The Foundery (or Foundry), in Moorfields, was the first London foundry for casting brass cannon for the British Board of Ordnance. The building subsequently served as the first Wesleyan Methodist house of worship, and an important meeting place for the early Methodist community. In 1778, the Methodist congregation was moved to the nearby purpose-built Wesley's Chapel on City Road.
Matthew Bagley had the foundry built c. 1684 in Windmill Hill (now Tabernacle Street), [1] Moorfields on the north side of the City of London. It was called the King's Foundery [2] or Bagley's Foundry. [3]
Bagley was from a family of master-founders in Chacombe, Northamptonshire. By 1693 he was also running a bell-foundry in Clerkenwell, London. He is sometimes referred to as "Matthew II Bagley", to distinguish him from earlier and later bell-founders of the same name from the same family. [4]
The Foundery supplied cannons for the nearby Honourable Artillery Company. [5] It was closed in 1716 after a steam explosion, caused by dampness in a mould, which killed Bagley and 16 others. [3] [5] A new cannon foundry was opened (c. 1717) on the Board of Ordnance's Woolwich site southeast of London.
The building was later used from 1739 as the first Methodist chapel in London by John Wesley [6] (a plaque in Tabernacle Street marks the nearby location). [7] Wesley purchased the building's lease for £115, then spent a further £700–£800 on refurbishment costs, [1] [2] creating a chapel with room for 1,500 people, plus a smaller meeting room. [2] Wesley first preached in the building on 11 November 1739, and another leading Methodist Thomas Maxfield was there in 1742. This first Methodist chapel hosted the first Methodist conference in June 1744. [8]
The Foundery complex also provided a free dispensary which opened in 1746 and the Methodists appointed an apothecary and a surgeon. The following year there was a free school with two masters teaching 60 children. In 1747 the complex gained a lending society and in 1748 there was an adjacent almshouse. [2]
The Methodist Society moved to the nearby purpose-built Wesley's Chapel in 1778.
John Wesley was an English cleric, theologian, and evangelist who was a leader of a revival movement within the Church of England known as Methodism. The societies he founded became the dominant form of the independent Methodist movement that continues to this day.
Woolwich Dockyard was an English naval dockyard along the river Thames at Woolwich in north-west Kent, where many ships were built from the early 16th century until the late 19th century. William Camden called it 'the Mother Dock of all England'. By virtue of the size and quantity of vessels built there, Woolwich Dockyard is described as having been 'among the most important shipyards of seventeenth-century Europe'. During the Age of Sail, the yard continued to be used for shipbuilding and repair work more or less consistently; in the 1830s a specialist factory within the dockyard oversaw the introduction of steam power for ships of the Royal Navy. At its largest extent it filled a 56-acre site north of Woolwich Church Street, between Warspite Road and New Ferry Approach; 19th-century naval vessels were fast outgrowing the yard, however, and it eventually closed in 1869. The former dockyard area is now partly residential, partly industrial, with remnants of its historic past having been restored.
The Royal Arsenal, Woolwich is an establishment on the south bank of the River Thames in Woolwich in south-east London, England, that was used for the manufacture of armaments and ammunition, proofing, and explosives research for the British armed forces. It was originally known as the Woolwich Warren, having begun on land previously used as a domestic warren in the grounds of a mid-16th century Tudor house, Tower Place. Much of the initial history of the site is linked with that of the Office of Ordnance, which purchased the Warren in the late 17th century in order to expand an earlier base at Gun Wharf in Woolwich Dockyard.
Moorfields was an open space, partly in the City of London, lying adjacent to – and outside – its northern wall, near the eponymous Moorgate. It was known for its marshy conditions, the result of the defensive wall acting as a dam, impeding the flow of the River Walbrook and its tributaries.
Major-General John Armstrong was a British military engineer and soldier, who served as Chief Royal Engineer and Surveyor-General of the Ordnance.
Whitefield's Tabernacle, Moorfields is a former church at the corner of Tabernacle Street and Leonard Street, Moorfields, London, England. The first church on the site was a wooden building erected by followers of the evangelical preacher George Whitefield in 1741. This was replaced by a brick building in 1753. Following Whitefield's death in 1770, John Wesley preached a sermon, "On the death of the Rev. Mr George Whitefield", both here and at Whitefield's Tabernacle, Tottenham Court Road.
John William Fletcher was a Swiss-born English divine and Methodist leader. Of French Huguenot stock, he was born in Nyon in Vaud, Switzerland. Fletcher emigrated to England in 1750 and there he became an Anglican vicar. He began to work with John Wesley, becoming a key interpreter of Wesleyan theology in the 18th century and one of Methodism's first great theologians. Fletcher was renowned in Britain for his piety and generosity; when asked if he had any needs, he responded, "...I want nothing but more grace."
A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings.
The Fetter Lane Society was the first flowering of the Moravian Church in Britain, and an important precursor to Methodism. It was founded in 1738. Although the original meeting house was destroyed in the mid-20th century, the society still meets in London, and is part of the British Province of the Moravian Church.
Ashbury is a village and large civil parish at the upper end (west) of the Vale of White Horse. It was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred it to Oxfordshire. The village is centred 7 miles (11 km) east of Swindon in neighbouring Wiltshire. The parish includes the hamlets of Idstone and Kingstone Winslow. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 506.
Wesley's Chapel is a Methodist church situated in the St Luke's area in the south of the London Borough of Islington. Opened in 1778, it was built under the direction of John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement. The site is a place of worship and visitor attraction, incorporating the Museum of Methodism in its crypt and John Wesley's House next to the chapel. The chapel has been called "The Mother Church of World Methodism".
The West Street Chapel is a former chapel at 24 West Street, London WC2. It was John Wesley’s first Methodist chapel in London's West End.
John Wesley's New Room is a historic building in Broadmead, Bristol, England. Opened in June 1739, it housed the earliest Methodist societies, and was enlarged in 1748. As the oldest purpose-built Methodist preaching house (chapel), it has been designated by Historic England as a Grade I listed building.
Chacombe is a village and civil parish in West Northamptonshire, England, about 3 miles (5 km) north-east of Banbury. It is bounded to the west by the River Cherwell, to the north by a tributary and to the south-east by the Banbury–Syresham road. The 2011 Census gave a parish population of 659 and a 2019 estimate 693.
The Wesleyan Methodist Church was the majority Methodist movement in England following its split from the Church of England after the death of John Wesley and the appearance of parallel Methodist movements.
Steyning Methodist Church is a Methodist place of worship serving Steyning and surrounding villages in the Horsham district of West Sussex, England. Built for a Wesleyan Methodist congregation who had outgrown an earlier chapel nearby, the Gothic Revival building opened in 1878 and has since been extended. The flint and yellow brick church is set back from Steyning's ancient High Street and is within the village conservation area. It is one of nine churches in the Worthing Methodist Circuit.
The Masbrough Independent Chapel was an Independent or Congregationalist chapel in the Masbrough district of Rotherham, from the 18th century until the 1970s, at which point it became part of the United Reformed Church.
Thomas Maxfield was an English Wesleyan Methodist preacher. He was one of the earliest local preachers and began preaching in 1739. After a time in the army, he was ordained as a minister. Maxfield separated from John Wesley's movement in 1763 and led his own church. The two were later reconciled on a personal level, but Maxfield never rejoined the Methodists.
The American International Church, currently located at the Whitefield Memorial Church on Tottenham Court Road in London, was established to cater for American expatriates resident in London. Organised in the American denominational tradition, the church was originally named the American Church in London but changed its name in 2013 to reflect that it caters to approximately 30 different nationalities.
Andrew Schalch, born in Switzerland, was the first gun-founder at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich, London.