Hoyle, Percy Maydew (1880-1968)

A Tale That is Told . . . Souvenir Handbook of Primitive Methodism in the Forest Hill Circuit 1882-1932

Transcription of obituary published in the Minutes of Conference

PERCY MAYDEW HOYLE: born in Ashton-under-Lyne in 1880, he entered the Primitive Methodist Ministry after training at Hartley College. He began his ministry in 1908 at Forest Hill. Thereafter he ministered in the following circuits: Kelsall, Sheringham, Rockland, Cambridge, Warrington, Wrexham (Poyser Street), Walkden, Gateshead (East), and Leeds (Belle Vue) where he retired in 1947. In the following year he settled in Runcorn and, though not engaged by the circuit, did the work of an active supernumerary until his wife died in 1957, when he came back to live in the Warrington Circuit. 

During his term at Cambridge he served as students’ Chaplain, and this was perhaps the most significant period of his ministry. A kindly man, firm and uncompromising in principles as one would expect from his rich Primitive Methodist background, his twinkling sense of humour not only endeared him to the men he loved to serve but helped him to lead many to Christ. At the beginning of his retirement in Warrington he conducted classes for preachers, and, at the request of the Superintendent, gave courses of lectures on preaching and theology. There are still names on the Warrington Plan of men who look back with gratitude to those formative years at the beginning of their apprenticeship as preachers. 

During the last ten years he was a familiar figure at worship. Often he would write to the preacher during the following week, either acknowledging some new facet of truth revealed in a particular sermon, or suggesting lines of further research. In that sense he never retired. He died peacefully in hospital after a series of strokes on 7 March 1968, in the eighty-eighth year of his age and in the sixtieth of his ministry.

Family

Percy was born on 2 May 1880 at Ashton under Lyne, Lancashire, to parents Giles, a schoolmaster (1901), and Maria. he was baptised on 6 June 1880 at Stamford St Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, Ashton under Lyne.

The 1901 census return records Percy working as a draper’s assistant.

He married Alice Wild (1876-1957) in the summer of 1912 in the Henley Registration District, Oxfordshire.

Percy died on 7 March 1968 at Warrington, Cheshire.

Circuits

  • Hartley
  • 1908 Forest Hill
  • 1912 Kelsale
  • 1914 Sherringham
  • 1918 Rockland
  • 1922 Cambridge
  • 1927 Warrington
  • 1931 Walkden
  • 1936 Wrexham Poyser St
  • 1940 Gateshead E
  • 1944 Leeds Belle Vue
  • 1950 Runcorn (Sup)

References

Methodist Minutes 1968/193

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

Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers

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