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The Mission Church
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Between 1871 and 1901 the population of the town expanded rapidly with the growth of the shoe trade. At the time of the 1851 Religious Census the parish church, Old Meeting, Elim Chapel, Succoth Baptist Chapel and the Wesleyan Methodists saw 149 attending morning services in the town on March 30th out of a population of 1460. As the shoe trade grew and the factory system began the great influx of people brought larger congregations and new churches and chapels were built: the Temperance Hall in 1871, the Independant Wesleyans (a split from the Wesleyan Methodist), the Congregationalists, the Primitive Methodists in 1889 and the Salvation Army Corps was founded here in 1883. These were closely followed by the need for another parish church and in 1895 St. Peter’s was built in Midland Road. At the same time the ‘Tin Tabernacle’ was erected as a Wesleyan Sunday School and almost opposite, the Zion Strict Baptists in 1901.
In the same year the Mission Church was built and a Roman Catholic Church in 1905. Other denominations came during the 20th century, Full Gospel Church, Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Brethen and the Spiritualists.
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