Haygarth, Matthew (1905-1980)

Transcription of obituary published in the Minutes of Conference

MATTHEW HAYGARTH: bom in Tow Law, County Durham, on 4th October 1905, he trained for the ministry at Hartley College. He then served in the following circuits: Leicester (III and Curzon Street), Southampton (St. James), Bury and Ramsbottom, Manchester (Culcheth), Stanley, Huddersfield (Buxton Road), Warrington, Dundee and Perth, Swinton and Castletown.

In 1974 he retired to Withington in Manchester, the city which had so frequently called for his ministry, and from which he had taken his bride, Grace, whose gifts, especially her singing, had enriched their joint service. For many years they adventured together by motor cycle, and together exercised a rewarding ministry especially among young people. The Dundee appointment included the chaplaincy to Methodist students at St. Andrews University, and a student of those days has written of the influence and profundity of his expository preaching. 

To the psychiatric patients at the teaching hospitals he gave loving and time-consuming care. Others bear witness to his efficient administration, and particularly to his devoted pastoral care in each church in his charge. Ease of retirement was to be short, for a thrombosis necessitated immediate amputation of a leg, with traumatic consequences upon his nervous system. There followed a long period of enforced withdrawal, with patient nursing by his devoted wife. To facilitate care, they moved to Lytham, where after a short stay in hospital, he died on 23rd March 1980 in the seventy-fifth year of his age and the forty-eighth year of his ministry.

Family

Matthew was born on 4 October 1905 at Tow Law, Co. Durham, to parents John, a plate layer on NE Railway (1911), and Isabel.

He married Grace Sheridan (1910-1994) in the summer of 1936 at Withington, Manchester, Lancashire.

Matthew died on 23 March 1980 at Lytham, Lancashire.

Circuits

• Hartley
• 1932 Leicester III
• 1934 Southampton
• 1937 Bury &c
• 1939 Manchester Culcheth
• 1944 Stanley
• 1949 Huddersfield Buxton
• 1954 Warrington
• 1959 Dundee &c
• 1965 Swinton
• 1969 Castletown
• 1974 Manchester (S)

References

Methodist Minutes 1980/66

W Leary, Directory of Primitive Methodist Ministers and their Circuits, 1990

Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers