Nonconformity
One person in Stretton was presented in 1668 for not
coming to church. (fn. 8)
There was a Methodist society at Clay Mills by 1798,
and a house there was registered for worship in 1800. A
Wesleyan society by 1836, (fn. 9) it had moved by 1849 to
Stretton, where it probably met in the chapel registered
for dissenters in 1840. (fn. 10) Nothing further is known
about the society.
When the Primitive Methodist Sampson Turner
preached in Stretton village c. 1820, he was pelted
with eggs, but there was a Primitive Methodist society
there by 1825 and another at Clay Mills by 1832. The
two societies amalgamated in 1833, but seem to have
ceased after 1838. (fn. 11)
Baptists were holding weekly meetings at Stretton by
1829. In 1837 the vicar of Holy Trinity, Burton, noted
that they had formed a large Sunday school, and he
complained that dissenters were 'exceedingly active' in
Stretton. (fn. 1) Nothing further is known about their activities.
United Free Methodists had a meeting in Stretton by
1862, and a chapel was opened in Main Street in 1873. (fn. 2)
The present Methodist chapel on the same site dates
from 1894. (fn. 3)
Footnotes
| 1 |
D.R.O., D. 2660/B 128/1, entry for 8 Dec. 1829; Lambeth
Palace Libr., I.C.B.S. file 2147, f. 11v. |
| 2 |
Burton Libr., D. 86/2/1; Staffs. Advertiser, 12 July 1873, p. 7;
O.S. Map 6", Staffs. XLI. NW. (1884 edn.). |
| 3 |
Date stone on bdg. |
| 8 |
L.R.O., B/V/1/75, Burton. |
| 9 |
Burton Libr., D. 28/A/1/1; D.R.O., D. 1093 Z/D2; S.H.C.
4th ser. iii. 3. |
| 10 |
S.H.C. 4th ser. iii. 92; J.R.U.L.M., Burton Wesleyan Meth.
Circuit Plan, Feb.-May 1849. |
| 11 |
Burton Libr., D. 28/B/1/1; J. Petty, Hist. of Primitive
Methodist Connexion (1864), 115. |