RootsChat.Com
England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => Lancashire => Topic started by: Keith Sherwood on Monday 07 November 05 17:05 GMT (UK)
-
Hi, Everyone,
Could someone please tell me exactly where might have been the baptism place of my 3-times gt-grandfather James KERSHAW, who according to a database of Wesleyan preachers was baptised on Christmas Day 1803 at Ridgway Gates Wesleyan Bolton.
Is this a surviving Methodist chapel, or does any local literature deal with this place...?
Very best wishes,
keith
-
Found this! is it any good??
http://www.genuki.org.uk/cgi-bin/churches?CCC=LAN,GR=638,FT=Bolton%20Ridgeway%20Gates%20Wesleyan%20Methodist
Annie ::)
http://www.manchester.gov.uk/libraries/arls/registers/prlistd.htm
-
Hi Keith,
Ridgeway Gates still exists in Bolton Town Centre and the Victoria Hall is the oldest building there at the moment, this is a church and is still used today, it may be one and the same. I have some local history books on Bolton I will look through for you and if no joy will pop into the local archives next time I am in town. Just recovering from a sore throat at the moment so give me a few days.
Karen
-
Hi Keith,
Karen again, if you type in Victoria Hall Bolton on yahoo search engine, it gives you a brief history and in 1932, the original wesleyan chapel was there and demolised, and victoria hall was built in its place.
-
Hi Annie and Karlowe,
Thanks so much for all that detail. What a shame they knocked the old chapel down in 1932 - guess I got my facts together 73 years too late to go and have a gaze at it.
This whole Methodist ministry thing is rather like a giant magical mystery tour; they did travel about so much in the 18thC, and I'm even making enquiries now on the Armagh, N.Ireland website for more information about a place there they started preaching at in 1750...
Very best wishes,
keith
-
Karlowe,
This question has just occurred to me, but what was the function of Victoria Hall when it was built in 1932? I've seen a modern photo of its grand entrance, but was it built and used as either a Methodist or United Reformed Chapel then...?
Very best wishes,
Keith
-
Hi Keith,
From what I can gather it has always been a church, I'll ask in the library next time I go. The local paper "The Bolton Evening News "may be able to help, they have a good archive section with photos and do a local history article called "Looking Back " every evening, in a section of the paper. Frank Elson is the chap to ask for, he writes the articles, a lot of which are from readers requests, he can be contacted at felson@boltoneveningnews.co.uk. Another useful website may be www.boltoneveningnews.co.uk/bygone
regards Karlowe
-
Karlowe,
This is all extremely helpful to me, and I'll definitely contact Frank Elson, as you suggest...
Very many thanks,
Keith
-
Hi again, Everyone,
Have just downloaded a page of baptisms from 1803-1804 which include my 3-times-gt-grandfather and his brother (at the very top of the page), followed by 21 other entries, the last 12 of which are baptisms conducted by their father John KERSHAW.
So, I was wondering if anyone knew exactly when this Chapel opened, whether in fact John KERSHAW might have been the first Methodist Minister there, with the first two baptisms being his own two sons...
Very best wishes,
keith
-
According to the GENUKI Church database, Ridgway Gates was founded in 1776.
http://www.rootschat.com/links/023v/
-
Thanks very much for that, Skb!
keith
-
Hi Keith !
You know me always behind but did you know .......... ::)
Non conformist chapels were not permitted to conduct marriages until the mid 1850's !!
You probably do .... but just in case !!
Annie :)
-
Karlowe,
This question has just occurred to me, but what was the function of Victoria Hall when it was built in 1932? I've seen a modern photo of its grand entrance, but was it built and used as either a Methodist or United Reformed Chapel then...?
Very best wishes,
Keith
According to Pevsner
Victoria Hall
A Wesleyan Mission by Bradshaw & Gass 1898-1900
The Forward movement at the end of the C19 sought to reach the disaffected with "Central Halls" like this, unchurchy, open all the time, with a social as wellas a religious message.
... paid for by Thomas Walker,a tanner.
The entrance tower, all bright red terracotta and brick, breaks through the then recently completed block of Victoria Buildings
....
The extension on the S side, of 1932, is on the site of the Ridgeway Gates chapel of 1776
Martin Briscoe
PS
A derelict building at Ridgeway Gates (http://www.ourtreasures.org/popup_dbimage.asp?type=large&img=http://www.ourtreasures.org/mediaassets/jpg/1936.0025.0059.jpg&alttitle=Derelict%20building%20on%20Ridgeway%20Gates)
PPS
Pictures of Victoria Hall (http://www.ourtreasures.org/dosearch.asp?act=1&srchtype=advance&srchadvcat=8&srchadvcat=3&srchadvcat=4&srchadvcat=6&srchadvcat=2&srchadvcat=5&srchadvcat=1&srchadvcat=7&srchadvallcat=1&srchadvkeywords01=victoria+hall&srchadvopt2=or&srchadvkeywords02=&srchadvopt3=or&srchadvkeywords03=)
Description of Victoria Hall (http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/)
-
Annie,
Just keeping an eye on things for me, leaning on that brush of yours...thanks for that, all baptisms at the moment in the Nonconformist achives, though one I got yesterday for Bethnal Green seems to be a birth in 1822 registered in 1830, no mention of baptising at all...
And Martin, thanks so much for those pictures taken of Bolton. Somewhere amongst my PM's there's one sent by a Rootschatter that shows the actual interior of the Ridgway Gates, if I remember correctly. Must search it out now, (like several of the threads I've started, this one has lain dormant for nearly 2 years before bursting into life again yesterday. Thank goodness these things happen on Rootschat!)
keith
-
The Victoria Hall is, besides being a Methodist place of worship, a concert hall. Think classical music rather than rock, though I believe that such events have used the hall in the past.
It's very much in the centre of Bolton, directly across the road from the Market Hall.
-
Have now recovered the internal and external views (from my chaotic files) of possibly the original chapel before it was demolished. Upper balcony on three sides, they must have packed them in in its glory days. Wonderful to imagine my direct ancestor baptising all those young individuals over 200 years ago in that very place.
MUST find out who it was who sent me those two old photos through the post possibly 2 years ago.
keith
-
Have now recovered the internal and external views (from my chaotic files) of possibly the original chapel before it was demolished. Upper balcony on three sides, they must have packed them in in its glory days. Wonderful to imagine my direct ancestor baptising all those young individuals over 200 years ago in that very place.
MUST find out who it was who sent me those two old photos through the post possibly 2 years ago.
keith
If he was John Kershaw then he seems to have become a Minister in 1789, unfortunately this book only gives a single date for earlier Ministers but has more information on later ones.
Another page has
John Kershaw "COM 1788" "DIED 1855"
Lawrence Kershaw "COM 1802" "DIED 1824"
An alphabetical arrangement of all the Wesleyan Methodist ministers and preachers on trail in connexion with the British and Irish Conferences. also, a list of the presidents of the Conference from 1791 to 1892; and an alphabetical list of the ministers who have died in the work (1896)
Creator Hill, William, 1770-1827
Creator Waller, David James
Creator Pawson, John, 1737-1806
Publisher London : Wesleyan Methodist Book Room
Date 1896
Downloadable here (http://www.archive.org/details/alphabeticalarra00hilliala)
There are other Wesleyan books there including
Title The church and the slum : a study of English Wesleyan Mission Halls
Creator Crawford, William Henry, 1855-
Date 1908
Publisher New York : Eaton & Mains
Title History of Wesleyan Methodism in Burnley and East Lancashire
Creator Moore, B. (Benjamin), 1844-
Publisher Burnley : Gazette Printing Works
Date 1899
http://www.archive.org/bookmarks/J%20M%20Briscoe
Martin Briscoe
-
Martin,
He became a Methodist itinerant Minister in 1788 and started on the Grimsby Circuit. In 1789 he was at Horncastle; 1790 Whitehaven; 1791 Birstal; 1792 Whitby; 1793 Stockton; 1794 Newcastle; 1795 York; 1796 Huddersfield; 1797-8 Dundee; 1799-1800 Edinburgh; 1801 Chester, then Bolton...
I've posted his other circuits until 1823, when he came to London as Bookroom Steward, on another board...
He was still performing his duties even in the year he died in 1855. Until I discovered all these details about his life I'd always imagined he was a Londoner, but he was most certainly born and bred in The North, being baptised in North Yorkshire in 1766 to another Methodist Minister, grandfather in the Cloth trade in Halifax...
keith
-
Hi Keith,
I am a member of the Victoria Hall, Bolton Methodist Mission which is built on the site of the Ridgway Gates Chapel and am currently sorting out the archives stock held here. I would be happy to undertake any research into your connections with Ridgway Gates if you could let me know what you want to find out I will try and get the information for you.
-
Karlowe,
This question has just occurred to me, but what was the function of Victoria Hall when it was built in 1932? I've seen a modern photo of its grand entrance, but was it built and used as either a Methodist or United Reformed Chapel then...?
Very best wishes,
Keith
According to Pevsner
Victoria Hall
A Wesleyan Mission by Bradshaw & Gass 1898-1900
The Forward movement at the end of the C19 sought to reach the disaffected with "Central Halls" like this, unchurchy, open all the time, with a social as wellas a religious message.
... paid for by Thomas Walker,a tanner.
The entrance tower, all bright red terracotta and brick, breaks through the then recently completed block of Victoria Buildings
....
The extension on the S side, of 1932, is on the site of the Ridgeway Gates chapel of 1776
Martin Briscoe
PS
A derelict building at Ridgeway Gates (http://www.ourtreasures.org/popup_dbimage.asp?type=large&img=http://www.ourtreasures.org/mediaassets/jpg/1936.0025.0059.jpg&alttitle=Derelict%20building%20on%20Ridgeway%20Gates)
PPS
Pictures of Victoria Hall (http://www.ourtreasures.org/dosearch.asp?act=1&srchtype=advance&srchadvcat=8&srchadvcat=3&srchadvcat=4&srchadvcat=6&srchadvcat=2&srchadvcat=5&srchadvcat=1&srchadvcat=7&srchadvallcat=1&srchadvkeywords01=victoria+hall&srchadvopt2=or&srchadvkeywords02=&srchadvopt3=or&srchadvkeywords03=)
Description of Victoria Hall (http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/)
Any chance Martin you could reload those photos on here of the Ridgway Gates Chapel. I'm the archivist at the Victoria Hall Bolton Methodist Mission and I don't think we have those photos. Thanks
-
Hi, Methodist1989, and welcome to Rootschat!
Have just seen your post, and very excited by the fact that you are sorting out the archives of the Ridgeway Gates Chapel. Will go away and have a big think about what you might have a look for on my behalf, but of course if there is any reference amongst those records to the Reverend John KERSHAW, I'd be delighted to hear about them.
I believe after you have made your third post on here we can PM (Personal Message) one another and exchange messages and attachments/files via our own e-mails.
But more than my own personal query, looking forward to you perhaps uncovering fascinating never-before-aired-in-the-light-of-day information about this fascinating place of worship...
regards, keith