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Lord Street, Etruria
The Methodist Chapel:
Josiah Wedgwood was a dissenter and prominent member of
the Unitarian Meeting House in Newcastleunder-Lyme. However he does not
appear to have made any special provision for dissenters at Etruria.
Meetings
of Methodists took place in private houses in the village in the late 18th
century. The first Wesleyan chapel was built in 1808 in a field south of
Etruria.
In 1820
it was replaced by a new chapel on the main road near the centre of the
village which is still standing. This is a brick building with a classical
plastered front surmounted by a pediment and a date tablet.
The
ground floor plan below shows a typical chapel layout of that period with
a gallery above which accommodated an average attendance of 150 in 1851.
Inside
are memorial plaques to Jessie Shirley, George Smallwood and also James Mainwaring.
Jesse Shirley
"A tablet recording Jesse Shirley, who died 1875, aged fifty-six, says
: " He was a kind husband and father and sincere friend and he loved the
house of prayer." Of Sarah, his widow, who died September 6th, 1891, aged
sixty-eight years, it is recorded that she was an "affectionate wife,
mother and friend.""
in memory of George
Smallwood
"A white marble tablet is in memory of George Smallwood, who died
November 19th, 1924, aged sixty-seven. He was closely associated with the
Wesleyan Chapel and Sunday School all his life. Another memorial is to
Jane Smallwood who died March 3rd, 1927, aged seventy-two, and there is a
tablet in memory of Thomas Adams of Etruria, who died March 9th, 1883,
aged eighty-one. He was a Wesleyan Sunday School Superintendent for fifty
years."
James Mainwaring of
Etruria
"An unusual
earthenware tablet, complete with a portrait in relief, in memory of James
Mainwaring of Etruria, who died July 17th, 1891, aged ninety-seven, is to
be seen. He was for over seventy years a class leader and local preacher
and one of the first trustees of the chapel."
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