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THE influence of the Methodist New Connexion among the miners and nailers of Dudley and its surrounds is powerfully represented at the Black Country Living Museum by Providence church, Darby Hand, Netherton, which was carefully taken down and rebuilt brick by brick on a site at the heart of a recreated village.

Providence church owes its beginnings to a family named Darby from Derbyshire who sought to prosper in the bustling Black Country and got together to form a Sunday school at the end of the 18th century. A plot of land was purchased about 1815 and work on the church began in 1828.

This building was named the Providence chapel, probably after the chapel founded at Epworth where both John Wesley and the founder of the Methodist New Connexion, Alexander Kilham, were born.

The Methodist New Connexion broke away from the parent body in 1797 and it was 1907 before it joined forces with the Bible Christians and the Methodist Free Churches to form the United Methodist Church.

Providence church was reconstructed over a period of four to five years from 1974 to represent its appearance in about 1900. However, the facing bricks were so badly "hacked" that other bricks, probably made at the same brickyard, were brought from the Central church in Wolverhampton Street, Dudley.

The church was rededicated ecumenically. The licence for weddings was given up at a very early stage and those responsible for the building were charged not to have any thoughts about services with Sacraments, as the Lord's Supper was not compatible with the concepts of a museum. Attempts to include the church in the Tipton circuit were also resisted.

A founder member of the Friends of the Black Country Museum, Mr Alan Hallman, a member of the Bank Street church at Brierley Hill, is the senior steward of Providence church at the museum. He is assisted by three others.

He said: "It seemed sensible to rededicate the church when we brought it here. We took counsel with the then Chair of the Wolverhampton and Shrewsbury District, the Rev Brian O'Gorman, and the then Bishop of Dudley, the Rt Rev Tony Dumper, and it was their view that it should not become part of a circuit.

"It is important to have this church in the museum. I have always felt the chapels to be essential to the lives of ordinary folk in the Black Country. They were also places where they could be on an equal footing with their bosses, managers and deputies. Their lives were given meaning and direction in the chapels."

Traditional early-20th-century-style services prove a considerable attraction at the museum. The all-ticket Christmas carol service is such an outstanding event that it is a guaranteed sell-out by October. There are about half-a-dozen services throughout the year. The afternoon Easter Day service is, in complete contrast to the Christmas service, the least attended in the 210-seat building. A "Pleasant Sunday Afternoon" service ­ the PSA movement was formed in Oldbury ­ attracts up to about 100 people.

A re-creation of the traditional Sunday school anniversary service, with children all dressed in white and singing from a platform, is described by Mr Hallman as "absolutely spectacular", with the chapel "packed to the rafters". This service relies on support from teachers and groups of children from local schools.

The stewards re-create the atmosphere of the old "Sunday school treat" after this service by taking the children on a canal boat trip into the tunnel and some of the limestone caverns of Dudley.

A harvest festival service also attracts a lot of interest and great care is taken that there should be "no packets, boxes or tins" seen in the chapel, which is simply decorated with garden produce. The stewards then organise a harvest supper on the Monday evening.

An auction using the old pounds, shillings and pence system usually creates a lot of fun. Some of the harvest produce goes to the Women's Royal Voluntary Service.

Bishops, Chairs of Districts, Salvation Army leaders and bands, and preachers of different Christian denominations share in the services at the museum. Apart from his devotion to the Methodist cause and Black Country heritage, Alan Hallman firmly believes Providence church is a witness and has a mission.

He said: "I take the simple view that 'where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst'. When you invite people into a service you never know just where the ripple effects may end. You also have to take account of the words spoken on the church steps afterwards.

"At the same time, the church in the museum speaks to the present about things which were so fundamental to people's lives.

"Many people think the past is dead and gone for ever. That may be true in reality, but it is not so in practice because we are helped to move forward by recognising the mistakes or achievements of the past."

The Black Country Living Museum at Dudley tells the story of a fascinating part of history through interpretive exhibitions, an open-air site and friendly guides in traditional costume to help visitors to find the tram rides, boat dock, St James's School, mining trip, chain-making shop, nailmaking shop and lime kilns among a host of historic buildings and features.

There are opportunities to travel the site on a tram, see demonstrations of old skills, take part in an old-fashioned lesson at school and enjoy the classic films of the silent movies era. 

Information

Black Country Living Museum

Admission: Daily from March 1 to October 31, 10.00 am to 5.00 pm. November to February, Wednesday to Sunday, 10.00 am to 4.00 pm. Adults £8.25, over-60s £7.25, children aged five-17 £4.75. Family ticket £22.25. Group rates (10 people or more) adults £6.75, over-60s £5.75 and children £4.75.

Facilities: Toilets, access for people with disabilities to most parts of the museum, gift shop and a restaurant.

Lone circuit rider with roots in West Bromwich

PILGRIMS from the United States often pay homage to a boy from the Black Country who became the first American Methodist bishop. Bishop Francis Asbury, "the Prophet of the Long Road", was born to Joseph and Elizabeth in a now demolished cottage at Hamstead where the Black Country borders Birmingham.

There is a welcome for these pilgrims in West Bromwich, now part of the borough of Sandwell, at a cottage in Newton Road, Great Barr, where the young Asbury lived with his parents.

This cottage, now maintained by Sandwell Council as a museum, was his home from early childhood until he left to become a Methodist preacher in his early 20s and, in 1771, aged 26, voyaged across the Atlantic for the beginnings of a new Church.

The lone circuit rider did so much to strengthen the foundations of the American people that more than a century after his death President Calvin Coolidge said of him: "He is entitled to rank as one of the builders of our nation."

Asbury went to school at Snails Green and the family attended churches in Great Barr and West Bromwich, particularly All Saints parish church in All Saints Way, West Bromwich, where the 250th anniversary of his birth was celebrated in August 1995.

They were among admirers of the Wesleys and the young Asbury attended a service in Wednesbury, where a few years earlier in 1743-44 John Wesley and his followers were persecuted in riots. In 1763, at the age of 18, Asbury was converted and soon became a local preacher.

Eventually he became a full-time itinerant preacher and worked in circuits of Staffordshire, Bedfordshire, Gloucestershire and finally Wiltshire, which was then mainly based on Salisbury. When attending his first Methodist Conference at Bristol in 1771, he responded to John Wesley's appeal for preachers to go out to America. He left for America that September from the little port of Pill on the River Avon.

The first time Asbury preached in New York that year his text was: "I determine not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified."

He is recognised as a man who took the faith to the Frontier with a simple message of "free grace, conversion and holiness". Somehow he was able to ride through the storm and stress of the War of Independence when others were withdrawn.

During Christmas 1784, in Baltimore, Asbury was first ordained deacon, then presbyter and finally superintendent. He and Thomas Coke took on the title of "bishop".

The Asbury boyhood and his conversion to Methodism are reflected on sites such as Sandwell Park Farm, Forge Mill Farm, All Saints parish church and the family cottage.

Information

Bishop Asbury Cottage

Contact Pam Haynes or Andrea Hicklin, tel: 0121 553 0759.

Admission: Groups, by appointment only. There is a fee by arrangement for organised tours. Facilities: There are no toilets or facilities for people with disabilities at the cottage. These are available at the nearby Forge Mill Farm, off Sandwell Park Lane, and at Sandwell Park Farm. Catering is available at these two sites. Parking at the Bishop Asbury Cottage is restricted although it is possible to use the car park of the nearby Malt Shovel public house at the landlord's discretion.

Forge Mill Farm

Admission: Daily. April to September 30, 11.00 am to 5.30 pm. October 1 to March 31, 10.00 am to 4.30 pm. No charge although donations welcome.

Facilities: Toilets and access to the ground floor for people with disabilities.

Wednesbury riots

METHODISTS faced 14 months of mayhem in Wednesbury during 1743-44. The Wesleys had already been caught up in skirmishes but the first experience of real rioting is said to have happened at Wednesbury and Walsall in what was then South Staffordshire.

During the afternoon of October 29, 1743, John Wesley was writing in a house which became surrounded by a mob. This gathering dispersed but a roaring mob returned later, shouting: "Bring out the minister. Give us the minister."

Wesley went with the mob to two magistrates at Bentley Hall, Darlaston, and in Walsall. In Walsall he was seized from the Wednesbury mob by Walsall rioters howling for his death. Amazingly, one of the ringleaders had a change of heart and assisted Wesley in a dramatic rescue and escape.

However, on into the next year Methodists faced having their houses totally wrecked, women pulled from their beds, children driven into the streets, property destroyed and their cattle maimed.

This systematic and atrocious persecution, rioting, looting and pillaging took place at a time when the vicar of Wednesbury was prominent in whipping up feeling against Methodists. Charles Wesley arrived in Wednesbury during 1742 and preached at Holloway Bank, Hill Top. He suggested that his brother should visit the town. John Wesley visited in January 1743, the first of 33 visits to Wednesbury. His last visit was on March 22, 1790, when he was in his 87th year.

For that first visit, John Wesley arrived down Holloway Bank from Hill Top, West Bromwich. On his right was a natural amphitheatre (now a housing estate) which both of the Wesleys used for preaching.

The space could hold several thousand people. When Wesley reached Bridge Street his horse became stuck in mud at the bottom of the slope and it was there that he was welcomed to the town by Mr Francis Ward.

Some rioting began at Wednesbury in April 1743 and continued through the summer. There were West Bromwich riots during November of that year. There were further riots in 1744, but Wesley could say in May 1775: "The Lord has stilled the madness of the people."

A new meeting house was opened in 1760. John Wesley preached there during its first year, when Francis Asbury attended and was converted there.

Much of Wesley's preaching was conducted from the horse block situated in High Bullen near where the first meeting house was built. This block is now placed inside the Central church, Spring Head, where a museum collection is kept.

This collection includes a piece of cast iron thrown at Wesley during the 1743-44 riots, various items of sculpture, a Breeches Bible and Francis Wardıs Bible in which it was recorded that John Wesley baptised his children.

The Dingley Collection, housed at the Central church, belonged to Dr Edward Dingley (1860-1948), a highly-respected Wednesbury GP, who was a great collector of all items to do with John and Charles Wesley. He gave his collection to the church at Spring Head to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Wesley's conversion.

Further information

Sandwell Park Farm

Admission: Daily. 10.00 am to 4.30 pm. Admission free Monday to Friday. Charges weekends and bank holidays: £1 adults, 50p for children and over-60s, free for under-fives.

Facilities: Tearooms, toilets and wheelchair access to whole complex.

Oak House, West Bromwich

Admission: April 1 to September 30. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday (closed Thursdays) 10.00 am to 5.00 pm. Saturdays 2.00 pm to 4.00 pm. Organised tours: fee by arrangement.

Facilities: Toilets and ground floor only access for people with disabilities.

Wesley Memorial

Central church, Wednesbury

Admission: Viewing by appointment with the minister, the Rev Donald Cross, 1 Hydes Road, Wednesbury WS10 9SX, tel: 0121 556 0420, fax 0121 556 0420 or Mrs B C Lavender, 51 Hall Green Road, West Bromwich, tel: 0121 588 2001.

High Bullen, Wednesbury