NONCONFORMITY.

Eleven nonconformists were enumerated at Randwick in 1676. (fn. 13) George Whitefield preached in Randwick church on two Sundays in July 1739, (fn. 14) and John Wesley preached there in 1739 and 1742. (fn. 15) A group of Whitefield's followers were meeting at Roadway Farm in 1747, (fn. 16) and William Vines, a Randwick quarryman influenced by Whitefield, became a local preacher; his house was licensed for dissenting worship in 1758. (fn. 17) In the early 19th century a Wesleyan Methodist community in the village was led by William Knee who started a Sunday school there in 1804. In 1807 a chapel was built; it was rebuilt in 1824. (fn. 18) It was said to have very full congregations in 1832, (fn. 19) and in 1851 over 100 attended the morning service and c. 200 the afternoon. (fn. 20) The chapel, a stone building on the east side of the village, remained in use as a Wesleyan chapel in 1967. A Primitive Methodist chapel was built in 1834; by 1851 when it had a congregation of c. 40 it was affiliated to the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion and was served from Ebley chapel, (fn. 21) but it continued to be known as a Primitive Methodist chapel. (fn. 22) Services were held there until 1901 when the Primitive Methodist chapel at Cashe's Green was built. (fn. 23)

In 1851 a group of c. 24 Congregationalists under the Stonehouse minister were meeting in a house at Oxlinch. (fn. 24) Houses were licensed for use by unidentified dissenting groups at Randwick in 1825, 1835, and 1843, and at Oxlinch in 1802, 1827, and 1847. (fn. 25) In the early 1960s the former Primitive Methodist chapel became the meeting-place of a group affiliated to the Pentecostal Church. (fn. 26)

Footnotes