Wesleyan Ministers Vermont Road (1884 – 1941)

Wesleyan Ministers living at the Norwood Manse in Vermont Road 1884 -1941

The Norwood Manse – the residence of the minister of Upper Norwood’s Wesleyan church  – was located at several different addresses in Vermont Road between about 1884 and 1941.

In the 19th century Methodist ministers were moved on to their next appointment quite quickly in a process called “stationing”.  This explains why eleven different ministers of the Upper Norwood church lived in Vermont Road between 1884 and 1921, mostly for periods of 2/3 years.

Minister	Residency in Vermont Road	House Number
Rev. Joseph Cornelius Wright (1838-1912)	1883-1885	10
Rev. George Charter (1843-)	1883-1891	12
Rev. Charles Edwin Wansborough (1848-1908)	1892-1894	12
Rev. William Henry Clogg	1895-1897	12
Rev. Thomas Ballans Nicholson (1851-)	1898-1900	12
Rev. William Henry Clogg	1901-1903	12
Rev. John Edward Caine	1904-1906	12
Rev. Arthur Thomas Kinnings	1907-1909	12
Rev. Frederick Stuart Kirkness	1910-1913	12
Rev. John Carter	1914-1917	12
Rev. William Arthur Leonard Taylor	1918-1921	6

The Wesleyan Methodist Church was the name used by the majority Methodist movement in Great Britain following its split from the Church of England after the death of John Wesley and the appearance of parallel Methodist movements.  Until 1932 there were three separate branches of British Methodism. The Wesleyans were the largest branch, and the most widespread throughout the country. The Primitive Methodists were the second largest branch, and strongest in the north and midlands of England. The smallest branch were the United Methodists, who were the result of a merger of three smaller branches of Methodism which came together in 1907. In 1932, the Wesleyans, Primitives and Uniteds all reunified to form the Methodist Church of Great Britain.

Methodist churches are grouped into circuits, which cover a local area.   The Upper Norwood Wesleyan church was an offshoot of West Norwood (part of the Brixton Circuit), becoming part of Sydenham circuit in 1880.  Its first attempts to form a Wesleyan mission took place in the working class area of New Town (off Central Hill) with open air services and a rented room in a cottage.  A chapel on Gipsy Hill was established, followed by a church built in Westow Hill in 1874, seating 950 people.

Interior of Wesleyan Church https://boroughphotos.org/lambeth/upper-norwood-methodist-church-westow-hill-norwood/

The last service at the 1874 Upper Norwood Wesleyan Church was held in 1962.  The church was demolished and a new Methodist church, flats and a supermarket (now Iceland) were built on its site.

Role of Wesleyan Minister in Upper Norwood

The church newsletters show that in addition to pastoral responsibilities, the role of minister involved a considerable amount of fund-raising, e.g. ,

 To fund the debt on the building of the church

 To make contributions to the 20th century fund  (a fund launched in 1998 to purchase a site in central London to build a world centre of Wesleyan Methodism and to expand the mission of the Wesleyan Church at home and overseas.)

 To fund-raise for the renovation of the church spire that collapsed in high winds in 1899

 To raise money for the poor of the church

 To raise money for  “the Good Samaritan fund”, a fund for the sick poor of the neighbourhood irrespective of the denomination of the beneficiaries

The minister also supported the various groups/activities associated with the church such as the cycling club, the cricket club, the Sunday school (over 300 scholars), the Band of Hope group and the literary society.

The ladies of the church  played their part in the fund-raising, raising money via sewing groups, bazaars and organising and providing food for events.  For the younger Members of the church there was a junior missionary society.

In Jan 1896 there were 226 Church Members, plus 19 trial Members and 19 junior members.  That year the June circuit meeting took place in Upper Norwood.

The June 1896 newsletter wrote  “Norwood looked at its best” at the end of May.  “Every approach to this beautiful suburb was then most picturesque.  The almond trees  about had flourished, and their bloom had faded then, but the chestnuts, lilacs, laburnums, scarlet hawthorns and guelder roses were in perfection in almost every road.”

When congregation numbers fell off in the cold weather (newsletter Feb 1903), Reverend William Henry Clogg reminded his readers of the excellent heating in the church and that people not venturing out in the could “lose sight of the fact that the walk through the keen air would stir their viking blood and produce in all probability physical benefit “.  In the June 1903 newsletter, he warned his readers not to be tempted away from the evening services “in the summer the open-air attractions in a pleasant suburb are a great temptation to neglect the call to worship on the week-day evening”.

Band of Hope Group

One of the largest groups associated with The Upper Norwood Wesleyan Church was the  “Band of Hope” Temperance Group for children under 16.  Membership numbers fluctuated between 250 and 300, with the group being reputedly one of the largest in South London.

The Band of Hope movement had been set up in the mid nineteenth century in response to the chronic alcohol problems affecting children – either abuse from drunken adults/parents or children taking to drink themselves.  For most of the nineteenth century there was no legislation to protect children from alcohol.

The aims of the group were to teach children about Christianity, the problems associated with drinking, to entertain them via activities and outings and to encourage them to live a healthy, alcohol-free lifestyle.  The group was open to all children who had pledged to abstain from drinking alcohol. In 1887, it had about 1½ million members out of 8 million young people of Band of Hope age in Britain.  By 1897, the Jubilee year, the estimated membership was 3,238,323.

In February 1900, the Upper Norwood group had a deficit and asked Members of the congregation to help:

“We meet  for an hour every Thursday, summer and winter, three evenings middle of summer were spent on the recreation ground… We long to save the boys and girls from the drink curse which blights so many lives.  Three evenings the boys and girls provided their own entertainment, singing and recitations.  Two limelight lectures (using a magic lantern  – an early type of image projector employing pictures painted, printed or produced photographically on transparent plates (usually made of glass), one or more lenses, and a light source – to project stereopticon slides) which are also popular among the children.  This is a good work, and is greatly needed, even in Norwood”

The group had a summer outing and a Christmas party.  The newsletter of September 1900  reported on the Summer outing:

“We had a very enjoyable day, tea being provided, at the old Fox Farm (at Croham Hurst) and every child had a toy and some biscuits just before the return journey”.  The church usually asked for the congregations’s help for the “Band of Hope” Christmas tree.  The February 1904 newsletter reported: “ At 08:15 the exciting ceremony of undressing the tree was taken in hand and each child went home smiling with a treasured gift”

Towards the turn of the century various reforms were made in Parliament with the Temperance Movement playing a very high profile in urging the bills through.   The Children’s Act passed by Asquith’s government in 1908, made it  “…an offence to give intoxicants to children under the age of five except in an emergency or upon the orders of the doctor.” Children under 14 were not allowed in licensed bars during opening hours.

The Upper Norwood Wesleyan Church literary society

The Upper Norwood minister was usually the president of the literary society of the Upper Norwood Wesleyan Church.  Quite often, the family of the minister were also involved, e.g.,  in May 1897 Arthur Henry Clogg was elected secretary to the society, in 1903 Ernest Harold Clogg was elected secretary and Frank Bertram Clogg gave a sung recitation at one of the meetings.  Speakers included various ministers of the church, including the president, together with a number of guest speakers:

The February 1904 newsletter announced a lecture by Dr Carruthers (William or Samuel William?) on the story of the Mansion House – “a chapter in the history of non-conformity of extraordinary interest”.  The December 1904 newsletter reported on a “most interesting instructive lecture on plants that eat animals” by Dr William Carruthers F.R.S. of 14 Vermont road.

The November 1904 newsletter reported that Mr Samuel Turner*, a Member of the literary society living at Haselmere” Orleans Road Upper Norwood and a well known climber, had described “a tour into the heart of Siberia, climbing peaks that no other European had ever ascended; and a magnificent collection of views were thrown upon the screen, all or most of which were taken by the lecturer himself.”

*Samuel Turner worked in the produce trade representing large butter interests.  His job took him around the world, giving him the opportunity to climb in many countries.  He wrote  ‘ My Climbing Adventures in Four Continents’  ‘The Conquest of the N.Z. Alps’ and ‘Siberia’     An account of his travels in Siberia is given in the Alpine Journal: https://alpinejournal.org.uk/Contents/Contents_1904_files/AJ%201904%20Vol%2022%2042-56%20Turner%20Siberia.pdf. With thanks for the help received from the Alpine Club.

No lecturer turned up at the November 4, 1901 meeting of the literary society:  “Fog not withstanding, a large audience assembled but the lecturer (the superintendent of the circuit) was conspicuous by his absence, having lost his way in the dense gloom that shrouded the neighbourhood”

Key sources for this article are the newsletters of the Sydenham Wesleyan Circuit  1895 – 1904 and  the 1925 Golden Jubilee booklet – 1875-1925 – celebrating 50 years on worship at the Upper Norwood Wesleyan Church.  Both sources are held at the Lambeth Archives.