History of Madeley / including Ironbridge, Coalbrookdale, and Coalport

by John Randall

And Mr. Wesley, speaking of his friend’s conduct and labours to spread the truth and to repress vice in every possible way, says:—

“Those sinners, who endeavoured to hide themselves from him, he pursued to every corner of his parish: by all sorts of means, public and private, early and late, in season and out of season, entreating and warning them to flee from the wrath to come. Some made it an excuse for not attending the church service on a Sunday morning, that they could not awake early enough to get their families ready. He provided for this also. Taking a bell in his hand, he set out every Sunday for some months, at five in the morning, and went round the most distant parts of the parish, inviting all the inhabitants to the house of God.”

So stubborn and unyielding were the materials, that for some time he saw so little fruit of his labours that he tells us he was more than once in doubt, whether he had not mistaken his place, and that he was violently, as he tells Mr. Charles Wesley, tempted to quit the place. After a little time his church became crowded; excitement then died away, and strong opposition sprang up; but there was an energy about his preaching and exhortations which was irresistible, and he succeeded in his work. The change effected in the whole tone and character, of thought and feeling among the inhabitants was obvious, and perceptible to the most prejudiced. That a life of surpassing purity and self-sacrifice to the highest ends should produce such effects shewed that even low and carnal nature when honestly appealed to is not wholly insensible to true and genuine piety. He laboured and others entered into his labours.

Under the fostering care of Mr. and Mrs. Fletcher Methodism, planted on ground watered by them, found a congenial soil, on which it has flourished to the present day. As early as May, 1767, as we find from a letter to the Rev. George Whitfield, dated Madeley, Mr. Fletcher had invited Captain Scott, then a great preacher among the Wesleyans, to preach to his congregation, and that he had done so from his horse-block, for Mr. Fletcher adds, that his sermon did more good than a hundred preached by himself from his own pulpit. In this letter we find him inviting Whitfield to follow the Captain’s example, and to come down and preach too. Others succeeded, whose ministrations, aided by the meetings of Mr. and Mrs. Fletcher, meetings which were attended by the piously disposed from the Broseley side of the Severn, from Wellington and neighbouring parishes, raised up a pious and efficient body of men who became prayer leaders, class leaders, local preachers, and centres of societies which spread far and wide. Fortunately, that good man Melville Horne, who succeeded Mr. Fletcher, and who after labouring in Madeley for some years went out to Africa and founded the Mission of Sierra Leone, on being appointed curate after the death of Mr. Fletcher favoured this state of things, which continued for some years, with the sanction of the vicar. Mrs. Fletcher in her Journal, August 3, 1815, says, “I have been joined to the people united to Mr. Wesley for threescore years, and I trust to die amongst them. The life of true religion is amongst them, and the work increases.” At the same time she says, “I have always considered myself a member of the church, and so have the united friends in Madeley.” When Mr. Horne left to go out as a missionary to Africa, the vicar, Mr. Burton, desirous of promoting the same kind of harmony, left it to Mrs. Fletcher to recommend a successor. Writing to the one who succeeded Mr. Horne, she says:—“Those who are religious in the parish, as well as those who attend from a distance, go to hear the Wesleyan ministers, and also attended the Church Services.”

Religious Aspect of Madeley in 1777 and 1877.

It is, of course, difficult to arrive at strictly accurate statistics by which to determine the complete state of religious feeling at any given time; but taking well ascertained facts for our guide we may at least get an approximate result. The moral ground and receptacle of religious truth upon which Mr. Fletcher had to work was the same as now; but that ground may be, and is, we imagine, in a more favourable condition for the reception of the seed now than it was in Mr. Fletcher’s day: facts also tend to shew that men are less indifferent and supercilious now than then, and that the means of influencing them are vastly increased, probably as a natural consequence whilst the fruits are in proportion. The channel of truth is wider and deeper, and the climate of thought and feeling is more favourable, and although diversities may have increased, there are collateral benign and ameliorating influences in operation, producing mutual reverence for the good and the true, and a growing tolerance of opinion where such diversity exists.

In Mr. Fletcher’s time, Protestantism, as represented by the Church of England, and Catholicism as represented by a small body which does not seem, so far as Madeley itself is concerned to have increased, stood alone, if we except the Friends or Quakers, also small as regards numbers. From the time of the Reformation, a few Catholic families of influence lingered here. They worshipped first in a room fitted up as a Chapel in the house of Mr. Wolfe, who gave shelter to King Charles. Afterwards the Giffards of Chillington, gave some ground on which was erected a house and chapel about the year 1760. Mr. Fletcher in one of his letters mentions the disquietude the erection of this Chapel gave him, and describes it as the new mass-house. The present Church of St. Mary was not built till 1853. It consists of nave, side aisles, and gallery, and will accommodate 500 persons, but if we except those who attend from other parishes we question whether the congregation is greater now than in Mr. Fletcher’s time. This however is not to be taken as shewing the state of Catholicism in the neighbourhood, inasmuch as missions have been established from this in Bridgnorth, Shifnal, Wellington, and other places.

On the other hand, the Church of England has made great progress. It has more than kept abreast of the increasing population, whether we consider the accommodation it affords or its efficiency, its activity, or the varied machinery by which it works. Not only has the mother church been enlarged to twice the size of the one in which Mr. Fletcher preached, but two others have been added in other parts of the parish, each of which has become a separate ecclesiastical division. The population of Madeley in the time of Mr. Fletcher may be judged of from the fact that there were 900 families which, upon the usual calculation of five to a family, would give 4,500 inhabitants. In 1801, when the first census was taken, it had only increased to 4,758; and in 1831 to 5,822. In 1841 it was 7,267; in 1857, 8,524, in 1861 it was 9,461; and in 1871 it was 9,475; of which number 4,345, are in the electoral and ecclesiastical division of Madeley. The population therefore of the entire parish has little more than doubled itself during the past century.

In Mr. Fletcher’s time, then, if we except the out places then being opened for the convenience of small societies, there was church accommodation only for 500, leaving 4,000 unprovided for. We have now a church capable of holding 1000; and a chapel of Ease at the Aqueduct holding 200; in addition to places of meeting at Lower Madeley, Blissers Hill, Coalport, and the Lloyds.

In addition to this, a church has been erected at Ironbridge capable of holding 900; and one at Coalbrookdale seating 850 persons. We thus get Church accommodation alone for over three thousand, or nearly one third of the population, as against 500 formerly. But the best criterion is the activity and co-operation of workers and helpers, the machinery called into play by those who, having themselves been indoctrinated, come willingly forward to carry on the work of benevolence, education, and religion, and who give evidence to their faith by their works.