Location

Methodists are often accused, both by critics and friends, of worshipping bricks and mortar. Our church however, is more than just an aging building, it is a living monument to the people who built it and who have prospered its work, under God, unto the present day. The people who built so well were probably neither very clever or particularly well educated. They did have, however, two priceless assets, faith in their God and a determination to worship Him in the way they felt to be proper. The Chartist and Reform movements which convulsed England in the early 19th century had their shattering counterpart among Methodists.

A demand arose amongst ordinary Methodists for greater participation and consultation in the government of the Church. This demand and the ruthless resistance it provoked, was to end in what Robert Currie in his book ‘Methodism Divided’ refers to as… "nothing less than a smaller Reformation". The Methodist historian George Earys FRHistB in his book ‘Wesley and Kingswood and its Free churches’ describes the local effects of this phenomenon published in 1911. Earys records that:

"Sixty years ago Kingswood Wesleyan Methodist Circuit was in ferment and motion. There was a movement of regenerative force, an awakening to new work and triumphant activity. Out of this came the Kingswood Circuit of the United Methodist Free Churches, now the United Methodist Church. In sixty years the population has wonderfully increased. Methodism has also increased fourfold. This upward movement can be traced to the agitation of 1849, 1853 and 1851".

A vital part of this new upward movement was to be the new Warmley Tower Ebenezer Church.

Earys goes on to relate how, in an effort to stem the tide of reform, many leading members of the Kingswood Circuit were expelled or forced to resign, with no right of appeal. At one special meeting called to discipline some of the dissenters, they were refused a hearing and left to hold their own meeting.

"They arranged then and there for a new Methodist Circuit. Before leaving a preacher's plan was fully marked out. Preachers, teachers and stations were all arranged."

It has been said that the new circuit came into existence in a day. Messrs. Truebody, Hicks, Ollis, Carter, Strange, Williams Peacock and others represented Warmley Tower at this meeting.

In time the reformers built new chapels or took over existing ones at Zion, Redfield, Fishponds, Bethel at St. George, Longwell Green, Bitton, Soundwell, Staple Hill, Crews Hole, Cock Road, Bridgeyate, Hannah Green, Frenchay, Clay Hill, Hope Chapel at White’s Hill, Potters Wood, and of course, Warmley Tower Ebenezer. These societies became a circuit of the United Methodist Free Church upon its formation in 1857.

In 1907, not without some resistance on the part of the society at Warmley Tower, the United Methodist Free Church joined with the Bible Christians and the Methodist New Connection to form the United Methodist Church. In 1932 the United Methodist and Primitive Methodists united to become the Methodist Church as it is today. The events of the mid 19th century are not the happiest chapter of Methodist history, but it is necessary to remind ourselves of them, in order to appreciate the driving force that impelled our predecessors to undertake the building of Warmley Tower.

Having become members of what was to become a circuit of the United Methodist Free Church, the Warmley Tower rebels now found themselves without a chapel of their own in which to worship. Presumably they would not have been allowed, even had they wished, to continue attendance at the local conference chapel. It was not until May 1858 before the present building opened for public worship, so the rebels obviously had to make temporary arrangements to keep their society together, whilst planning their new home. There is in existence some Warmley Tower Ebenezer accounts, commencing in 1851, which throw some light on these makeshift arrangements. There are entries recording payments for rent fuel and lighting at Bridgeyate chapel, the British Schoolroom and an unidentified chapel and cottage. The Bridgeyate Chapel is obviously the one built in 1810, which stands upon Bridgeyate Common. Significantly, this also bears the name Ebeneser. The British Schoolroom refers presumably, to the school now called Redfield Edge School at Oldland Common. As there is also an item showing a subscription to a Reform Association we must presume that rebels were affiliated to the Wesley Reformers until that body joined with the Wesleyan Methodists Association in 1857, to reform the United Methodists Free Church.

The Building of the Chapel

On April 17th 1858 Stephen Cooper Ollis, a tailor of Kingswood Hill bought from Alfred Davidson of Warmley House, for the sum of £34,

"That piece or parcel of land containing by our admeasurement on rood and 12 perch with a frontage of 82 ft, upon the road leading from Warmley to Oldland Common bounded on the north by the cottage and garden in the occupation of Mr. William Highman and on the east by the said road. On the south and west by that piece of ground Cadbury Heathfield number 1602 in the tithe map.”

The land was sold again, within a very short period by Stephen Cooper Ollis to George and others for the purpose of

" …building a chapel with monies partly to be borrowed and partly to be voluntarily contributed by persons known as the United Methodist Free Churches in the Kingswood Circuit holding the same doctrines as the Society of Methodists established by the late Rev. Wesley, although not being members of such societies through expulsion by the preachers known as the Methodist Conference, or otherwise, over which the said Methodist Conference is to have no rule, power, authority or influence in any way, but such chapel is to be solely for the purposes of the said United Methodist Free.”

George Ollis	Bitton	Hatter
Edmond Davis	Oldland	Hatter
James Scull	Oldland	Hatter
William Trubody	Wick & Abson	Cordwainer
Thomas Messenger	Bitton	Coal miner
James Green	Bitton	Coal miner
Samuel Summerill	Bitton	Coal miner
Thomas Hall	Bitton	Coal miner
William Spicer	Bitton	Coal miner
Charles Marks	Siston	Coal miner
William Marks	Oldland	Coal miner
Isaac Hicks	Bitton	Grocer
William Carter	Bitton	Grocer
Edward Williams	Bitton	Yeoman
George Brain	St. George	Merchant
William Butler	St. George	Accountant
John Ladd	Siston	Accountant
John Waddington	Siston	Collector of Taxes
Samuel Jefferis	Siston	Laborer
James Peacock	Siston	Laborer
Daniel Whitchurch	Hanham	Implement Maker

The list of trustees gives an interesting illustration of the economic life of the district in the mid 19th century. The large number of coal miners serves to remind us of the fact that the surrounding area was an important part of the East Bristol coalfield. Coal had been won within the area of Kingswood Forest since the earliest times, usually in fairly shallow workings worked by a few men. These mines bear romantic names such as Johnny Jack and Flashaway and had by this time given way to larger scale collieries. However, it is easy to believe that our Warmley Tower miners retained much of the independent spirit.

The hatters among the trustees remind us that in the early part of the 19th century there was a flourishing hat making industry in the nearby village of Oldland. The chief product was felt hats and beaver hats covered with rabbit skins.

The presence of two grocers and a local accountant, a collector of taxes and a yeoman is not surprising as this class of person was very much to the fore in Methodism at this time.

The presence of an accountant from St. George, Bristol might seem unusual at first sight. William Butler, however, who owned a tar distillery near Hanham, was a famous champion of the United Free Methodist Church and it is not surprising to find him lending aid to the struggling new cause at Warmley.

William Trubody is described as a cordwainer, the term used to describe one who makes shoes by hand. This industry in its later mechanised form was to make Kingswood internationally famous as a centre of the boot and shoe trade. The history of the Boot and Shoe Union reports that about this time its predecessor, The Associated Society of Cordwainers had a small "turbulent branch at Kingswood". It is not unreasonable to wonder if some of the turbulence came from the early Methodists. The implement maker and the labourers complete this interesting social and economic mixture who were the founding fathers of the chapel.

In spite of their differences in income and social status they were united in their determination to overcome the forbidding obstacles and to build Warmley Tower Ebenezer Chapel.

Regrettably we have few details of the actual building of the chapel, and we can only guess at the sacrifices made by members and adherents in order to raise the money to pay for it. We can only thank God for them, and those who followed to install the organ and to extend and maintain the building, for the sacrifices made.

WARMLEY TOWER EBENEZER METHODIST CHURCH

The Building of the Chapel