A History of the County of Stafford: Volume 9, Burton-Upon-Trent. Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 2003.
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'Stretton: Nonconformity', in A History of the County of Stafford: Volume 9, Burton-Upon-Trent, (London, 2003) pp. 195-196. British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/staffs/vol9/pp195-196 [accessed 20 April 2024]
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)