Religious persecution

Dissenters were persecuted by society in a number of ways. Sometimes when a dissenting congregation expressed their wish to build a meeting house the vicar and his congregation threatened local builders and carpenters with loss of trade if they took any part in its construction. Often in small communities dissenters would be threatened with a loss of work and wages to try and prevent them from worshipping outside of the Church of England. Some dissenters were even taken to court for practising their religious beliefs. In Hereford the Primitive Methodists suffered much persecution in 1834; the superintendent of the Hereford circuit, Mr. Morton, was thrown into jail for preaching in the open air (From Prison to Pulpit: The Life Story of the Late Rev. John Maylard).

We also have examples of property being confiscated from Non-conformists because of their religion. In July 1670 Nicholas Day of Eardisland had eight oxen, worth £32 1s, taken for holding a Quaker meeting in his house.

Despite the opposition and persecution Non-conformists still carried on worshipping in their own chapels. These chapels differed greatly from the parish churches of the Anglican faith. They were of a much more simple design, usually rectangular in plan, with none of the ornate sculpture and mouldings found on Anglican churches. The idea was that the emphasis should be on the lessons being preached and not the luxury of the architecture.

These chapels were often small but had no system of seating based on class and all were welcome. This is most likely why chapels found favour with the middle and lower classes as they no longer felt like second class citizens, especially in Hereford where most of the population was involved in the rural economy and much of the land was owned by large landowners.

Non-conformists had to obtain licenses from the Bishop of their Diocese to build meeting houses or to turn current dwelling houses into assembly houses.

At first preachers would be sent out from other chapels to surrounding areas to preach in the open air or in barns or private houses. Once a congregation had been established a small chapel would be built. The chapels of the Non-conformists were at first designed to blend in with their surroundings, to look like simple houses or outbuildings. This was to protect worshippers from persecution for practising their faith.

Hereford has been described by several different religious leaders as one of the most difficult circuits in the county. It was thinly populated and as the Rev. Dixon wrote in 1813:

"The ignorance and bigotry of the people is amazing beyond anything you could imagine."

One reason for the "ignorance" of the people of the county may have been that Hereford did not naturally fall in the line of many of the countrywide circuits travelled by Non-conformist leaders in order that they might spread the Word. It was not until 1807 that the Wesleyan Methodist Circuit was formed and in that year only one chapel was built in the county, at Weston-under-Penyard.

[Original author: Miranda Greene, 2003]