on the villagers and having bought the former granary, covered it into a temporary church until a new church was built in 1876.