Beginnings of the Chapel
It was during the ministry of John Whitehead (pastor 1772-1813) that the church decided to pull down the existing chapel building and rebuild for the second time. The new chapel, a handsome building, capable of seating eight hundred, was opened in 1798 and still stands today high above the village. (It is known locally simply as “Top Chapel”).
In 1814 William Marsh became pastor. “He appears to have been evangelical in doctrine. He was exceptionally powerful in prayer, often melting the congregation into tears… he started a day school in which he himself taught the village children, and a night school for those who worked through the day. Cottage prayer meetings and visits to outlying farms were part of his faithful ministry.”
Marsh seems to have been a faithful pastor. Yet there were believers living in Charlesworth who were not satisfied with the ministry at Top Chapel. “Some years prior to 1816, a number of people being dissatisfied with the spiritual fare provided for them in the local Churches, were accustomed to travel several miles each Sunday in order to obtain digestible food”. Perhaps one problem was that Marsh was a ‘paedobaptist’, baptising babies. These believers were convinced baptists, who had been influenced by the ministry of such preachers as William Gadsby. And perhaps they detected in his ministry a toning down of the old Puritan faith that they loved.
Many people laughed at these strange folk who were prepared to tramp miles each Sunday to hear a more consistent ministry. One of the foremost mockers was an illiterate farm labourer named Squire Booth. But his mocking was soon silenced. While in charge of a wagon and horses, he fell from the wagon and was badly injured. God used the accident to awaken Booth and to bring him to faith. About the same time, another working-man, George Mellor came under conviction of sin and he too was converted. Booth and Mellor found themselves joining the circle of believers tramping each Sunday from Charlesworth to find satisfying ministry. The records say that they travelled on one occasion as far as Gatley where they heard Mr Handforth preach “and came home satisfied”.
The newly converted Booth was eager to learn to read and write, taught by his friend George Mellor. But he also found himself aching to preach the truth God had revealed to him. Before long Booth was gathering his hungry friends to meetings in his own home and preaching to them. Soon the meetings outgrew the home. The group agreed to rent part of what had been a loom shop, “the friends subscribing £2 each to buy forms and other necessary things”. Their first gathering in the shop was a meeting for prayer and reading. Squire Booth preached to them each Sunday morning and afternoon in the shop: in the evening they held a further service in a home.
As the congregation grew, it became necessary to rent the whole of the loom shop. It was clear to the friends that the time had come to be constituted as a church. It was to William Gadsby they turned for help. Gadsby, pastor of a Particular Baptist church in Manchester, had been used by God in establishing around forty chapels in Lancashire and Yorkshire. The friends asked him to come and constitute the fellowship as a church. Gadsby came on October 2nd, 1816 and preached in a barn at Moorside. The following day, he baptised four people who became the founding members of the new church.. They were Squire Booth, George Beard, George Mellor, and Thomas Garside. Squire Booth was recognised as minister, George Beard and George Mellor were appointed as deacons.
This little band must have realised that there were many obstacles ahead. The name they gave to their meeting place was “Difficult Chapel”! And difficulties multiplied over the next few years.
