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The North Lancashire District Branch

Details regarding the Society and our own Branch are given below.

We will be pleased to hear from anyone interested in the Society or Methodist history. Email contact details are provided on our Home Page.

Our Branch Bulletins are issued twice a year. Back issues are obtainable from our Archivist - please email with any requests.

Recent issues have included the following articles:

  • Some recollections of the Property Division by Peter Hollows, Treasurer 1962-1991
  • "From Accrington to China" the story of Leonard Constantine, Methodist Minister and Missionary by Barbara and Eric Wolstenholme.
  • Methodism in the early years of the Garstang and Lytham Circuits by Norman Cunliffe
  • In the 1999 Summer Edition, a number of Methodist Leaders, Ministers and Laymen contributed significant articles on what they considered to be the most important features of Methodism in the 20th Century.
  • "William Bramwell: the Would be Evangelist" born in the Fylde
  • We have full reports on our outings and lectures given at all our meetings.
The Wesley Historical Society and our District Branch
The Wesley Historical Society was formed in 1893 "to promote the study of the history and literature of early Methodism". At present there are 17 regional Branches covering the greater part of the British Isles which promote opportunities for people to gather together to stimulate interest in Methodist history and its traditions in a particular area.

The North Lancashire District Branch was formed in 1984 with the aim of maintaining an interest in the life and work of John and Charles Wesley in Methodist history as it developed in the 19th and 20th Centuries and in its chapels and their architecture and the life of the people who made up the many Societies in this area.

It has been our practice to have three/four meetings a year including outings to places of special Methodist and historic interest within the District and further afield. Speakers of note and authority have been our invited lecturers at other gatherings.

The Bulletin is produced twice a year and contains articles on general and local Methodist history, information about significant events relating to Chapels, reports on the Branch activities together with significant studies of personalities who were prominent in the unfolding history of Methodism. We have maintained a steady 100-120 members since our formation and the Bulletin is read widely.

A Picture of the North Lancashire District

The North Lancashire District is comprised of 18 Circuits made up of town and country Churches, In the northwest we have Morecambe Bay, with its glorious sunsets and the Lakeland hills on the horizon, down to the Ribble Estuary, incorporating Cockerham Sands and Fleetwood, proud of its fishing prowess.

Between the sea and Pendle Hill, we have the pleasant agricultural flats of the FyIde with Garstang beside the busy M6. Travelling east across the motorway we come to much industrial archaeology of the past age of "King Cotton" in towns such as Preston, Burnley, Padiham, Great Harwood, Accrington, Colne Nelson, Blackburn and Darwen -all now in the full swing of renewal with new industries and bustling modern town centres.

Along the pleasant lower banks of the rivers Ribble, Wyre and Lune one can explore the county 'capital', Lancaster, with its impressive University and first purpose built Ecumenical Chaplaincy centre, and many historical gems, not least its castle and priory church. History abounds in places such as Roman Ribchester, in Clitheroe, a market town of considerable antiquity dominated by its castle with the smallest Norman keep in England, the Cistercian abbey at Whalley, the popular Blackburn Diocesan Conference and Retreat Centre, Stonyhurst College, a former Manor House until its was offered to the Jesuits in the late 18th century and now one of the leading Roman Catholic Schools in the country.

In such a setting the North Lancashire District continues its ministry of offering Christ, adapting its approach according to the varied needs of the community, whether amongst all the pressures of modern industry and business, in the rural setting of attractive village communities, or the challenge of holiday centres and coastal resorts like Blackpool, Lytham St. Annes and Morecambe.
Primitive Methodist Comemorative Plates
Hoghton, chapel opened in 1794
The North Lancs Area