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Services are held on alternate
Sundays at 10:30am in Pitton or
Horton.
The ministers and preachers in the circuit conduct
the services on a rota basis. Click here
to see the current plan. |
Our connection
with Aldridge Youth Fellowship
Each year on the last Sunday in July we are joined for worship and
fellowship by an exceptional group from Aldridge, near Birmingham.
They have been joining us for over 30 years. The young members of
this group take part in the service and usually provide the music.
We may be from different denominations, but we are all one in Christ.
Read more about AYF here.
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| METHODISM AT PITTON (written
in 1987 by the members of Pitton Chapel) |
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| The
event being celebrated today, in the presence of the Vice President
of the Methodist Conference, is the one hundredth anniversary of
the opening of the present chapel building in 1887. It is clear,
however, that the history of the Methodist cause in this parish
of Rhossili
is far older. It extends back into the age of the great itinerant
revivalists of the eighteenth century - to the days of Howell Harris,
the Welsh Calvinistic Methodist leader and of John Wesley, the father
of Wesleyan Methodism. Its roots lie in an even-earlier Puritan
tradition of Protestant Dissent first introduced into Gower in the
1650s.
One of the minor local consequences
of the Parliamentary victory in the Civil Wars was the displacement
in 1650 of the Anglican rector of Rhossili by Daniel Higgs, a popular
Independent (or Congregationalist), preacher from Worcestershire.
Although he held the living only until 1661 (when he was replaced
by his predecessor), Daniel Higgs' short ministry had a profound
influence on the spiritual life of the parish. For the next three
centuries, Nonconformity in varying forms remained strongly entrenched
at all levels and in most aspects of village life. |
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From these beginnings at a time of
persecution, the first dissenters of Rhossili led a determinedly independent
existence. Except for occasional preaching visits from their former
pastor, they were without the guidance of a regular minister. Between
1662 and 1666 five of their number John Thomas, William Richard, David
Griffiths, Richard Brooke (? Bevan) and David Gamon were fined for
non- payment of church rates. Two years later, the same John Thomas,
together with John Taylor, William Beynon and Rees Pugh, was again
fined for not attending the parish church. |
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These intermittent
persecutions were eased after April 1672 when the house of Richard
Bevan in Rhossili was offically licenced as an Independent meeting
house. By 1676 the Rhossili Independent congregation numbered 45
(about one third
of the parish population) and, with its own recognized meeting place,
was the largest group of dissenters in Gower.
For the next seventy years, there
survives little historical evidence as to the fortunes of this remote
congregation. It must still have been sufficiently large in the
1740s to attract the attention of Howell Harris, the great preacher
of the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists, who penitrated as far as Rhossili
in May 1742. 'I have been' he wrote, 'to the Lands End in Gower'
but stayed only one day. It was probably with such visits
in mind that the parish curate reported in 1755 that 'we have a
meeting house but no constant teacher, only some itinerants famous
for noise'. When, therefore, the first Methodist preachers came
to Gower some ten years later, there was already in Rhossili a strong
nonconformist tradition and probably the remnants of an active congregation,
but one without ministerial leadership and organization. |
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John Wesley is known to have visited
Gower at least four times between 1762 and 1773. In his 1764 diary,
he described the Gower people as 'the most plain loving people in
Wales', adding in unconscious tribute to their past nonconformist
witness 'It is therefore no wonder that they receive the Word with
all readiness of heart'. Although there are no confirmatory entries
in his diaries for these years, it can be assumed that during one
or more of his visits, Wesley did preach at Pitton—most probably
at Great Pitton Farm. . The earliest documentary record of a methodist
society in the parish dates from 1797 when it is described as being
'in Middleton', but this reference probably post dates the actual
foundation of the society by some thirty years. |
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The connection with Great Pitton
was renewed in 1833 when the first purpose-built chapel was erected
in Lower Pitton on land leased from Mary Beynon of Great Pitton
Farm. This development reflects the growing population and prosperity
of the village (based largely on the limestone quarrying trade),
and a remarkably high rate of church and chapel attendance. In both
the census years of 1831 and 1851, Rhossili was amongst the few
parishes in Glamorgan with a church attendance rate of above ten
per cent of its population, while the chapel congregation was estimated
at an even higher figure. From 1848, the chapel was also used for
two hours every week for Sunday School which, within two years,
had an average attendance of sixty-five scholars. These were mostly
under fifteen and were all reported to be able to read the Scriptures.
After 1870, the village population fell steadily as many moved to
Swansea or emigrated overseas. The Pitton membership roll fell from
54 in 1877 to 40 in 1887 and the Gower Circuit membership from 176
to 132 over the same period. It is now difficult, after one hundred
years, to fathom the reasons behind the erection of the present
building in 1887, clearly a time of decreasing membership. They
may perhaps lie in the strong feelings of common identity and strength
felt unconsciously by the Pitton Methodists of the 1880s, a time
of considerable sectarian bitterness in the village. No longer content
with a humble barn-like structure obscurely nestling in Pitton Valley,
the congregation (still the largest Methodist society in Gower),
decided to put up with much effort and expense, a highly visible
building of considerable architectural grace set squarely at the
side of the main road into the village. Why else should they have
chosen a site so exposed to the ever prevailing winds that it had,
until then, been used as a place for winnowing corn; or one which,
though, equidistant between the twin hamlets of Middleton and Pitton,
was equally inconvenient for both?
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For whatever reason, in August 1886,
twelve trustees for the society (Thomas Davies, John Tucker, George
Beynon and William Powell all of Pitton, Morgan Beynon, William Jones
and George Beynon of Middleton, John Rogers and William Thomas of
Rhossili and George Beynon of Pitton Cross, all farmers, together
with William Richards of Rhossili builder and George Richards of Middleton
grocer), took a 999-year lease from the Penrice Estate of a plot of
land already staked out in the north-east corner of a field tenanted
by William Jones called 'By-east-the-town' (locally 'Bestatown').
On this site they had permission to build a Wesleyan chapel and were
obliged to pay an annual rent of 10 shillings. This payment ceased
when the chapel freehold was purchased in 1961. |
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The actual building work was carried
through quickly and successfully in less than a year. The stone
was quarried locally and auled to the site by the Pitton members
with the help of fellow Gower Methodists. No professional architect
seems to have been employed and both the design and building fabric
were probably the work of two local masons, William Richards of
Rhossili and Frank Tucker of Horton.
The carpenter, Francis Gibbs of Horton, also made the pulpit and
pews. The new chapel, which contained a stable for the preacher's
horse, was valued at £500. It was opened without debt or any
grant from central Methodist funds. This was undoubtedly a triumph
of ambition, enterprise and devotion for what was still an isolated,
peasant community. Three years later, the medieval village church
was restored, largely at the expense of Miss Talbot of Penrice Castle.
The 1833 chapel building remained
in use as a school-room until the early years of the present century
and later as a granary. It has now been converted into a private
dwelling, appropriately named 'The Old Chapel', and is occupied
by a descendant and name-sake of the original lessor. |
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From its opening, the new chapel building
attracted considerable attention from outside the village. The idea
of building a new chapel at Murton originated at a Sunday School outing
to Rhossili in the early 90s, when Pitton was much admired. Twenty
years later in evidence to a Royal Commission, Pitton was described
as being 'a little bit superior', in contrast to other Methodist Chapels
in Gower which were dismissed as 'very simple common buildings . .
. built in the same dog kennel fashion'. |
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| Since then and throughout
its first century, Pitton Chapel has been cherished by its members
with love and care. Over the years, there have been decorations
and redecorations, latterly and most colour- fully with the help
of the Manpower Services Board. Roof slates are still replaced as
regularly as they are dislodged by Atlantic gales. In 1929 oil lamps
gave way to acetylene lighting which in turn was replaced by electricity
ten years later, much to the annoyance of younger members of the
congregation who rather enjoyed its frequent breakdowns. Heat, once
generously dispensed by a large black tortoise stove in the centre
of the chapel, now rises,
sometimes rather slowly, from neat under-seat piping. The
congregation alas, appears to be getting older and seems much smaller.
The ministers, until recently, are getting younger. The yearly round
of social events which once revolved around the chapel is now but
a memory, though older members still nostalgically recall its heady
pleasures. Beginning with the children's Christmas Party, with the
tree from the Castle and presents for everyone, there followed in
unchanging succession the May Tea (and new summer clothes), the
Sunday School Outing to Tenby, Barry or sometimes as far as Cheddar
Gorge, then the aromatic delights of Harvest Festival, until finally
it was Christmas once again and time to go carol singing round the
village for the National Children's Home.
Our harvests continue to be celebrated
at Pitton with joy and thankfulness. Carol singing remains ever
popular though now more of a village effort shared and enjoyed by
Church and Chapel together. These ecumenical activities are now
a very pleasing feature of village life, as are our occasional united
services. May this be the pattern for the next century of Methodism
at Pitton.
Pitton Chapel Members 1987 |
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| List of Ministers |
| 1866 R.E. Bray
1869 Seth Dixon
1870 R.H. Mole
1873 J.G. Cocks
1876 E. Biscombe
1877 J.D. Clark
1879 W.P. Ellis
1882 D.A. Hay
1885 T.F. Brynant
1888 Alfred Kirk
1891 W.T.Pullen
1894 C.A. Booth
1897 Cornelius Wood
1900 Joshua Fielden
1903 A.T. Humphreys
1905 W. Pallister
1907 Arthur Roberts
1908 B.W. MacAdo
1911 C.A. Harris
1914 Jesse Moore
1918 H.B. Turner
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1921 F.B. Hankinson
1924 Arnold Crawshaw
1926 R.H. Colwell
1927 E. Bowen
1930 R.C. Hutchinson
1933 Allan Millar
1935 Cyrus Burge
1938 Harry Arnett
1941 Francis Coles
1944 F.B. Hankinson
1948 H.A. Bishop
1955 R.B. Hems
1957 J.R. Lusty
1959 G.R. O'Neill
1962 K. Collins
1965 R. Lindfoot
1966 R. Marsland
1971 R. Hargraves
1974 G.A. Courtney
1980 P. Dolling
1985 H. Goodman |
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