Barn & Stable Range, Brindley Ford, Burslem

Barn & Stable Range at Bemersley Farm

photo: © Mr Clive Shenton - May 2006

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Barn and stable ranges. Late 18th Century and early 19th Century.

Coursed sandstone rubble and red brick with ashlar dressings. Plain tiled roof. U-Plan. West range: 5 bays, with 3 central brick bays and single outer stone bays with quoins. Each bay has a single window under an ashlar lintel. The inner facade of this range has a single stone to the south, with a stable door on the ground floor and a loft opening with plank door above.

It was here that Hugh Bourne printed the books for the Primitive Methodist book room.

The remainder of the facade has 4 stable doors, 2 now blocked, and 4 windows, all with stone lintels and above 2 loft openings with plank doors. The north range has similar fenestration. The single storey east range contains stables as well.

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"Around the same time as the rise of the Methodist New Connexion, another wave of revival swept into the new towns. Its leading figures were Hugh Bourne and William Clowes. Hugh Bourne, was born at Ford Hayes Farm, Bucknall, on April 3, 1772. He was a shy man who, until his conversion in 1799, lived with an intense fear of falling into hell. By the year 1800, he had moved to live in Harriseahead, a village to the north of the present city. Towering above Bourne's new home was Mow Cop, a "bald hill" rising to 1,091 feet above sea level, with commanding views over the Cheshire plain.

Bourne was shocked at the moral state of his new neighbourhood, saying, "There was not in England a neighbourhood that was more ungodly and profane. A stranger could hardly go over Harriseahead without insult and sometimes not without injury." Against this background, Bourne met for prayer and Bible study with other Methodists, and flames of revival broke out in 1801, spreading quickly through the northern towns of the Potteries and beyond.

William Clowes was born in Burslem on March 12, 1780, a relative of Josiah Wedgwood on his mother's side. William became a highly skilful master potter, as well as a notorious drinker, gambler, womaniser and fighter, but was remarkably converted at an evangelistic meeting in Congleton in 1804, following what Hugh Bourne described as yet another "extraordinary outpouring of the Spirit." Clowes was to become a powerful evangelist and a leader in the revival."

"Treasures in Jars of Clay" © 1994 Robert Mountford.

also see Hugh Bourne's birthplace

see article on Mow Cop - the birthplace of Primitive Methodism

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