Birmingham has had a long tradition of
nonconformity. With the restoration of Charles II to the throne after the
rule of Cromwell and the Commonwealth, the king did not in general adopt a
policy of punitive reprisals against his father's enemies, but Birmingham
was an exception. To all appeals for a charter and Parliamentary
representation for this fast growing town he turned a deaf ear and it was
not until 1832 that the people of Birmingham were at last enfranchised and
it was 1838 before the town got its charter of incorporation. In 1662 the
Act of Uniformity restored to their pulpits many of the clergy evicted by
Cromwell for support of Charles I. In turn, many of the clergy appointed
during the Commonwealth period lost their pulpits and became known as
'Nonconformists' or 'Dissenters'. Next, the Five Mile Act prohibited
nonconforming priests from coming within five miles of any corporate town.
Hence Birmingham, because it was denied a corporation, became a place of
refuge to priests driven from their livings because of their consciences. In
1672 the Declaration of Indulgence gave nonconformists the right to worship
publicly in chapels of their own. A 17th century writer wrote of
Birmingham at that time "Dissenters and Quakers and heretics of all sorts
were welcomed".John Wesley first mentions Birmingham in his Journal of
March, 1738. He had stopped in the town for a meal and so preoccupied was he
that he did not have a word of greeting for the waiter who attended him. On
resuming his journey Wesley was caught in a hailstorm and he felt that God
had sent a just rebuke for his surliness. Four years later there is the
first reported mention of Methodism in the 'Birmingham Gazette' of May l0th,
1742. Although unnamed on this occasion an ordained clergyman is described
as "one of the Methodists (as they are term'd)". On Whit Sunday, 1743,
Charles Wesley preached in the streets of Birmingham for the first time and
on Sunday, 25th June, of the same year he founded a Methodist society in
Birmingham with 13 members. In the October following John Wesley followed
his brother, Charles, to Birmingham and preached to what he described in his
Journal as a "small and attentive" congregation.
Methodism began to take a firm hold in Birmingham and in 1748 the first
Methodist preaching house was established in Steelhouse Lane. In 1751 John
Wesley preached in the town with a roof over his head for the first time and
the Steelhouse Lane meeting house was not large enough to contain all who
had come to listen. He records "0 how the scene is changed here! Formerly
when I preached at Birmingham the stones flew on every side. If any
disturbances were made now, the disturbers would be in more danger than the
preacher." He spoke too soon. The same year the Birmingham Gazette for
October 26th reported:
"On Monday night last an attempt was made on the Methodist Meeting in
this town by some young thoughtless Persons, who took from thence the Pulpit
and many of the Seats, and made a Bonfire of them; but by the good
management of the constables and some of the principal inhabitants in that
neighbourhood, they were in the morning dispersed."
Despite sporadic harassment by the mob the Methodist society became
stronger numerically and the need to find a larger meeting house became a
matter of urgency. The unusual solution was to purchase an old playhouse
just off Moor Street and John Wesley returned to the town on March 21st,
1764, to preach at the opening service. "Happy would it be if all the play
houses in the kingdom were converted to so good a use" he declared. A ballad
writer of the time, John Freeth, was moved to compose "On a PlayHouse being
turned into a Methodist Meeting House":
"I sing not of battles, nor sing of the State,
But a strange metamorphose that happen'd of late,
Which if the comedians of London should hear,
Who knows - it may put the whole body in fear.
Where dancing and tumbling have many times been,
And plays of all kinds by large audiences seen,
These wicked diversions are not to be more,
Poor Shakespeare is buffeted out of the Door.
Behold where the sons of good humour appear'd,
The scenes are thrown down and a pulpit is rear'd,
The boxes on each side converted to pews,
And the pit all around naught but gravity shews.
The music's sweet sound which enliven'd the mind,
Is turn'd into that of a different kind,
No comic burletta or French rigadoon,
But all join together and chant a psalm tune.
When told that famed W-l-y appeared on the stage
The grave ones began to reflect on the age,
But those in the secret approv'd of the case,
For 'twas done to drive Satan away from the place."
In 1786 another chapel for Methodists in Birmingham was opened in
Bradford Street and in 1789 John Wesley returned again to the town to open a
new chapel in Coleshill Street, later known as Belmont Row, and this was the
chapel which gave its name to the circuit in which Acocks Green church was
situated until the circuit's name was changed to Elmdon in 1958. Belmont Row
chapel waxed and then waned over the next 130 years. In 1851 it was reported
that the chapel provided sittings for 1,005, but the secession of the
Wesleyan Reformers in 1849 is said to have caused two thirds of the
congregation to leave the chapel.
