Rushden

In a preachers' plan of the Wellingborough Circuit in 1814 Rushden is entered with a Sunday evening preaching service at six o'clock, and in a Higham Ferrers Circuit plan, 1831, it still had only one service. In 1850 the services were at two and six o'clock, and a fortnightly Monday evening service at seven. It would appear that Methodism was a child of slow growth in the village. Whilst in the year 1781 there were 15 members, in 1841, 60 years later the numbers were only 18. But it should be remembered that the formation of Societies at other places towards the end of the century limited the range of Church activity in the Rushden Society. Persons who otherwise would have united themselves to the Society at Rushden naturally joined those Societies which had been formed in their own locality. The class at Rushden in 1781 is a case in point; five of the 15 members were from Irchester and Wollaston, and those would of course meet in classes formed later nearer their own homes.

In 1838 Rushden had one class of 10 members, the leader being Mr. Parker.

At Rushden, as in many other villages, the preaching services were at first held in cottages. Mrs. Sarah Clark says: "Meetings were held at the top of the village. Rebecca Clark used to attend them; she has been dead 23 years (say 1884); she had turned 80."

There was a little chapel on the Green, originally a barn. In a conversation with the writer on Nov. 4th, 1907, Mr. George Skinner (born March 10th, 1817) said: "Old Tommy Causebrook used to occupy the barn. It was not his own property. I remember it being made into a chapel. I should think I was about twelve years old then. I remem¬ber going to it when quite a boy with my mother. Before then the preaching was held in her house—before the conversion of old Tommy Causebrook's barn into a chapel between the years 1825 and 1830. She was a member over 90 years ago. I was born on that bit of ground on the Green where Keller's fruit shop now [1907] stands—just a few yards from the old barn."

Mrs. Clark says: "I was a scholar in the Sunday school at the old chapel. I was taken there very young, perhaps about four years old. My father and mother—Robert and Eliza Dickens—were amongst the first members of the Society. I have heard my father say there was a Society before he was connected with it. When I was a scholar there [were three services held. In the morning] from eleven to twelve and the preaching services in the afternoon and evening. There was Sunday school in the morning from nine to eleven and in the afternoon from one to two. At the Sunday school anniversary we would parade the village and sing our anniversary hymns. The tea, for both children and adults was held in Mr. Achurch's barn in Duck-street. He was a tenant of Squire Sartoris. I do not remember it being held anywhere else. The school was started in or about the year 1848. Mrs. Ebenezer Claridge, Mrs Jaques, Mr Clark, and I were amongst the first scholars. The chapel was lighted with candles. My husband’s mother, Rebecca Clark, used to go round twice during the service to snuff them. There was a pulpit, with a gallery opposite, and high-backed pews. The singers and the children were in the gallery, which was reached by very awkward steps. There were two square pews, one on each side of the pulpit, one occupied by the Dearloves of Higham Park, and the other, I think, by the Sykes family living in Duck-street."

Mrs. Clark remembered some of the old local preachers—Mr. Haines, of Higham Ferrers, Mr. Woods, of Souldrop, and others. They were entertained at her father's house.

Mr. George Tailby, who died at Stanwick some years ago, was a very prominent person in the old chapel. He was superintendent of the Sunday school and played a flute in the chapel choir. Mr. Henry Dickerson played a bass-viol.

Mrs. Wooding tells me it was called "the old glory shop." She met an old woman some time ago who asked her "if she was the Mrs. Wooding who used to go to the old glory shop." Mr. and Mrs. Wooding came to Rushden in the year 1880.

The disastrous agitation of 1849 occasioned by the revolt of the Revs. James Everett. William Griffith, and Samuel Dunn, and the subsequent expulsion of the first two, was felt with fatal effect at Rushden. So general was the secession that two years later the old chapel was closed and Methodism of the parent Conference type became extinct. The seceders enlisted under the banner of the Wesleyan Reform Union, which was raised in 1851 as a result of the great Methodist disruption.

In an appeal issued by the Independent Wesleyans in the year 1898 on behalf of the new church building fund it is stated: "Previous to 1849 we existed as a Methodist Society, services being held in a small chapel near the village green. A Sunday school was started in 1848 with ten scholars. In consequence of the disruption in Methodism the Society became non-connexional."

This is misleading. The Society did not sever its connection with the circuit until the end of 1850, as will be seen from the following particulars gleaned from the Circuit Account Book, which show the effect of the great con¬vulsion in the contributions to the Quarterly Meeting. In the March quarter of 1849 the sum was £2 1s. 7d.; September of the same year (23 members), £1 17s. December quarter, 1849, £1 11s.; March, 1850, £1 8s. 3d.; June quarter, 1850, £1 7s.; December, 14s. In the March quarter, 1851, there was no return. That the chapel was not closed before the year 1860 is evident from the inclusion of Rushden in the preachers' plan of that year. It disappeared as a contributory to the Quarter Board in April, 1851.

At the Local Preachers Meeting at Higham Ferrers on Oct. 6th. 1851, "It was resolved that Rushden be taken on the plan if a house can be obtained there."

After the collapse of the Methodist cause the little chapel had a chequered career. It was acquired by Mrs. Sartoris, who opened an infants' day-school, of which Mrs. Margaret Wagstaffe was the mistress. This was in Canon Barker's time.

On the building of the National Schools at High-street South the little chapel was no longer needed. It was next used as a carpenter's shop, and later, in the year 1880, the Primitive Methodists took possession, and two or three years later it was pulled clown to make room for shops. It may be of interest to remark that the shop of Mr. Knight, hairdresser, occupies the same site. Nearly 40 years passed away before in the providence of God a man was raised up to build the walls of Zion and rear a worthy house of prayer. With him many true yoke-fellows were associated whose hearts the Lord had touched and "who had a mind to work." In the year 1890 a plot of land adjacent to Park-road and Griffith-street was bought, on which the school-chapel was built at a cost of £2,400.

This building did duty for several years, but ultimately became totally inadequate for the various departments of Church work. Consequently a larger and more up-to-date chapel was decided upon by the trustees, the foundation stones of which were laid on Easter Tuesday, April 5th, 1904. On Easter Monday, April 24th, 1905, the opening services took place. The opening ceremony was conducted by Alderman T. Wetherell, of Northampton. The cost of the new church was about £6,200.

Note: In the Higham Ferrers Circuit Return March, 1851, of chapels, sittings, etc., Rushden in entered as a hired chapel and the date when first occupied 1834. It had 60 free sittings and 46 other sittings, congregation, March 30th, 1851: 50, .., 40, Sunday morning, afternoon, and evening. Sunday scholars, morning afternoon, 72 and 72.

In the tables showing the collections from the different Societies in aid of the General Chapel and Wesleyan Education Fund for the years 1846 to 1856 inclusive, each year separately, the last collection at Rushden was in 1850. There is pencil note: "Chapel taken away."