1st Independent Methodist Chapel

John Dolan, The Independent Methodists: A History (Cambridge, 2005).

References to George St, Oldham.

p. 24

‘About 1806, a number of worshippers at St Peter’s Church, Oldham, had “been brought to see the necessity and importance of inward religion, to the enjoyment of pardon and, being justified by faith, had peace with God (p. 25) and rejoiced because the love of God was shed abroad in their hearts.” Under the leadership of Joseph Matley, this group held a weekly meeting for Bible reading and Christian fellowship. At one such meeting, a group member, John Nield, took a text and used it as the basis for an exhortation. Matley, a staunch churchman, disapproved, believing that this was the prerogative of the clergyman alone. Some of the group supported Nield and they began to hold meetings in an upper room, later transferring to an old disused mill in Whitehead Street. The incumbent of St Peter’s called upon them to discontinue their meetings but, rather than do so, they separated from the church altogether.

            The dissidents took for themselves the title “Independent Methodists” - and became the first church to use the name which the denomination eventually adopted. In this instance, neither rampant revivalism nor Quaker stillness appears to have been the defining characteristic. By taking the word “Independent” from the world of Old Dissent and linking it with “Methodist” which reflected their spiritual experience, the Oldham people captured better than any of the other formative groups the essence of the movement that was yet to be. Their departing action illustrated the increasing readiness of working people to assert their rights to self-determination and to meet their own spiritual needs, despite the apparent price of sectarian isolation. This would be repeated in numerous towns and villages in the decades ahead. In 1816 the Oldham Independent Methodists built a chapel in George Street and, from this, other churches came in due course and extended their activities into other parts of the town.