Winstone: Nonconformity

NONCONFORMITY.

Mr. Ross, the preacher who was teaching without licence at Winstone in 1602, (fn. 1) was perhaps a nonconformist, but no further evidence of nonconformity has been found until 1816 when Henry Hawkins of Eastcombe registered a barn in the parish for use by the Baptists, (fn. 2) who soon after built a chapel on the south side of the village street. (fn. 3) In 1851 the chapel had a congregation of 27 for morning service and 50 in the afternoon. There was a Sunday school attached. (fn. 4) The chapel continued in use in 1971 when the congregation numbered 10. (fn. 5) There was a resident Baptist minister in the parish in the early 20th century, (fn. 6) when a Wesleyan minister was also recorded (fn. 7) although no conclusive evidence of any Methodist meeting in the parish has been found. (fn. 8) By 1885 the Plymouth Brethren had established a meeting (fn. 9) which flourished until the early 1960s. The meeting was led by Raymond Barrett, the village blacksmith, in its early years and possibly met in the meeting-room adjoining a cottage on Ermin Street. Later it met in a corrugated iron hut on Ermin Street just south of Beech Pike; (fn. 10) the hut was derelict in 1971.