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| posted on 20th February 2026

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Lincolnshire Methodists

Methodism is often associated with industrial towns, yet one of its deepest roots lies in rural Lincolnshire, where the movement was born and steadily embedded itself in village life.

The unlikely birthplace

Methodism is often imagined as a movement of industrial towns and mass revival meetings, but its story begins in a quieter landscape. In the early 18th century, the small Isle of Axholme settlement of Epworth became the unlikely cradle of a religious movement that would reshape Protestant Christianity across Britain and far beyond.

John Wesley, later the central architect of Methodism, was born at Epworth Rectory in 1703. His brother Charles, the movement’s great hymn writer, followed in 1707. Their father, Samuel Wesley, served as Anglican rector of the parish, and nothing in the household outwardly suggested that the family would help generate one of the most dynamic dissenting movements of the modern era.

Yet Lincolnshire would prove more than a birthplace. The county became one of the early testing grounds in which Methodism encountered resistance, adapted its methods, and embedded itself in local communities. To understand Methodism’s character, it is worth beginning not in London or Bristol, but in the fields and villages of northern Lincolnshire.

Epworth and the Wesley household

The Wesley home at Epworth was deeply Anglican in discipline and outlook. Samuel Wesley was a loyal Church of England clergyman, and the family’s religious life was structured, literate, and intensely serious. Susanna Wesley, John’s mother, played a particularly important role in shaping the spiritual habits that later marked Methodist practice: regular self-examination, small-group instruction, and disciplined devotional life.

There was no sudden break here. Early Methodism grew partly out of this Anglican culture rather than wholly against it. That continuity helps explain why many of the first Methodist adherents in Lincolnshire did not initially see themselves as leaving the Church of England. They were, in their own minds, renewing it.

Timeline: Methodism in Lincolnshire

1703. John Wesley is born at Epworth Rectory in the Isle of Axholme, Lincolnshire.

1730s. Following his evangelical conversion, Wesley begins itinerant preaching that develops into the Methodist movement. Lincolnshire becomes one of the counties he revisits regularly.

1742. Refused the Epworth parish pulpit, Wesley famously preaches from his father’s tombstone in the churchyard.

1740s - 1760s. Methodist societies begin appearing across Lincolnshire villages and market towns. Many members maintain dual loyalty to parish church and Methodist class meetings.

1779. Raithby Chapel is built and dedicated by Wesley, marking the movement’s growing permanent presence in the county.

Late 1700s. Methodism expands steadily through rural Lincolnshire, including repeated Wesley visits to towns such as Gainsborough.

Early 1800s. Primitive Methodism spreads strongly in Lincolnshire, particularly among agricultural labourers and poorer rural communities.

1819. Primitive Methodist work is established in Gainsborough.

1820s - 1850s. Chapel building accelerates across the county, creating one of the densest rural Methodist landscapes in England.

Mid-1800s. Figures such as John Booth Sharpley of Louth demonstrate Methodism’s growing civic influence.

Late 19th century. Methodism is firmly embedded in Lincolnshire’s religious life across both villages and towns.

The tombstone moment: Methodism meets resistance

The first clear sign of tension came in 1742, when John Wesley returned to Epworth during his itinerant ministry. By this point his evangelical preaching had begun to unsettle parts of the Anglican establishment. When he was refused permission to preach in the parish church, Wesley responded in a way that became famous.

He preached instead from his father’s tombstone in the churchyard.

The episode mattered symbolically and practically. Outdoor preaching allowed Wesley to reach far larger crowds than most parish pulpits could hold. It also marked a visible shift in authority. Religious instruction was no longer confined to consecrated interiors under clerical control; it could take place in open air, accessible to labourers, servants, and those who rarely entered formal worship.

In Lincolnshire, as elsewhere, resistance from parish clergy often accelerated Methodist growth rather than suppressing it.

Spreading through Lincolnshire villages

From the 1740s onward, Methodism spread steadily through Lincolnshire’s rural communities. The movement’s organisational structure proved particularly suited to the county’s dispersed settlement pattern. Instead of relying solely on large urban congregations, Methodists formed small societies and class meetings that could operate in cottages, farmhouses, and modest meeting rooms.

This grassroots pattern mattered. Lincolnshire Methodism was not primarily an urban import but a village-based religious culture. Many early members maintained a dual religious life, attending parish church on Sundays while participating in Methodist meetings during the week. Only gradually did Methodism harden into a clearly separate denominational identity.

By the later 18th century, the county contained a growing patchwork of Methodist groups linked by itinerant preachers moving along the same roads and market routes that structured Lincolnshire’s economic life.

Chapel building and permanent presence

The construction of permanent chapels marked a decisive shift. One of the most significant early examples was the chapel at Raithby, built in 1779 by the Methodist supporter Robert Carr Brackenbury and dedicated by Wesley himself. It stands among the earliest surviving Methodist chapels in England.

This phase transformed Methodism’s relationship with the landscape. What had begun as a mobile revival movement now left physical markers across the county. Market towns such as Gainsborough developed regular Methodist congregations, while rural chapels multiplied across the Wolds and the Isle of Axholme.

The change was gradual but unmistakable: field preaching gave way to institutional permanence.

The Primitive Methodist surge

In the early 19th century, Lincolnshire experienced another wave of Methodist expansion with the rise of Primitive Methodism. This more revivalist branch emphasised open-air preaching, camp meetings, and strong lay participation. It proved especially attractive to agricultural labourers and poorer rural communities.

The county’s social geography helped this form of Methodism take root. Lincolnshire’s scattered villages, seasonal labour patterns, and tradition of lay religious activity created fertile ground for a movement that relied less on formal structures and more on local enthusiasm.

By the mid-19th century, Primitive Methodist chapels and societies formed a dense secondary network alongside older Wesleyan congregations, embedding nonconformist religion deeply into the county’s everyday life.

Methodism and civic radicalism

Methodism in Lincolnshire did not remain purely devotional. Over time it fostered habits that spilled into civic and political life: literacy through Bible study, confidence in public speaking through lay preaching, and experience in self-organisation through class meetings.

Figures such as John Booth Sharpley of Louth illustrate this trajectory. A Methodist preacher who later became a prominent civic reformer and multiple-time mayor, Sharpley embodied the way Methodist culture could feed into Liberal politics and local government activism.

This pattern was not unique to Lincolnshire, but the county offers clear examples of how religious dissent could nurture wider reformist energy.

A landscape marked by Methodism

By the later 19th century, Lincolnshire possessed one of the densest rural Methodist landscapes in England. Wesleyan, Primitive, and other Methodist branches operated extensive chapel networks across villages and market towns. In many communities, the Methodist chapel stood alongside the parish church as a normal part of the local religious environment.

At the same time, Epworth retained its symbolic status as the birthplace of the movement. Visitors continued to arrive, drawn by the rectory and the memory of Wesley’s early life.

Why Methodism in Lincolnshire still matters

The history of Methodism in Lincolnshire reminds us that religious movements are often shaped far from the great cities where their later influence becomes most visible. What began in an Anglican rectory at Epworth spread through cottage meetings, chapel networks, and revival gatherings until it became part of the county’s social fabric.

Lincolnshire was not merely an early stop on Methodism’s journey. It was origin ground, testing ground, and long-term stronghold. The movement’s rural organisation, its tension with established authority, and its eventual civic influence can all be seen clearly in the county’s experience.

In that sense, the story of Methodism in Lincolnshire fits a familiar LRH pattern. Movements that later reshape national life often begin in places that appear, at first glance, entirely ordinary. In the quiet settlements of the Isle of Axholme and across the wide fields of the Wolds, Methodism found both its starting point and some of its most enduring foundations.

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