Hookgate Primitive Methodist Chapel, Staffordshire

Jubilee Chapel

Jubilee Chapel, Hookgate, former Primitive Methodist
David Young
Providence Chapel. Hookgate, former Independent Methodist
David Young
Hookgate Jubilee Primitive Methodist Chapel in 1997
Keith Guyler 1997
Hookgate Jubilee Primitive Methodist Chapel in 2003
Keith Guyler 2003
Hookgate Jubilee Primitive Methodist Chapel from the side in 1997
Keith Guyler 1997
Hook Gate Primitive Methodist Sunday School in 1912
Englesea Brook Museum picture and postcard collection

Not long ago, there were two Methodist chapels in Hookgate, near Loggerheads, Staffs., a Primitive and, a few hundred yards down the hill, an Independent. They both closed down.

The Primitive chapel, shown in the photograph, was called “Jubilee”, a reference to Leviticus 25 and other passages in the Bible:

And you shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants; it shall be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his family. A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be to you.

There is a double reference here. The chapel was built in 1860, fifty years after the official founding of Primitive Methodism in 1810. Underlying that is a biblical motif. The old Primitives wanted “to proclaim liberty throughout the land”, so that people would find liberty from sin, guilt and fear of death, would find a true family among God’s people, and would gain an eternal inheritance through Jesus Christ.

The I.M. chapel was built a year earlier, in 1859, and was in the Shavington District of the United Free Gospel Churches, which later (I am told: I have not personally studied their history) were incorporated into the Independent Methodists. After closure, the chapel, called Providence, was re-opened and extended, and now serves a congregation which is described as Independent Baptist.

Comments about this page

  • There is a mention in the 1880 Primitive Methodist magazine (September – page 573) of the laying of memorial stones for a new chapel at Hookgate in the Market Drayton branch. Interesting that it is 10 years after the date given here. There is no further detail.

    By Christopher Hill (07/05/2019)
  • I preach once a month down the road at what was the Independent Methodist chapel (“Providence”). On their wall they have a photocopy of an article from a book, possibly called something like Ashley then and now, which relates that the IM cause first started when a number of members broke away from the Primitive Methodist chapel and began house meetings in the home of Herbert Hulme during the 1850s. After nine years their numbers had so increased that they decided to build a chapel. The site was purchased and the chapel built in five weeks. The congregations continued to increase and in 1881 it was decided to build a bigger chapel on to the existing one. This was opened in 1882.

     

    By David Young (05/01/2015)
  • There is an interesting story about the Primitive Methodists of Hookgate in 1836-7 in Wm Antliff’s Book of Marvels, pages 238-40, for anyone interested in learning a little more of the society’s early life and ethos.

    By David Young (07/08/2014)

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