The Methodist Church
The founder of Methodism was John Wesley. John and Charles Wesley were the second and third sons of Samuel Wesley, who was the Rector of Epworth, near Gainsborough. John was born on June 17th, 1703, and Charles on December 18th, 1708. John had been educated at the Charterhouse, whilst Charles was educated at Westminster School. They both went to Oxford University, with John eventually being elected to a Fellowship at Lincoln College, and Charles to a Studentship at Christ Church. By 1725 John was ordained deacon of the Church of England, leaving Oxford for a time to assist his father by acting as his curate. Charles continued to Tutor to his college.
In 1729 the Rector of Lincoln College summoned John Wesley to resume his residence at Oxford, and so he became Tutor of the College. Soon John and Charles began missionary work in Oxford around 1730, whilst also being assisted by others. During this time they visited the sick and those in need, as well as offenders that had been confined in the gaol. This work continued for a while until John wanted to move on to wider places, so he gathered a small band of associates and went out of the country to Georgia in North America to work amongst English Settlers and North Americans. In 1737, after two years, John returned to England.
John urged all Wesleyans to attend church service once on Sunday and to receive the Holy Communion at church. It was only after his death that the society’s secession from the established Church of England became complete.
The first Wesleyan congregation had around 50 members, and it was formed in London, meeting once a week in Fetter Lane. The first meeting was on May 1st, 1738, and from there the society known as Methodists was believed to have begun officially.
In 1742, Methodism was brought into Lincolnshire when John Wesley visited Epworth. In the following year, 1743, he had formed the whole area into one circuit, which was divided into two sections, called the Eastern and Western divisions, with Grimsby being the head of the former and Epworth of the latter. Horncastle and surrounding areas were a part of the Eastern region. Back then, no more than two ministers were appointed for both divisions.
John Wesley visited Horncastle around every two years throughout his life, up until his death on March 2nd, 1791.
The growth of the society was not fast, having spent some years being subject to fluctuations. The earliest record of membership is dated back to 1769, with the eastern region totalling 735 members, with 42 of them being in Horncastle. By 1775 the number of members in Horncastle declined to 25. By 1786, the Horncastle Circuit was formed out of the Grimsby Circuit and was made head of a circuit to itself, and in the same year the first chapel in town was built. By then the whole circuit was numbering at around 620 members.
The first chapel was built near the old Baptist Chapel. The next chapel was built in Queen Street in 1836, which was followed by a Chapel opened in 1870 which was built at the cost of £4,330, the architect being Mr. Waddington of Burnley.
Methodism has had at least three chapels in Horncastle, possibly four, however nothing of certainty is known about a fourth chapel.
The Salvation Army
The Salvation Army was founded on the streets of East London by Methodist Minister William Booth, and Catherine Booth, in 1865. They decided to move away from the traditional structure of churches and expand their belief directly to the people.
They worked on encouraging social and spiritual transformation within society’s marginalised and vulnerable people, which they did by doing various tasks. This included running soup kitchens, setting up shelters for the homeless, setting up rescue homes for women fleeing domestic abuse, and providing family tracing services. They actively campaigned to improve living and working conditions.
The movement soon grew outside of London which became known as the Christian Mission. It was not until 1878 when the name for it was changed to Salvation Army and soon adopted a military structure with officers and military-style uniform for the members.
Today the Salvation is a church and charity that continues to serve the people and battle challenges such as homelessness, addiction and unemployment, in over 130 countries, offering their Christian beliefs to anyone without discrimination.
In terms of Horncastle, William Booth did visit the town, supposedly in 1886, the year after their formation in the town. There is not much knowledge of early Salvation Army in Horncastle as the town was not a centre for its expansion.
In Kelly’s Directory of Lincolnshire 1896, the charity is mentioned when talking about the Wesleyan Chapel as it also had ‘Salvation Army Barracks, with sittings for 150 people’.
The Baptist Chapel
The Baptist chapel was the oldest non-conformist chapel in the town of Horncastle, located at the end of the Wong. It was possibly built around the year 1765 but it is believed that it was not the first Baptist church built in Horncastle, with a previous church being built near too the Bow Bridge. Nevertheless, this building has to be at least 250 years old (due to the Toleration Act being repealed in 1689).
The foundation deed is dated 19th September 1769, the names of the founders being: William Bromley, Vicars Keal, Hamlet Daubney, William Taylor, William Starr, William Dawson, Thos. Hollingshead, Charles Bonner, George Gunis, James Coates, John Blow and William Tenant.
The building was originally a one-storeyed structure. It was actually until the early part of the twentieth century there was no baptistery in the chapel, and the immersion took place in the Mill-pit.
In 1843, structural alterations were made to the building, with the walls being raised, an upper tier of windows inserted and a gallery erected at the east end. As well as this, the north doorway was bricked up and the entrance at the east end, under the gallery, was opened out. The new parts of the chapel can be traced easily from the deeper red and smaller size of the original bricks.
The last burial that happened at the chapel yard happened in April 1855, and this burial was for Mrs. Martha Briggs, mother to Rev. David Jones.
It was not until 1892 that the church was registered as a place of worship, and the omission was only discovered when they applied for a license to solemnise marriages. The first marriage to be solemnised in the church was documented own to be between Mr Henry Burrell, of Horncastle, and Miss Bosnell, of Scamblesby.
In 1893, the chapel was fully restored at the cost of over £80, where the interior was further modernised and rendered to be more commodious. Walls were painted and decorated and many things inside the chapel was rearranged or replaced, such as new seats.
As well as this, it is interesting to consider that during this time there was a Baptist Church in Mareham-le-Fen, which was a branch of the Horncastle Church. This chapel was sold in 1882, as the commitment to the Baptist faith in Mareham-le-Fen had slowly died out, and later on in the twentieth century, it was bought by Titus Kime who used it as a warehouse.
The Congregational and Independents
The first congregational/independent chapel was erected in 1820-1, but there are some grounds to believe that a body of Congregationalists existed in Horncastle around forty years previous to that date.
Before this date, Horncastle had thousands of inhabitants but was ill provided with the means of religious teaching and structures. They only had the Parish church, a small Baptist chapel, and a Wesleyan Methodist chapel. By the autumn of 1820, a few individuals, whose beliefs aligned with that of Congregational Dissenters, came together and commenced the erection of a small chapel. It was opened for public worship on March 22nd , 1821.
As the congregation increased, the chapel was found to be far too small nor well-constructed or eligible for enlargement. This is why on September 1821, new land was purchased, and the erection of a new chapel commenced, the site being on the corner of East Street and Union Street (now called Queen Street). On March 28th, 1822, the new chapel was opened.
It was in 1861 where the chapel was revamped, and they had built in Sunday schoolrooms. The whole cost of the alterations of the chapel and the erection of the schoolrooms was £200, which was partially raised at the time and partially remained as debt for them. The chapel was beautified again with new pews, furniture and a communion platform in March 1867.
Holy Trinity church
Holy Trinity was built on Skegness road out of Horncastle in the years 1847 and 1848 to the design of Stephen Lewin of Boston, and served as the second Church, the other being St. Mary’s, to Horncastle’s growing population. By 1860, the Holy Trinity’s superfluity was established.
In 1919 it was shut down by then Vicar Canon R.E. Barlow Poole. There was a move in 1945 to bring the church back but was unsuccessful and short lived. After the Second World War the church was re-opened and used as a children’s church. In 1964 and 1965, the church was used for services by the Methodists whilst their chapel on Queen Street was being demolished for the new Methodist church to be built. As well as this, in 1966 the Roman Catholics also used the church for their services.
Holy Trinity was shut once again by 1972 and was finally declared redundant in 1979. In 1986, a Steering Committee was formed to save the building and its grounds. Soon the Trinity was purchased with a generous grant from the town’s Rotary Club. In 1988, when the Heritage Trust of Lincolnshire joined the Steering Committee, it was formally agreed that the Trust should become the owner of the building, to manage the repairs and prepare it for future use. This was increasingly needed as years of neglect, decay, and vandalism had left the building in poor condition. Over £100,000 was spent on the restoration of the church.
Eventually, Heritage Lincolnshire decided to sell the building in 2001, and the building was later purchased by Claire Boam who opened an antiques centre there which remains open today.
The New Jerusalem church
The Croft Street Chapel, or New Jerusalem Church, was a development of Non-conformity in Horncastle. The founder of the establishment, as well as many others, was a man named Emanuel Swedenborg.
Swedenborg, son of a Lutheran bishop, was born at Stockholm, in 1689. In the first half of his life he was a hard worker in the field of science, but in 1743, after having a serious illness accompanied by brain fever (due to excessive mental labour), he gave up all his work. He declared he received a call from God who commissioned him to devote his life to more holier purposes. He threw himself into the work of religious proselytism.
Followers soon gathered round him, mainly due to him enthusiasm. He visited England frequently and before he died in London in 1772, he had established congregations in many countries including England, Ireland, France, etc. Several Anglican clergy actually adopted his views whilst also retaining their own views and church charges.
In 1869, Mr Edmund John Moore had been appointed surveyor of taxes in Horncastle. Him and John Stuart Bogg being members of the Lincolnshire New Church Association, procured the services of the Rev. Dr. Bayley, of Argyle Square Church, London, to deliver a course of lectures at Horncastle on the doctrines of the new church.
The society was inaugurated on August 9, 1869, when Messrs. Bogg, Moore, Hall, Cook, Austin, and Bellamy, met at the house of Mr. Moore which was on 19 Queen Street. Mr Moore had been appointed Secretary and Treasurer, Mr Bogg and Mr Hall as Trustees, and Mr Bogg was nominated as first Leader. It was Mr Cook who offered the use of a room in his house rent free, and the first service was held on the following day on Sunday, 10th of the same month. They often had to hold the Sunday meetings in the evening as Mr Bogg resided in Benniworth, nine miles away from Horncastle.
There was a significant amount of opposition at the time, especially from the Congregationalists, under their minister Mr J. E. Whitehead. However, this only helped the new movement as there was an increase of general interest in it, with the evening congregations growing in numbers every week.
In May of 1870, Mr Richard Gunton, of the Lincolnshire New Church Association, visited them, followed by Rev John Hyde in October, and Gunton again in December of the same year.
In 1871, Moore left Horncastle, and with this the room in Tinker’s Entry was given up. The meetings continued, held in the house of Mr W. Hall, additionally with a library being opened for the members to use. Soon after, Hall brought a piece of land in Croft Street which he presented to the society. With this, a subscription list was opened, plans and estimates were obtained, and the foundation stone of a fabric was laid on September 16th, 1872. On January 29th, 1873, the Chapel was opened, dedicated by the Rev Dr Bayley, the Minister of the Chapel in Argyle Square, London.
The Croft Street fabric consisted of a square oblong, which stood north and south, 40 feet by 20 feet, with the architect being Mr Gosling of London, using red and white brick as the material to build it. Accommodating 150 people, the structure cost £350 to build, using fittings, which originally belonged to a chapel in Cross Street in London, presented by Mr William Pickstone. Within the apse of the chapel, there was a platform with polished oak rail in front, resting on pillars that were carved. There was a communion table and reading desk upon this platform, with carpet and cushions being presented by Mr T. Tapling, a carpet manufacturer from London. Just in front of the apse, on the Chapel floor, is a fine harmonium by Alexandre & Sons, of Paris, with it having four sets of vibrators and 14 stops, which originally cost £84.
It is mentioned that Dr Bayley, from London, was the earliest preacher in the new chapel as there was no resident minister until 1902. As well as this, it is known that three marriages were solemnised in the Chapel by Rev L. A. Slight. These marriages were: Miss Townell and Mr W. Chapman of Oundle on Dec 11th, 1900; Miss Elizabeth Hall and Mr Edwin White, both of Horncastle, on May 21st, 1901; and Miss Florence Smith to Mr Alfred Storton of London on July 9th, 1901.
Furthermore, a Sunday School was also opened within the Chapel in 1873 which was temporarily closed at a later date, but was re-opened by Mr Mayes. This school was attended by increasing numbers under Mr Mayes.
Horncastle History & Heritage Society
