The Parish of Oswaldtwistle in the County of -- Lancashire --

Hippings Wesleyan Methodist Chapel

Wesleyan Methodism came officially to Oswaldtwistle in the 1790s with much opposition from the established Church. The early members who met in private houses were persecuted and, unless their employers were sympathetic, association with the Methodists could lead to dismissal from work. Despite the opposition their numbers grew and the Hippings Wesleyan Methodist Chapel and Sunday School was opened in 1810 in an old cotton warehouse. Many of the early baptisms and burials took place at the Union St. Chapel in Accrington.

Burials continued at Union St. until the new Chapel and burial ground at Mount Pleasant was opened in 1846. The old buildings at Hippings were now too small for the growing congregation and the new church was built at a cost of £1050 on land donated by a local factory owner. The Sunday school continued at Hippings until it too outgrew the premises and a new Sunday school was built at Mount Pleasant in 1851, followed by a day school in 1855.

Mount Pleasant was demolished in the 1980’s and a new building – Rhyddings Methodist Chapel built on the same site. The current registers still bear the name ‘Hippings’

The original burial and grave registers from Mount Pleasant are still in use and are held at Rhyddings. The early burials are noted in the grave register, but after 1883 a burial register was introduced as well. The baptism register (unfilmed) from 1837-1874 is held at the Lancashire Record Office at Preston; the register from 1874 to the present day is still at the church.

The Mount Pleasant marriage registers, which are still at the church, commence about 1906; prior to that date weddings of members have been found at Church Kirk, Immanuel, Union St. and St James’ Accrington.