Riots when John Wesley first came to Bolton

However, the founder of Methodism in Bolton was John Bennett, who later broke away from Wesley.

That first visit by Wesley was probably his most memorable, however, even if for the worst reasons; he was stoned by a mob. He wrote: "At one I went to the cross in Bolton. There was a vast number of people, but many of them utterly wild. As soon as I began speaking, they began thrusting to and fro; endeavouring to throw me down from the steps on which I stood. They did so once or twice; but I went up again and continued my discourse.

"They then began to throw stones; at the same time some got upon the cross, behind me, to push me down; on which I could not but observe how God over-rules even the minutest circumstances. One man was bawling just at my ear, when a stone struck him on the cheek, and he was still. A second was forcing his way down to me, till another stone hit him on the forehead; it bounded back, the blood ran down, and he came no farther. The third being got close to me, stretched out his hand, and in the instant a sharp stone came upon the joints of his fingers. He shook his hand, and was very quiet, till I concluded my discourse and went away."

So on Wesley's first visit here, he was not accorded welcome which Boltonians would hope he would be given today! It was no different the following year, because again he noted: "We came to Bolton about five in the evening. We had no sooner entered the main street, then we perceived the lions at Rochdale were lambs in comparison of those at Bolton. Such rage and bitterness I scarce ever saw before, in any creatures that bore the form of men."

I am telling you this story because John Wesley was born 300 years ago this year, and Paul Hassall, the District Archivist of the Bolton and Rochdale District of the Methodist Church, tells me that a number of events have been planned throughout the year to celebrate this Tercentenary -- in the Bolton and Rochdale District, a special service will be held at the Victoria Hall, the local Methodist mission centre, on the evening of May 25. Also, on Saturday, June 14, Zero 3 will take place at the Victoria Hall from 10am until 3.30, when resources will be available for Methodist churches. (Incidentally, Mr Hassall, who

lives in Greenleach Lane, Worsley, tells me that John Wesley has two birthdays. They are 11 days apart due to the calendar changing in 1752, but it has been decided to celebrate his birthday on June 28).

The first of Wesley's visits to Bolton, as you can imagine from above, were obviously not very pleasant, but seemingly by 1781 the Bolton folk had so improved as to be described by him as "on the wing, just ready to take their flight to Heaven."

Wesley was born in 1703 at Epworth in Lincolnshire, the son of an Anglican Rector. He graduated with an MA degree from Oxford, and was ordained a priest in 1728. Following an unsuccessful miinistry in Georgia, America, he returned to England in 1738, where in Aldersgate, London, on May 24, he experienced his "heart warming" conversion which transformed his whole life.

Beginning in 1739, until his death 53 years later, he devoted himself to "spreading scriptual holiness throughout the land", travelling a quarter of a million miles, preaching 40,000 sermons (average of 15 a week), often in the open air, often to large crowds who frequently threatened his life in early days. Wherever he went he formed his converts into "societies" of "Methodists" -- so-called from the methodical conduct of their religious lives.

He came to Manchester often, and by 1747 a society had been formed there in a house on the banks of the Irwell. The ground floor of the house was a joiner's shop, the middle storey occupied by a Mr and Mrs Berry, and the top room was used by the Methodists. The congregation had to negotiate dangerous steep stairs and fill the space not occupied by a spinning wheel and furniture.

In 1765, the first Manchester Conference was held, only the fourth place in the country where this had happened. At the time there were 25 stations in England, with 25 assistants and 49 other travelling preachers. The conference minutes stated that all chapels should have sash windows and there should no backs to the seats. They also discussed whether men and women should sit together.

So Methodism was growing. Even before that, though, after some turmoil, by 1755 the society had been established in Bolton and Wesley made regular visits after that. On his last visit, on April 19, 1788, he recorded: "We went to Bolton, where I preached in the evening in one of the most elegant houses in the kingdom (until 1776 the preaching house had been in New Acres, but the new chapel, which Wesley regarded as elegant, was in Ridgway Gates -- it was demolished in 1931 to make way for the Walker Memorial School), and to one of the liveliest congregations. And I must avow, there is not such a set of singers in any of the Methodist chapels in the three kingdoms. There cannot be, for we have nearly 100 such trebles, boys and girls, selected out of our Sunday schools, as are not found in any chapel, cathedral, of music room, within the four seas."

The Rev. John Munsey Turner, who lives in Horwich, has recently published a biography of John Wesley. He says: "John Wesley was a key figure in the trans-Atlantic Evangelical Revival. He had an appeal to artisans and workers in a developing industrial society, and was very concerned about the state of the poor and opposed slavery. His movement enabled 'nobodies' to become 'somebodies'. Their sense of responsibility would later flow into politics and social life at both local and national level. Sunday schools pioneered elementary education. Methodism also deeply influenced trade unions in the creation of a viable social order."

The last word quite rightly goes to John Wesley: "I think," he commented in 1784, "that every member at Bolton does take my advice with respect to other things as well as with respect to dress and early rising, in consequence of which they are continually increasing in number as well as in grace."