Ketley: Nonconformity

NONCONFORMITY.

The Methodists, mainly the Primitive Methodists, were the only nonconformists to enjoy any success in Ketley. A Quaker evangelist spoke there in 1759, (fn. 1) and in 1854 a Baptist at the Rock was reported to have joined the Mormons. (fn. 2) A Salvation Army barracks, registered in 1888, had closed by 1896. (fn. 3) An undenominational iron chapel was rembered in 1982. (fn. 4)

Sporadic Wesleyan efforts were made over some sixty years. There was regular Wesleyan preaching at the Rock in 1813, (fn. 5) and still in 1823 when Old Park (in Dawley) and Mannerley Lane were associated preaching places. (fn. 6) By 1840 the Rock and Mannerley Lane were still associated but in 1852 they separated and seem to have expired. The latter was revived from 1856 to c. 1866. (fn. 7) Redlake had a Wesleyan society by 1840. It seems to have lapsed in 1852, (fn. 8) but a house said to have been lent for Wesleyan worship in 1853 was still being used when the society ceased in 1874. (fn. 9)

A Primitive Methodist society at Coalpit Bank met in Wombridge parish in 1830. (fn. 10) By 1841 it used Robert Pocock's schoolroom south of Main Road, Ketley Bank, which it rebuilt as a brick chapel in 1859. (fn. 11) Altered in 1907, (fn. 12) it had 191 seats and was called St. Paul's by 1940. (fn. 13) It had a congregation of 31 in 1983. (fn. 14) The Rock too had regular Primitive preaching by 1835. (fn. 15) A small plain brick chapel was built in 1861 (fn. 16) off the west side of Rock Road. In 1877 (fn. 17) a larger chapel, with 300 seats in 1940, (fn. 18) was built in polychrome brick against the old chapel, which then became the Sunday school. (fn. 19) In 1981 the new chapel was still in use. There was regular Primitive preaching at Ketleybrook by 1834. (fn. 20) A small plain brick chapel called Ebenezer was built there in 1863 (fn. 21) on the north side of the Holyhead road. Dr. S. Parkes Cadman (1864-1936), a celebrated preacher in the United States, (fn. 22) was baptized there. (fn. 23) The chapel closed in 1963. (fn. 24) Other mid 19th-century efforts by the Primitives were shorter lived. There was regular preaching at Redlake in 1839 and 1849 (fn. 25) and at Mannerley Lane in 1842, 1851 (48 afternoon attendances on Census Sunday), and 1861. (fn. 26)

A small plain brick chapel of the United Methodist Free Churches was built at Mosseygreen in 1873 and rebuilt or extended in 1904. (fn. 27) Worship ceased in 1971. (fn. 28)