17. Silverdale Circuit

Newcastle-under-Lyme is the Mother Circuit from which Silverdale was formed in 1872, with Rev. Edward Jones, as Superintendent; John Shenton, brother of Rev. Joseph Shenton, and uncle of Rev. John W. Shenton, was the Circuit Steward, and Charles Cork, Secretary.

It commenced its independent existence on the inflowing tide of industrial prosperity when mines, furnaces, forges, brick and tile works were being developed, and the population was rapidly increasing. It had 12 Societies, 354 members, 40 local preachers, 116 Sunday School teachers and 786 scholars. This year’s report gives: 9 Societies, 320 members, 25 local preachers, 88 Sunday School teachers and 869 scholars.

A significant entry in the Circuit Report for 1873 is: “1 day school, 6 teachers, 280 scholars, supported by schoolpence, donations and Government grant.” When a School Board was formed in 1876 the day school, with 10 teachers and 340 scholars, passed under its control.

In the second year after its formation the Circuit pledged a second minister, the Rev. Arthur Jackson Smith. Though never able to carry a second married minister it contrived to support a Probationer or a Lay Agent until 1892, when one of its own local preachers, the writer, served as Lay Agent.

Seven chapels constituted the Circuit in 1872— Silverdale, Wrinehill, Onneley, Madeley, Black Bank, Knutton, and Halmerend—the native place of the late W.H. Hawthorne, Vice-President of Conference, 1929, of Dr. F.A. Challinor, Rev. A.E. Jervis, U.S.A., and the present Minister of the Circuit. There were also preaching places at Little Madeley, Checkley, Betley Common, Leycett and Silverdale Furnaces. Little Madeley Society built a Chapel and established its home at Madeley Heath in 1880. Four years later Betley Common “ceased to meet.” Checkley, where Thomas Russell received his “baptism of power,” famous for its revivals, camp meetings and “originals” “ceased to meet” in 1917, when the tenant of the preaching house died. Leycett and Silverdale Furnaces were represented in the vigorous and progressive Church established in 1876 at Scott Hay, the home of sister Grace, known later as Mrs. F.W. Dodds, of Nigeria, the sister of Thos. Bloor, Circuit Steward for the last 27 years.

Before the war the tide of prosperity had begun to ebb. Flourishing industries gradually vanished, leaving behind not a single memorial of their activity, but mountainous refuse heaps and the mocking ruins of abandoned collieries and ironworks. There is work to-day for scarcely one thousand men and boys where formerly ten thousand found employment. This spells tragedy, but the spirit of our people is indomitable, and their support of the Church heroic.

W.G.