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 ^0, 
 THOUGHTS AND SUGGESTIONS 
 
 MISSION-CHAPELS, ROOMS, 
 
 ETC. 
 
 BY THE 
 
 EEV. J. BRAME, M.A. 
 
 ORGANIZING SECBKTARY OF THE AJJUITIONAL CURATKS' SOCIETY. 
 
 LONDON" : 
 WILLIAM SKEFFENGTON, 163, PICCADILLY. 
 
 1868. 
 
 Price N'wepmce.
 
 From many conversations I have had with brother clergymen respecting 
 Home Mission work, I thought it might be nseful to some, who are com- 
 paratively strangers to the question, if I put together these few pages on one 
 branch of that wide subject. I shall be thankful to any one who will give 
 me further hints or suggestions. 
 
 Especially shall I be obliged for more examples of Mission Eooms and 
 Chapels, and for information as to their Cost and Worliing Expenses, which 
 may make the pamphlet more complete in case it reach a second edition. 
 
 J. Brame, Warrington.
 
 THOUGHTS AND SUGGESTIONS 
 
 ON 
 
 MISSION-CHAPELS, EOOMS, 
 
 ETC. 
 
 There are three classes of population for the spiritual 
 care of which our present parochial system is painfully 
 inadequate. By the '' Parochial System," I mean a 
 Church with its assigned district, its regular and frequent 
 services, its Incumbent assisted in the services of his 
 church by one or more Curates. 
 
 First : There are the masses crowded together in the 
 older streets of our large towns, families living generally 
 in single rooms or pairs of rooms ; a population steeped 
 for the most part in vice, ignorance, and penury. Such 
 people would find themselves strangely out of place in 
 our existing town churches, even if room for them could 
 be found. 
 
 Secondly : There are the populations suddenly gathered 
 together round some new centre of industry, who have 
 taken the Church by surprise, whose unforeseen arrival 
 has preceded that of the public means of Grace and 
 ordinances of Eeligion, who are too poor or too indifferent 
 to undergo much self-denial in providing means of 
 worship for themselves. In these places the capital is 
 not yet realized ; that in use is often borrowed, invested 
 in a speculation, in the hands of individuals whose 
 interest in the place is precarious and transitory, or 
 represented by a Limited Liability Company, whose 
 managers have not the power to assist ecclesiastical work 
 collectively, often not the will to do it individually. 
 
 A 2
 
 The "Capital," therefore, cannot be calcuhited on as 
 available to any extent, at least for some years, as a source 
 of aid for church building, or maintaining ministers of 
 religion. These ends must consequently be compassed by 
 some means which shall bring them within the reach of 
 the liberality of the " Labour," as this labour is gradually 
 Christianized. 
 
 Thirdly : There are the outlying hamlets of rural 
 parishes, where populations of some hundreds are gathered 
 together at a distance from the parish church, and which 
 now engage the attention and solicitude of the Incumbent, 
 in consequence of the enlarged views of pastoral respon- 
 sibility which are happily increasing on all sides of us. 
 
 In the first of these cases, the impossibility of finding 
 sites is an insuperable obstacle in the way of church 
 building, even if such a step were advisable. Though 
 this population has been for some time a fixed one, the 
 progressive iedile improvements of our towns render it 
 now in many cases a shifting one. It is therefore a more 
 imperative duty of the Church to catch it, now she 
 can, before it is, dispersed. The ground is covered 
 with buildings, and the wisest thing to be done is to 
 occupy and adapt temporarily some existing building. 
 These buildings must be fitted to the special needs of the 
 population for whom they are intended. Abject poverty 
 and want of clothing in some cases, the shame of con- 
 scious crime in others, the natural shyness of the very 
 poor, and many other causes, create a difficulty in drawing 
 such a population out of its own court or alley ; the 
 crowding of the many in one room destroys all chance of 
 private meditation, reading, or prayer, and without these 
 spiritual exercises the impressions produced by preaching 
 must soon be effaced. The first step to be taken with 
 such people is to provide them with what we call, for 
 want of a better name, " Chapel-rooms," to be used for 
 private prayer, reading, meditation, religious services, 
 and classes. The Chapel-rooms should be so numerous, 
 that they could be easily accessible without attendance 
 attracting notice, and without any long absence from 
 home being required ; they should be available for use 
 
 u»uc 
 
 ^'"'J-
 
 5 
 
 all hours of the day. A single court or alley will often 
 contain some hundred of souls, as many as would have 
 been a large charge for one clergyman at the time of the 
 Eeformation ; if each such court or alley had its own 
 Chapel-room, and two or three were under the care of 
 one curate, it might be anticipated that a much deeper 
 eifect would be produced than by merely pastoral visits 
 and invitations to distant and uncongenial places of 
 worship. 
 
 In the second of the cases mentioned above, time is of 
 the utmost importance ; an immigrant population might 
 find in Church services a solace for that feeling of isola- 
 tion which meets them in their new home, many would 
 realize in them a link between their new place of re- 
 sidence and their former dwelling-place ; while the delay 
 which must arise from waiting till funds can be collected 
 and all the preliminaries of forming districts be settled, 
 will make the non-attendance at church, which was at 
 first the accident of a position, the inveterate habit of a 
 life. Sites — at least temporary ones — can be readily found 
 in such places, and an iron church, or some cheap and 
 slight building intended for only a few years' use, until 
 the ecclesiastical arrangements of the new town are 
 settled, seems the most ready way of retaining to the 
 Church those who have come to the new place with some 
 religious habits, and to impart such habits to those who 
 have not acquired them. 
 
 In the third case, besides the cost of erecting a sub- 
 stantial church, there is the difficulty of providing for its 
 permanent services. If it is to be consecrated, and a 
 separate incumbency formed, where is the endowment ? 
 If the carrying on the services in the hamlet chapel be 
 rendered legally obligatory on the Incumbent of the 
 parish church, how is he to perform the task '? In these 
 cases, either a small chapel of good ecclesiastical cha- 
 racter, but of economical construction, licensed, not con- 
 secrated, is needed, so that the services may not be an 
 immoveable charge on the parish church ; or else some 
 one building is required which shall serve the purpose of 
 school and church.
 
 G 
 
 There are a great variety of Mission-rooms : in some 
 cases, two or more rooms in an old house thrown into 
 one; in others, two or three cottages with the party- 
 walls removed ; in others, buildings used as schoolrooms 
 as well as churches ; in others, chapels built slightly, 
 intended to last only for a time ; but in every case the 
 requisites are, small outlay at first, moderate working 
 expenses, and such an internal arrangement as shall foster 
 reverence, assert fully the Church's worship, and clearly 
 mark the distinction between the secular and the religious 
 use of the room where it is employed for both. The 
 abacus, the map, the zoological picture, the mechanical 
 model, must not be there to distract the attention of the 
 youth in his Sunday worship, nor to carry the thoughts 
 of the child back from the Good Shepherd, the Lover of 
 the lambs, to the threat, the trouble, and the plague of 
 the six days' restraint ; neither should the furniture be- 
 longing to holy things be confounded in his mind with 
 the schoolmaster's desk which contains the cane, with 
 the schoolmaster's rostrum which echoes the threat. The 
 adult should also feel that it is not a school to which he 
 is going for instruction, so much as a house of prayer to 
 which he is going for worship. A little care as to arrange- 
 ment, and a little taste in the use of simple ecclesiastical 
 devices, may give to even an ordinary room a church-like 
 appearance ; and where there is so much lost time to be 
 made up, as is the case in all our Home Mission work, 
 the more we can teach through the eye as well as the ear 
 the better. We have to gain the citadel of the heart ; 
 the more approaches we can occupy, the more irresistible 
 our attack. 
 
 Such chapels or rooms have these special advan- 
 tages : — 
 
 They can be made more warm and comfortable than a 
 cl lurch. Many of those for whom they are intended are 
 thinly clad — much more thinly than we generally sup- 
 pose ; the respectable Sunday garment often covers very 
 spare under-clothing, and those who inhabit crowded 
 rooms, and are employed in warm workshops, are far 
 more tender to a lower temperature than those who
 
 7^ 
 
 breathe purer air and are subjected to daily vicissitudes 
 of climate. We often speak of the poor as hardy ; they 
 are not so, they are more susceptible to chill than other 
 ranks. 
 
 The congregation is more compact ; hence the service 
 is more cheerful and fervid : the fervour in worship will 
 be much greater among sixty or seventy people, pretty 
 close together, than among the same number scattered 
 over a large building. Man's mind is expanded to realize 
 the presence of God by first realizing the presence of the 
 brotherhood : love to man grows by the feeling of asso- 
 ciation with man in worship, and love to God supervenes 
 on this. It is, therefore, of the highest importance that 
 the congregational sympathy be stirred up in the heart ; 
 and the compact congregation of the lesser building is 
 a more powerful instrument for this than the more sparse 
 assembly in the large one. 
 
 One of the causes to which the great success of " Penny 
 Readings " is attributed is, " that there is no parade of 
 special or pecuniary patronage of the working class con- 
 nected with them, no reserved seats, no graduated scale 
 of payment." It might be worth while for the Church to 
 adapt herself to this feeling among the upper portion of 
 the working class, and try whether she can thus solve 
 the difficult problem of the day, " How shall the working 
 classes be brought to church ? '' Mission-rooms would 
 supply a class of places of worship where there would be 
 perfect equality, and all the congregation of one rank. 
 
 The services in such buildings can be more elastic than 
 in churches. Without for one moment even suggesting 
 a doubt respecting the excellence of our Book of Common 
 Prayer as a manual for the public worship of a congrega- 
 tion understanding it, it is quite loyal t) criticise its 
 arrangement when we are considering its use for mis- 
 sionary purposes, for which it was never intended. Ser- 
 vices in Mission-rooms should consist of such portions of 
 the Prayer-book as would educate the people in Church 
 worship ; a foundation of good Christian hymns would 
 supply the key to the inspired poems of David and the 
 Jewish saints, and thus prepare the mind for the edifying
 
 8 
 
 use of the Psalter ; while short lections from the Bible, 
 especially the more simple and striking portions of the 
 history, in the Old Testament, the life of our Blessed 
 Lord and the Miracles and Parables in the New, would 
 feed with food convenient for them those who are prac- 
 tically in the class of catechumens rather than of hearers, 
 and thus enlarge their capacity for that copious supply of 
 the Word of God which is the Church's boasted provision 
 for her children. 
 
 It is of great importance to make those who are being 
 recovered to attendance at religious ordinances feel at 
 once the difference between the service of the Conventicle 
 and the worship of the Church : this is done by training 
 them to take their part in responding, in contradistinction 
 to the impromptu spasmodic ejaculations in use in some 
 Nonconformist congregations. The Church requires the 
 people to take their share in the service : Dissent permits 
 them to signify their assent to the prayers of the preacher 
 by private ejaculations. 
 
 What better short services for teaching people to 
 respond, and for keeping the attention alive, than, for 
 example, — 
 
 The versicles, responses, and prayers at the close of 
 the Commination Office, with some Collects attached ; 
 
 The Ten Commandments, with the Kyrie eleison ; 
 
 The portion of Morning or Evening Prayer comprising 
 the Lord's Prayer, the versicles, Gloria, versicles and 
 responses. Magnificat, short Lesson, Creed, Domiims vo- 
 hiscum, &c.. Lord's Prayer, and three first Collects ; 
 
 The Litany by itself? 
 
 Of course the services should be printed on separate 
 cards or books ; and the responses should not be in 
 italics, but in a bolder type than the minister's part. 
 
 But whatever form of short services be adopted for 
 common prayer, in all cases, where practicable, the pre- 
 cedent of the first Mission-room should be followed, and 
 a weekly celebration of the Holy Communion open the 
 day ; so that the idea of this rite as the special Christian 
 worship be from the very first engrafted in the minds of 
 the people. If those Avho are associated in the Mission
 
 9 
 
 work — clergy, school-teachers, singers, and lay-helpers— 
 went forth from an early Communion to their labours, 
 they would undertake their tasks with minds more 
 solemnized, souls more refreshed and encouraged, and 
 a faith more elevated, than if they regarded their labours 
 only as ordinary duties. 
 
 Some of the services in the Mission-room can be of 
 such a character that they may be conducted by a layman. 
 The time is come when lay agency, properly regulated 
 and made duly responsible, must be more generally em- 
 ployed. It is well to repeat to those of our own time the 
 words of Hooker : " Belief in all sorts doth come by the 
 hearkening and attending to the Word of Life. Which 
 Word sometime proposeth and preacheth itself to the 
 hearer ; sometime they deliver it whom privately zeal and 
 piety moveth to be instructors of others by conference ; 
 sometime of them it is taught whom the Church hath 
 called to the public either reading thereof or interpreting. 
 All these tend unto one effect ; neither doth that which 
 St. Paul or other Apostles teach, concerning the necessity 
 of such teaching as theirs was, or of sending such as they 
 were for that purpose unto the Gentiles, prejudice the 
 efficacy of any other way of public instruction, or enforce 
 the utter disability of any other men s vocation thought 
 requisite in this Church for the saving of souls, where 
 means more effectual are wanting." 
 
 The comparatively small expense of fitting up these 
 places of worship gives scope for the individual gifts of 
 the people, and this excites an interest in them, and 
 attaches them to their little house of prayer. The gor- 
 geous church built, furnished, and adorned by some 
 munificent Churchman has nothing of the same interest 
 to the working man as the Mission-chapel, where the 
 lectern, the prayer-desk^ and the other furniture, has 
 been raised by the small contributions of himself and his 
 friends ; where the cushion, the pede-cloth, or the alms- 
 bag is the first essay at ecclesiastical embroidery by the 
 factory-girl, whose needle is too inexperienced to decorate 
 the more elaborate temple ; where many little gifts of 
 poor individuals attract, not only the humble giver, but
 
 10 
 
 liis friends, and are the subject of many a conversation 
 and mutual congratulation, whicli increase their interest 
 in the church. We all know how important it is, not 
 only to attract, but to attach the people to the Church ; 
 the order of attachment is, first to the person, next to the 
 place, then to the system. Let the people feel that their 
 church is their own, and they will soon love it most 
 strongly. 
 
 One-half of the income of the country is in the form 
 of weekly wages : if the Church is to give to this portion 
 of our substance the opportunity of iDcing used to the 
 honour of God, she must permit to weekly incomes weekly 
 opportunities of such a devotion. The weekly offertory 
 is the necessity not only of the Church's present position, 
 but of the present distribution of our national wealth. 
 The congregations gathered together in Mission-chapels 
 are more easily trained to the use of the weekly offer- 
 tory; each member feels the importance of his own gifts, 
 acknowledges the injustice of depending upon his fellow- 
 worshippers, if they be his equals, for the maintenance 
 of his worship. All being nearly on a level, the poor 
 man is not ashamed of his small offering, nor can he 
 throw the responsibility of the expenses on the richer 
 portion of the congregation. 
 
 A very important point to be considered with regard 
 to new towns is this ; — the best situation for a permanent 
 church is not always that in which there is apparently 
 the OTeatest need for it. In a choice between two or 
 
 o 
 
 more districts, sites, or times of building, the predis- 
 position of the people must be considered as well as their 
 spiritual needs ; the Mission- chapel or room tests this, 
 and the order in time and preference of district, where 
 several new churches are projected, can be determined by 
 the relative success of Mission-work. In many of our 
 towns which have of late rapidly increased, much that has 
 been done in building new churches and forming districts 
 is already found not to have been done to the best advan- 
 tage. Population has increased with unexpected rapidity 
 in one quarter, or unforeseen circumstances changed the 
 features of another, so that the ecclesiastical map requires 
 to be reorganized.
 
 11 
 
 But the objection is sometimes raised, Why expend 
 on Mission-chapels capital which would go far towards 
 providing a permanent church ? Of course, in many- 
 cases, the objection is answered by the circumstance, that 
 no permanent church is practicable or meditated. But 
 even if a permanent church is expected to follow in the 
 course of three or four years, it is a wise economy to 
 raise the Mission-chapel as its pioneer. Capital may be 
 wasted, often is wasted, by building a church too soon. 
 A church is built too soon if the nucleus of the congrega- 
 tion is not ready to hand, and a congregation has to be 
 attracted from all parts by some novelty or peculiarity 
 in the service ; it is built too soon if the expenses of its 
 services have to fall on the promoters, the clergyman, or 
 some one or two individuals ; it is built too soon if the 
 efficiency of the services be cramped from want of 
 funds. 
 
 We will suppose that a temporary Mission-chapel costs 
 400^. exclusive of the outlay on such fittings as may be 
 used in the church when built ; we will further suppose 
 that the permanent church could have been built in three 
 years, and that the setting up the Mission-chapel first 
 postpones its erection two more years : five years^ work 
 in a Mission-chapel ought to have produced a congrega- 
 tion well consolidated, contributing largely in the offer- 
 tory, with a goodly band of communicants. Which is 
 better, to sink AOOl. capital for these results, and to 
 have a complete parochial machinery, with everything in 
 the way of congregation, communions, music, style of 
 service, thoroughly organized and settled by the time 
 the new church is ready ; or, for the sake of saving two 
 years in time, and 400Z. in money, have, when the new 
 church is opened, to be guided by circumstances, or to 
 feel the way to that which otherwise had been ready to 
 hand ? If the sinking of 400 Z. capital will produce an 
 annual income of 50l. it is well laid out ; moreover, the 
 original building is not lost ; it may be sold, and part of 
 its cost recovered ; it may be converted into a school- 
 room, or Church Institute room, or put to various uses, 
 by which it may help on Church work in the new parish.
 
 12 
 
 Even when the church is built, the Mission-chapel may 
 continue to be used as a feeder to the church : such 
 feeders are needed in connexion with each church in our 
 large towns, an inclined plane to bring the people from 
 the depths of non- worshipping to the level of the Church; 
 the want of such feeders is one cause of the comparative 
 emptiness of our churches in the large towns. 
 
 Some discretion is required to adjust the Mission 
 system to the Parochial. In some cases the former may 
 for a while slightly disarrange the latter, though only to 
 strengthen it eventually. The difficulty shapes itself 
 into the question, What shall be the relations between 
 the missionary Curate and the Incumbent ; between the 
 Mission-chapel and the Parish Church ? 
 
 The Incumbent, on his part, desires that the Mission- 
 chapel shall not be a rival to the mother-church ; that it 
 vshall be the centre of an entirely new congregation 
 gathered from the surrounding non-worshippers, not one 
 formed of present church attendants who may prefer the 
 peculiar services of the Mission. 
 
 The Curate, on his part, requires that as he has the 
 responsibility of the work, and the self-denial and hard 
 task of forming a church ah initio, at some personal 
 risk and expense, he shall be allowed a wide discretion 
 of compassing his ends by the means he most fully 
 understands and appreciates. 
 
 It may happen that a Mission is numbed by following 
 too closely in the beaten track of the mother-church ; on 
 the other hand, it may be rendered abortive by gathering 
 around it the discontented or enthusiastic, who may turn 
 it from its true purpose into a means of wider liberty for 
 their own views. These difficulties are to be avoided, 
 rather by a distinct understanding at the commencement 
 between all parties interested, by special arrangements, 
 mutual confidence, and local precautions, than by any 
 general rule. It seems most advisable that, at any rate 
 during the early life of a Mission, the Incumbent and 
 the Curate in charge of the Mission should frequently 
 exchange duties. A prudent Incumbent will not en- 
 trust any portion of his parish to the uncontrolled charo^e
 
 13 
 
 of a deputy, until he is convinced that he is not only 
 qualified for Mission-work, but for that especial Mission- 
 work. 
 
 The Curate, at the same time, who has the task of 
 forming a new congregation, and pioneering the way to 
 a new district, is not very likely to engage heartily in 
 the work, unless he has some assurance that it shall 
 eventually become permanent and independent, and that 
 he shall enjoy the fruit of his arduous labours. The 
 Curate may at first require surveillance, and the Mission 
 need help ; the delicate question, When shall the Curate 
 become independent 1 may perhaps depend upon another 
 question. When shall the Mission become self-supporting ? 
 
 If the too early independence of Missions is an evil, 
 the frequent change of missionary curates is a greater 
 one. We seem to require a rather different arrangement, 
 with regard to missionary curates, than that which is the 
 practice with regard to assistant curates ordinarily. In 
 the case of the latter, it may be wise that the connexion 
 be severed, when Incumbent and Curate cease to work 
 harmoniously together ; but in the case of the Mission 
 Curate, the congregation at the Mission has to be taken 
 into account. The whole question of the status of 
 stipendiary curates must soon receive consideration at 
 the hands of the rulers of the Church, and must be placed 
 on a more satisfactory basis than it is at present, if men 
 of independent minds and high self-respect are to be 
 attracted to the ministry of the Church in the number 
 required ; then doubtless some remedy may be found for 
 a difficulty which has so often marred the work of 
 promising Missions. 
 
 In dioceses where many Missions are needed, there 
 seems to be room for a new ecclesiastical official, a 
 Mission Chaplain to the Bishop, or a Mission Arch- 
 deacon ; some one with experience of Mission-work, who 
 could inspect the various stations, suggest plans for their 
 harmonious working, advise the Bishop as to the forma- 
 tion of new ones, assist in judging of the expediency of 
 conceding more independence, aid in the selection of 
 fitting curates. Unless we have either more Bishops, or
 
 14 
 
 some responsible officer of this description, our present 
 languid system of working among the masses may con- 
 tinue for years, and increasing population bring increasing 
 religious indifference ; the parish church will remain 
 monopolized by the minority, while the majority of the 
 people remain careless towards a Church which seems to 
 show no care for them. Why should not a canonry be 
 set apart for an inspector, supervisor, and director of 
 Missions in each of our populous dioceses ? 
 
 We cannot shut our eyes to the difficulty of finding 
 men with the proper requirements for Mission-work ; 
 men of common sense, large sympathies, }>atience, phy- 
 sical endurance, winning manners, and ready tact. It is 
 the gentleman who will be the successful missionary 
 among the working classes. Missionary curates must 
 have ability in preaching, and be willing to put sound 
 sense in simple words ; must be men of action as well 
 as of prayer ; must know not only how to work them- 
 selves, but how to set others to work. Such men can be 
 found even now in no small numbers among the younger 
 clergy, whom our Universities have sent forth ; such 
 men the bishops of our populous dioceses can allure by 
 offering them a large-minded s}'mpathy, a fatherly con- 
 sideration and forbearance, by taking interest in their 
 work, by encouraging them by preferment. The curate 
 who breaks up new ground, and forms a new parish, has 
 claims on the preferments of the Church which no one 
 can have who has performed no services except those of 
 routine. If missionary curates can be ensured greater 
 protection and consideration, a more liberal stipend, and 
 a clearer prospect of preferment when the hard work of 
 the mission is over, there would Ije a fairer chance of a 
 supply of fitting men. The Church of England has a 
 great advantage in this respect from the enormous pro- 
 portion of ecclesiastical patronage entrusted to public 
 officials, of course for the reward of professional merit. 
 As public opinion causes the responsibility attached to 
 such patronage to be more fully recognised, rewards may 
 be found in it for those who have given the best years of 
 their lives to the Church's hardest work.
 
 15 
 
 The Church of England is in a missionar}^ position 
 with regard to three-fifths of the population of the towns : 
 she must acknowledge this position, and adapt herself to 
 it ; she must first occupy the vacant ground, and then 
 consolidate her possessions. In achieving the former of 
 these objects, she must of necessity employ such a 
 machinery as appears to be novel, fortuitous, and transi- 
 tory ; but this in no way supposes any al)andonment of 
 the territorial idea ; the question for us is not, AVhat shall 
 we substitute for this, but How shall we more speedily 
 perfect it ? If in the crowded alleys and dens of om 
 large towns we can multiply, to the required amount, the 
 little Chapel-rooms, with their doors ever open, with 
 their continual opportunities of private prayer, medita- 
 tion, and reading, their short and simple services ; if in 
 the suddenly arising towns we can at once increase the 
 opportunities of worship as rapidly as the population 
 arises ; if in our scattered rural hamlets we can sound 
 the church-going bell close to the door of the cottage 
 dweller ; from these little houses of prayer and praise 
 unnimibered influences will flow forth, increasino" indi- 
 \'idually the strength of the Church, combining to form 
 an accelerating force to her future progress. " The little 
 one shall become a thousand, and the small people a 
 great nation : I the Lord will hasten it in his time."
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 In the following Appendix, I have given in detail some of the 
 valuable information furnished me from various quarters re- 
 specting Mission-rooms, &c. The points on which 1 have been 
 most desirous of collecting information are : — The cost of trans- 
 forming existing rooms into Mission chapels, the expense of 
 carrying on the services, and the most secure means of protect- 
 ing the " Holy Table." 
 
 PRAYER ROOMS IN COURTS, AND CHURCHES OPEN FOR 
 PRIVATE PRAYER. 
 
 The following is an extract from a communication by the 
 present Bishop of Nelson, when incumbent of Spicer- street, 
 Spitalfields, in the Home Mission Field of the Additional 
 Curates' Society for 1863. His lordship informed me on the 
 eve of his departure from England in 1867, that the longer ex- 
 perience had more fully confirmed him in the benefits of such 
 prayer-rooms : " In October last I established a room in one of 
 the many courts of my parish, which I set apart as a prayer- 
 room for the whole court, to be at the service of all the men in 
 the court. I undertook to have a short service of ten minutes 
 every evening at nine o'clock, conducted either by myself or by 
 the Scripture Eeader, allowing the men to stay in the room as 
 long as they liked afterwards to read their Bibles, no other 
 books except the Prayer-book being introduced. The results 
 have been most satisfactory ; twenty out of the twenty-four 
 families in the court have sent their fathers or elder sons to the 
 room, and seventeen of them now come regularly to church with 
 their families, and the whole court is feeling the change. A 
 bell is rung just outside the room five minutes before nine, and 
 the men come in as they happen to be at the time, and fresh from 
 their work. Many of them have very poor clothing, but having 
 learned to think of the spiritual wants of their souls, they are 
 most anxious to be found in their place — in the place where 
 God is worshipped ; and so anxious are they for their self-im- 
 provement, that there are four of them who have come to the 
 vestry to me at six and seven o'clock in the morning to learn to 
 read. These seventeen families have encouraged others to come,
 
 17 
 
 and our church will be filled, I trust, ere long with a thorough 
 working population, such as it is supposed can be attracted only 
 to public and theatre services. Knowing how much the poor 
 suffer in the east of London from want of room, and how diffi- 
 cult it is for them to obtain a place for quiet prayer and 
 thought, I wished to try the experiment of having my church 
 open. The church has been open every morning very shortly 
 after five till nine, and the aggregate attendance (adding up each 
 day's attendance) has been more than 100 during the week ; two 
 or three coming at 5.20, but most at 7.30, when there is a short 
 service lasting fifteen minutes. Those who attend are working 
 men, and one or two families who go out to work, and enter the 
 church for a few minutes on their way." 
 
 MISSION AT SPITTAL IN TWEEDMOUTH. DIOC. : DURHAM. 
 
 The parish of Tweedmouth, extending nearly from two to 
 three miles north to south, and from three to four east to west, 
 has a population of 5,600 ; of these about 1,900 are in S]3ittal, 
 an outlying part of the parish, about one mile distant from the 
 church. In 1859 a room formerly used as a curing-room for 
 herring and salmon, was hired at an annual rent of 61. 10s., and 
 fitted up as a Mission Station, with reading-desk, forms, and com- 
 mimion table — which latter, however, has never been used. The 
 cost of fitting up the room was originally 211., but subsequent 
 improvements increased this outlay to about 60/., a large portion 
 of the latter, 39/., being contributed by the Vicar. The working 
 expenses of the Mission, not including the rent, have been abouf; 
 15/. a year. This annual charge is partly met by the offertory, 
 which averages 14/. a year, partly by subscription. The stipend 
 of the curate who originally worked the Mission was provided 
 by 50/. from the Dean and Chapter of Durham, 30/. by Addi- 
 tional Curates' Society, 20/. by subscriptions ; but since 1864 
 there has been no curate, the stipend being too small, and the 
 work of the Mission has been carried on as regularly as possible 
 by the Vicar of Tweedmouth. There is one service on Sunday 
 — in the afternoon during the winter months, in the evening in 
 summer. The average attendance in winter is about 50 ; in 
 summer 120, as many as the room will hold. The winter 
 offerings average 35. a service, the summer 8^. The Vicar of 
 Tweedmouth writes, April 1867 : "I have a very good choir 
 gathered out of Spittal, and have given a harmonium for the use 
 of the room. I have little fear of much good being done in 
 Spittal ; I have been at considerable expense in fitting up the 
 room since I came in 1864; it is now as comfortable and clean 
 ■^s so lone a room can be. In 1846, previously to the opening 
 of the Mission, a movement was made for building a new 
 
 B ^
 
 18 
 
 church; this was abandoned, and the plan of a Mission 
 adopted. 
 
 " In 1864 I revived the movement for a new church. With 
 great difficulty, and very much disappointment, I have by God's 
 help raised upwards of 2,300/. for this purpose, and hope to be 
 enabled to open the church some time during the summer. We 
 shall need 500/. more to complete the church at Spittal, but 
 not to commence divine service. The part imfinished consists 
 of spire, and railing round church, &c." 
 
 TYNEMOUTH, HUDSON STREET MISSION. 
 
 In this case a large room was taken on rent, and fitted 
 up as a Mission-chapel in one of the neglected parts of North 
 Shields. The internal arrangements are thoroughly churchlike, 
 the holy table inclosed with a permanent rail, choir stalls 
 placed choirwise, all the seats open, free, and unappropriated. 
 The chapel contains 170 sittings ; the cost of fitting up was 
 58/. 4s. Id., defrayed by private contributions. The Mission- 
 chapel was opened on the 21st of October, 1864 ; the services 
 are : Sunday, — Morning, 10.30 ; Evening, 6.30 ; the Sunday 
 School is held in the afternoon: Wednesday, 7.30. The Holy 
 Communion is administered on the second Sunday in each 
 month: there is a weekly offertory. The congregation, which 
 generally consists of as many as the chapel will hold, is formed 
 entirely of such as the Mission was intended to reach — the very 
 poor, and those who previously attended no place of worship. 
 In the Sunday School are about 100 children, who have been 
 gathered out of the streets. The number of communicants, all 
 of whom have been brought to communion by means of the 
 Mission, is 40. The offertory for the first year and five months 
 amounted to 35/. 5s. 10\d. The working expenses during the 
 same period were, including the rent of the room, 28/. 14s. ^d. ; 
 the Mission, therefore, during this time paid its own working 
 expenses, and a balance of 6/. 14s. ^\d. remained for various 
 religious objects. The curate's stipend is furnished by a grant 
 of 40/. from the Additional Curates' Society, and 75/. raised by 
 local subscriptions in the town. 
 
 MISSION SCHOOL-CHAPEL, BUCKINGHAM. 
 Kindly communicated by the Bev. W. F. Norriss. 
 
 This Mission originated from a scheme of the Vicar of Buck- 
 ingham for improving a very poor district close to the town, but 
 divided from it by the North- Western Eailway. A block of 
 filthy and ruinous cottages stood on an elevated and central site 
 in this locality, a sort of plague-spot of evil, from the gross 
 itnmorality and horrible filth which prevailed among them.
 
 19 
 
 The Duke of Buckingham most handsomely met the wishes of 
 the Vicar, by purchasing these cottages, pulling them down, and 
 letting one-half of the ground at a nominal rent, for the erection 
 of a School-chapel. A building which serves the purpose of both 
 chapel and school was erected here ; a solid structure of local 
 stone, with Bath-stone coinings, purely Early English style, with 
 plain narrow windows ; the eastern triplet is filled with coloured 
 glass (Clayton and Bell)— cost, only 111. 8s. The cost of the 
 building, with an excellent vestry and class-room, besides out- 
 buildings, extensive walling, gas laid on, internal fittings, and 
 architect's commission (Mr. Street was the architect), was 500/. 
 This sum includes altar, seventy chairs, desk, gas corona, and 
 good outside bell. The cost was defrayed by subscription, aided 
 by a legacy of 50/. Internally, the room is arranged for school 
 on week-days, and for church on Sundays and certain week- 
 day evenings. The holy table is shut out from the school part 
 by a low stone screen and a curtain drawn across the room. 
 The services seem much liked and valued by those who attend 
 them ; they are short, partly sung, and conclude with an ex- 
 tempore address. I find the Chapel-school exceedingly useful as 
 a nucleus of parish work in a district depressed by extreme 
 poverty, disunion, and indifferentism." 
 
 ST. Stephen's, haggerstone. 
 
 This is one of four Mission-rooms which pioneer the way for the 
 perfecting of the parochial system in Haggerstone ; it is given as 
 an instance of adapting a large ordinary room to Mission purposes. 
 
 The room was formerly a music-hall, which was purchased in 
 1864, and fitted up for divine service at a cost of about 60/,, 
 raised by donations. 
 
 The internal arrangement is : the floor is divided into three 
 spaces ; the eastern space is fitted up and furnished as a sanc- 
 tuary, separated from the other parts of the room by an open 
 screen with gates ; during the school hours, a curtain is drawn 
 across this screen. 
 
 The middle portion of the room is benched for worshippers ; 
 the western adapted for a school and used on Sundaj^s for 
 vestries ; the building being large, admits of this arrangement, 
 which is very convenient. The services have been three on 
 Sundays, and one on Wednesdays and Fridays. The amount of 
 annual working expenses is 70/., defrayed by the offertory ; the 
 curate's stipend by a grant from the Bishop of London's Fund. 
 The results of the work are thus stated by the Incumbent : — 
 " The chapel is now well filled ; and the people of the district 
 are beginning to appreciate the services. A large number of 
 young people have been baptized, and there is great encourage- 
 
 B 2
 
 20 
 
 ment to believe that when the church is erected it will be a 
 success." 
 
 TEMPORAEY CHUECH-ROOM, HOXTON. 
 
 Commenced in August 1861, closed February 1863. Tlie 
 room was originally a paper-stainer's workshop ; it was hired at 
 a quarterly rent, fitted up for divine service at a cost of about 
 251. The internal arrangements are 100 chairs facing a two- 
 sided desk in the left-hand corner of the room, the communion 
 table in the middle, and a harmonium on the right. These are 
 protected during the week days by the chairs being piled up in 
 a row in front. The annual working expenses were about 30^., 
 defrayed by the offertory ; the curate's stipend by the Bishop of 
 London's Fund. The services were two on Sunday, one on 
 Wednesday. After the room had been used for a time, an iron 
 church was set up, and used for three years, and then a per- 
 manent free church was erected, which had immediately its 
 congregation of 400 or 500, its weekly offertory of 21. 14.s. from 
 a population of mechanics and other working men. 
 
 MISSION CHAPELS FORMED FROM COTTAGES. 
 
 The following letter, from a clergyman in the diocese of Man- 
 chester, contains such valuable hints that I give it entire. Of 
 course a temporary Mission-room might be built on the same 
 terms as the schools here mentioned : — 
 
 " Leesfield House, 
 " My dear Sir, 19^/^ March, 1867. 
 
 " I fear I shall not be able to contribute much to your 
 stock of information on the subject of Mission-chapels, but what 
 little I do know — acquired, as you are aware, by actual ex- 
 perience — is heartily at your service. My first cure was the 
 Peel district of Werneth, Oldham. On looking the place care- 
 fully over, I found there was no room at all suitable for divine 
 service ; I therefore determined to take a good cottage in Si 
 populous part of the place ; and with the consent of the owner 
 I took out the partition-walls, thus obtaining two rooms, each 
 comprising about 400 square yards. Here J carried on as good 
 a service as circumstances would admit. I also engaged a 
 master, with whose assistance I established both Day and Sunday 
 schools ; on my removal to Leesfield, about two years afterwards, 
 my successor continued the use of this little ' cathedral ' till the 
 present church was consecrated. 
 
 "When T came to Leesfield, I found a private Middle-class 
 schoolroom containing about sixty square yards, which I rented 
 for Sunday use, and got licensed by the Bishop. Here we held 
 our services, and also carried on the girls' school ; I engaged a
 
 21 
 
 large garret for the boys' school. In this way we got on about 
 two years, till the church was built and consecrated, when our 
 scholars increased to such an extent that we were obliged to 
 teach the upper classes in the church. The inconvenience of 
 this arrangement was such, that I was at length driven to agree 
 with a local builder to put me up the shell of three cottages, 
 leaving out the partition walls, and everything not required for 
 a school. The upper room was open to the roof, and served well 
 for meetings as well as for teaching. The door-posts were fixed, 
 and then the openings for each room, except one, built up, so 
 that there might be no unnecessary pulling down of walls when 
 the structure should have to be made into cottages. I lent the 
 owner 150/. on security of the building, for which he paid me 51. 
 per cent. The rent was fixed at 15/. In this way we got two 
 excellent rooms, each containing about 120 square yards of clear 
 space for teaching, and were able to go on very well till our 
 present permanent schools were erected. The owner then took 
 possession of the building, and converted it into cottages, which 
 he has since sold for 315/. I believe the arrangement paid him 
 well, and it was certainly of great advantage to the Church, as we 
 got important accommodation without the outlay of a shilling 
 beyond the annual rent. Temporary expedients involving a 
 permanent sacrifice of funds are, I think, exceedingly objec- 
 tionable, as they necessarily cripple future operations. 
 
 " Believe me, my dear Sir, 
 
 " Very faithfu.lly yours, 
 " Eev. J. Brame." " EOB. WhITTAKER. 
 
 WEST HAETLEPOOL^ ST. JAMES. 
 
 Towards the close of 1861 possession was obtained by the 
 incumbent of West Hartlepool, at a cost of 210/., of an 
 abandoned Primitive Methodist meeting-house, and an adjoin- 
 ing beer-shop. After some consideration of the uses to which 
 this building should be put, it was determined that an effort 
 sliould be made to raise a stipend for an additional curate, and 
 the building be as soon as possible converted into a temporary 
 church, with its own clergyman and its complete services. ThQ 
 scheme was proposed to a number of working men at a lecture 
 for the Additional Curates' Society. A pleasing augury of 
 success was given then. The following letter, addressed to the 
 Secretary of the Society, was dropped into the Parsonage letter- 
 box next morning : — 
 
 ^'Dear Sir, 
 
 " I been A hearer of your Home Mission Lecture on 
 Tuesday last, i Send you the sum of 10 shillings toward Pelping
 
 22 
 
 you ill your undertaking, Hopeing with the help of God that 
 many of your Members will Come forward in the same manner 
 
 " I remain yrs truly 
 
 ''A Working Man." 
 
 The same man, a foreman of labourers, with a large family 
 and small w^ages, contributed 21. 10s. in different instalments 
 towards the fund for starting the new Mission, besides raising 
 a considerable sum among his fellow- workmen. 50/. towards a 
 curate's stipend was collected by zealous friends from door to 
 door, and by collecting cards and regular small contributions. 
 The Additional Curates' Society supplemented this with a grant 
 of 60/. On the 18th of May, 1862, the chapel was opened for 
 the service of the Church of England. It had been adapted to 
 this purpose at the small cost of 30/. A large proportion of 
 this was contributed by the people themselves, the remainder 
 was raised by the Incumbent among his personal friends. 
 Carpenters in the parish made the benches themselves, giving 
 their labour ; the reading-desk was the anonymous gift of a poor 
 widow, a straw bonnet-maker : the fact was not known until her 
 death, when the receipt was found among her papers. The 
 lectern was also a gift from a few poor joiners. The sacred 
 vessels, of solid silver and the best pattern, were supplied mostly 
 by the donations of a layman of the lower middle class, the 
 manager of the "trimmers" in the harbour. The internal 
 arraugements of this Mission-chapel were open benches, distinct 
 from those used in it for school purposes ; the holy table raised 
 on a footpace and vested, protected during the week-days by a 
 strong linen cover, and by the Sunday benches piled up in front 
 of it. The working expenses of the Mission were about 10/. 
 annually, and were provided for by the weekly offertory. The 
 number of communicants about fourteen, the average attendance 
 at the services 100 ; the amount of the offertory during the last 
 financial year, 11/. 15s. 6d It is now proposed to build a church 
 to contain at first 450 persons, capable of being afterwards en- 
 larged to hold 600, having the scats all free. A new parish 
 would then be formed, the living endowed by the Ecclesiastical 
 Commissioners with 200/. per annum, and a district containing 
 not less than 5,000 souls cut off from the mother parish. 
 
 ST. PETER'S MISSION CHURCH, WESTLEIGH MILLS, LEIGH, 
 LANCASHIRE. 
 
 From the opening of coal-pits, and erection of cotton-mills, a 
 population was suddenly gathered together in a portion of the 
 parish of Leigh, where formerly were two or three farmhouses ; 
 this population soon amounted to 1,500 souls. There was no
 
 23 
 
 accommodation for them in the parish church, and the curate in 
 charge of the conventional district of St. Paul's,, Westleigli, had 
 already a sufficient population under his care, while the absence 
 of any direct road rendered that church not available for this 
 new district. A grant was obtained in 1860 from the Addi- 
 tional Curates' Society, towards the stipend of a curate to work 
 especially in this portion of the parish. Until June 1860 it 
 had no school for the children of the working class ; then a 
 cottage was hired and opened as a daily, evening, and Sunday 
 school, and the attendance was most encouraging. Shortly after, 
 services were coaimenced at the school cottage on Sunday and 
 Wednesday ; but it was soon found that little good could be 
 expected until a more convenient building was secured. There 
 seemed a fair chance of pre-occupying the ground by the Church 
 if an effort were at once made. In 1861 funds were collected, 
 and a Mission-school built, which was opened for divine service 
 on Easter Day, 1862. The building is cruciform, consisting of 
 a chancel thirty feet by twenty, fitted up with the holy table 
 on a footpace, stalls, organ, prayer desk, and lectern. This 
 portion of the building is screened off from the main portion of 
 the room, when not used for service, by a curtain filling the 
 whole chancel arch. The nave, thirty-two feet by twenty, has 
 chairs for use in service. The transepts, each seventeen feet by 
 twenty, are fitted up with forms, and used on week-days as 
 schoolrooms, as they are on Sunday morning and afternoon for 
 Sunday schools. The number of sittings is 300. The cost of 
 this building and its fittings for divine service and school pur- 
 poses was 1,053/. 16s. 4JcZ. exclusive of the organ, which cost 
 30/. The money was raised by donations and church collections, 
 and a grant of 30/. from the Diocesan Society. The services are : 
 Holy Communion on alternate Sundays, a short service with the 
 children on Sunday afternoon, full service with sermon on 
 Sunday and AVednesday evening, morning prayer daily with 
 the exception of Saturday. Number of communicants between 
 fifty and sixty. The congregation very good. The annual 
 working expenses, so far as divine service is concerned, 5/. 13s., 
 defrayed by special collections. The collections for various 
 purposes during the last financial year were 33/. 4s. ^^d. The 
 curate's stipend is provided by a grant of 60/. from the Addi- 
 tional Curates' Society, met by 50/. from the offertory at the 
 parish church. 
 
 OSWALDTWISLE, DTOCESE OF MANCHESTER. 
 
 A colliery parish, with population of 8,000, a large proportion 
 of which is distributed in hamlets distant from the church ; the 
 parish is worked by Incumbent and Assistant Curate at the 
 church, and two Curates for outlying Mission stations.
 
 24 
 
 CABIN end/' or KNUZDEN BROOK — ST. OSWALD'S SCHOOL- 
 CHURCH. 
 
 The schoolroom was built in 1860, at a cost of about 1,150^. 
 The furniture for divine service — holy table on raised dais 
 with one step, lectern, cover, and carpet, all moveable, benches, 
 with books, &c. — cost 30/. The school is in the shape of a T, 
 the part corresponding to the vertical stem being used for the 
 day schools, the lateral only on Sundays. There are three full 
 services in this School-chapel every week — two on Sundays, 
 one on Thursday evening. Average attendants at Holy Com- 
 munion, thirty. The clergyman's stipend is provided by the 
 Church Pastoral Aid Society, on condition that 20/. per annum 
 is raised for the Society, which makes the cost of maintaining 
 the Mission about 50/. per annum. This money has been raised 
 by means of collections, voluntary subscriptions, tea parties, 
 and concerts, without any difficulty hitherto. 
 
 DAISY GREEN AND BELLTHORN — ST. MICHAEL'S SCHOOL-CHURCH. 
 
 This schoolroom cost about the same as St. Oswald's, both for 
 building and furnishing for divine service. There are two full 
 services every Sunday, and one on Wednesday evening. Average 
 attendance at Holy Communion, twenty. The curate's stipend 
 is partly paid by the Additional Curates' Society ; the remainder 
 by means of local subscriptions, a few pew-rents, and a tem- 
 porary grant from the Diocesan Society ; 30/. is raised annually 
 in this district for the purposes of the Mission. None of the 
 population are above the rank of the working classes. 
 
 DAUBHILL AND DUNKIRK, IN THE PARISH OF DEANE. 
 
 The following letter, from the Eev. Canon Thicknesse, con- 
 tains a valuable hint as to the advantage of iron churches : — 
 
 *'My dear Sir, 
 
 "The two Missions which I have matured in my 
 parish to the present verge of the necessity for churches (not 
 including Wingates, where the church has been completed some 
 time), are at Daubhill and Dunkirk. When I came to Deane, 
 Daubhill had a population of about 100 persons, it has now a 
 population of at least 1,000 ; this is in twelve years. Yet it 
 was so near the parish church, three-quarters of a mile, that it 
 was some time before I contemplated the necessity of a separate 
 school, services, &c. ; iDut as soon as Wingates Church was 
 finished, in 1860, I began to direct some special attention to this 
 pkice, and should have attempted a permanent building at once, 
 had it not been that Dissent was threatened so unexpectedly,
 
 25 
 
 and came (from Bolton) so suddenly, in the form of a projected 
 chapel, that to save time I determined on an iron building ; the 
 result of which decision was, that I was preaching when they 
 were plastering, and in consequence have never lost my people, 
 the meeting-house being supplied from the neighbouring streets 
 of Bolton. I mention this to show how an iron building (put 
 down in six weeks) may sometimes stand in a gap not otherwise 
 to be filled. The iron building which was put down (by 
 Hemming, Moorgate Street, London) was for 200 persons, cost 
 1/. per sitting, including every expense ; to this I was last year 
 obliged to add a piece, a sort of chancel, half as big again as 
 the original, at a cost of 100/. without fittings, such as forms, 
 desks, &c. Since your Society gave me a grant of 40/. a-year, 
 one of my curates has had almost nothing else but Daubhill to 
 attend to, and the result has been very satisfactory. T have 
 a day-school, a night-school, a Sunday-school, and Sunday 
 services. The day-school now pays its own way, although I 
 have a most superior master at a good salary. But though I 
 could say a good deal about this same Daubhill, its nearness to 
 Deane makes it hardly so good a sample of a Mission as Dun- 
 kirk in Little Hulton. I have begged Mr. Wood, the curate in 
 charge, to prepare you some statements, which I inclose. The 
 results may seem small, but not so to me, knowing, as I do, 
 the awful incrustations of the past, and the tremendous hold 
 which Dissent, with two quite palatial chapels, had been allowed 
 to get. Our building has been : school-chapel and curate's 
 house, good substantial brick buildings ; total cost, 950/. 
 
 " Very truly yours, 
 
 "F. H. Thicknesse." 
 
 From the statistics communicated by Mr. Wood, I select the- 
 following, showing the progress of a Mission of this description 
 as regards numbers and finance : — 
 
 CoNGEEGATiON. — The following numbers have paid one shil- 
 ling each, for appropriated sittings : — 
 
 1864 105 
 
 1865 119 
 
 1866 107 
 
 1867 107* 
 
 From fifty-one families residing in the district, more or less of 
 the members are regular on Sundays once or twice, and many 
 other families are frequently or occasionally represented. 
 
 * Incomplete.
 
 26 
 
 SACEAMENTS. 
 
 
 1861 
 
 1SG2 
 
 12 
 
 6 
 22 
 
 1S63 
 
 13 
 
 8 
 29 
 
 1864 
 
 1865 
 
 1866 
 
 1867 
 
 20 
 
 14 
 
 70 
 
 Baptisms 
 
 Confirmations . . . 
 No. of Celebrations . 
 No. of Communicants 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 14 
 
 18 
 39 
 11 
 53 
 
 23 
 
 13 
 
 40 
 
 13 
 16 
 13 
 61 
 
 Sick and Visiting. — Every house in the district has been 
 visited, irrespective of sect ; most of them many times in the 
 course of the six years, and with very few exceptions. No 
 clergyman had been in any of the houses within the recollec- 
 tion of the inhabitants. In every house the visits have been 
 welcome. 
 
 SICK VISITS. 
 
 1861 12 
 
 1862 16 
 
 1863 23 
 
 1864 20 
 
 1865 18 
 
 1866 45 
 
 The sick had not been visited prior to 1861. 
 
 FINANCES. 
 
 
 
 
 Monthly 
 
 Received 
 
 
 Offertory. 
 
 Coll. for 
 
 for General 
 
 
 
 
 Eudowiuent. 
 
 Expenses. 
 
 
 £ s. 
 
 d. 
 
 £ s. d. 
 
 £ s. d. 
 
 1861 
 1862 
 
 3 5 
 5 15 
 
 1 
 2 
 
 
 |lll 2 9 
 
 1863 
 
 11 4 
 
 3 
 
 11 2 9 
 
 26 1 4 
 
 1864 
 
 10 18 
 
 7 
 
 14 17 5 
 
 51 12 11 
 
 1865 
 
 13 
 
 7 
 
 14 12 10 
 
 90 8 
 
 1866 
 
 11 6 
 
 1 
 
 15 4 9 
 
 102 19 4 
 
 1867 
 
 
 
 14 2 
 
 6 
 
 16 2 1 
 
 108 3 2 
 
 STRANCxEWAYS AND CHEETWOOD — ST. ALBAN's, MANCHESTER. 
 
 Strangeways lies at the extreme north-west of Manchester, a 
 tract of country which half a century ago formed the park 
 around Strangeways Hall. Now it is a series of streets occupied 
 chiefly by the various classes of Manchester — clerks, whose 
 place of business is in the centre of the city, and shop- 
 keepers of a second-class character. Beyond this district lies 
 Cheetwood ; it presents the appearance of a rus in urhe, having 
 a few roomy but old-fashioned and decaying houses remaining.
 
 27 
 
 but otherwise dotted in the oddest confusion with one-storied 
 brick cottages, and wooden-framed buildings and sheds, which 
 shelter a population of brick-makers, rope-twisters, and labourers 
 of the humblest kind, to the number of 2,000 souls. Cheetwood 
 and Strangeways together, having a population of 9,000 souls, 
 form the conventional district of St. Alban's. There is not 
 within it a single person whom exaggeration could call wealthy. 
 All, with the exception of the Cheetwood people, are just of 
 that section of the middle class who are least accessible to the 
 action of the Cliurch on the modern method ; who yet, active, 
 energetic, and intelligent, form, when neglected and overlooked, 
 her bitterest and most dangerous enemies. 
 
 The attempt to establish the church here commenced on the 
 30th November, 1854, by the Dean of Manchester, the cathedral 
 clergy, and a few active laymen. A meeting was held in the cathe- 
 dral school, at which resolutions were passed recognising the need 
 of a church, and inaugurating a plan for building church, parson- 
 age, and schools. Some donations were received for the purpose, 
 amounting, up to the 25th of March, 1858, to 1,601^. 10s. 2d. 
 
 In January, 1856, the Eev. J. E. Sedgwick undertook the 
 charge of the Mission upon the sole guarantee of an income of 
 52/. 10s. This sum was shortly increased to 112/. During the 
 first year a room was kindly lent for a Sunday school, and was 
 by Midsummer filled to overflowing by about seventy children 
 and six teachers. On the 19th of March, 1857, the temporary 
 church and school was commenced in Moulton Street : this 
 building was completed by Midsummer. The dimensions are 
 sixty feet long by thirty feet broad, and thirteen feet high. The 
 cost of the building was 160/., of which sum the clergyman had 
 to advance about 50/., so slight was the interest then taken in 
 the work ; the fittings needed for divine service cost 124/., of 
 which about 80/. were expended upon articles afterwards avail- 
 able for the permanent church. This room was opened for 
 divine service on the 30th of August, 1857, and from that time 
 until its close as a temporary church the services were : Sunday 
 — early celebration of Holy Communion, morning prayer, litany, 
 and second celebration ; afternoon, catechising and baptisms ; 
 evening, evensong. Celebration on saints' days, and daily 
 morning prayer. The room is thus described by a writer in the 
 London Guardian in 1858 : " A portion of the area is arranged 
 as a chancel, with stalls for clergymen and choir, which latter 
 number twenty- five — ten men, fifteen boys — who, with the 
 organist, give their services gratuitously. Deducting what space 
 is taken up by this chancel and the organ, the area is filled with 
 twenty-five benches, each accommodating eight persons. These 
 are uniformly cushioned and supplied with kneeling hassocks.
 
 28 
 
 When these have been filled, common school forms are placed 
 in any vacant spot ; there are no cushions for tliem, hut some 
 striped canvas hassocks are provided. On Sunday morning 
 these forms are not regularly in requisition ; the attendance 
 then, which is noticeable by reason of the greater proportion of 
 males, being less than in the evening, when the wives and 
 mothers can conveniently come. The Sunday afternoon service 
 is confined almost to the children, teachers, and parents. The 
 younger children are not present at evening service, about eighty 
 of the elder boys and girls only attending at that time ; in- 
 cluding these and the choir, the total numbers on Sunday even- 
 ings fluctuate from 300 to 330, when the place is completely 
 filled." 
 
 The report of this Mission for the year 1858, the first clear 
 year of its working, showed an offertory of 167^. 2^. d^d., of 
 which 251. 7s. ll|d was in copper. The number of commu- 
 nicants, which was 48 at the close of the previous year, had 
 increased to 105 ; candidates for confirmation, 40 ; number of 
 baptisms, 54; scholars — day schools, 200; Sunday, 250; teachers, 
 35 ; choristers, 30. An effort was made to secure a second 
 clergyman ; about 20Z. was raised by subscriptions, and a grant 
 to meet this was voted by the Additional Curates' Society at 
 Easter, 1859. The crowded condition of the little church or 
 room now made an enlargement necessary. A chancel was 
 therefore built to it, thirty-one feet long by twenty-two feet 
 wide, with an organ chamber. The cost of this was 60/. ; the 
 liberality of the congregation furnished the funds for this pur- 
 pose, some who were unable to offer money gave the labour of 
 their hands, their time, and their skill, towards completing and 
 adorning their church. The most interesting event in this 
 year's history of the Mission was the erection of the Cheetwood 
 school. During the summer, Mr. Sedgwick happened to speak 
 of the inconvenience of the cottage he had hired (the only avail- 
 able place), in Cheetwood, for the day and Sunday schools, 
 regretting the want of funds to erect a proper building. A few 
 days afterwards some of the teachers and young men came to 
 him, and lamenting their inability to furnish money, offered all 
 they could give, their time and leisure, ]3roposing, if he would 
 provide bricks, &c. they would, after their day's work, put up a 
 building ; Mr. Sedgwick, greatly affected by their spirited offer, 
 accepted it, purchased at the progressing demolition of Strange- 
 ways Hall to make room for the new assize courts, timber, slates, 
 and bricks, and the young fellows began. Some masons and 
 bricklayers of Cheetwood, learning what was on foot, volunteered 
 their aid, and with some other assistance, in six weeks, a plain 
 but airy and commodious school-house, forty -five feet long by
 
 29 
 
 twenty-two feet wide, and twenty feet liigli, was erected on 
 ground kindly given by the Earl of Derby. Next day ninety 
 scholars were admitted, and the Sunday after 120 children were 
 in attendance. The Sunday after that, the place w^as opened 
 with psalms and prayers. An old charwoman, of the hamlet, 
 made a comment worth repeating as the little procession re- 
 turned to service : " Weel ! a'ter all, there's nought comes up to 
 th' Church." The cost of this room was about 70/. ; it was 
 used for some time as a temporary church. Year by year the 
 annual report shows steady progress in the amount of the 
 offertory, number of congregation, scholars, communicants, &c. 
 
 The foundations of the permanent church had been com- 
 menced February 18, 1857, but after the building had been in 
 progress ten months the works were stopped for want of funds. 
 An effort was made in this direction during 1860, by appeals 
 circulated in all directions, and on the 14th of October the 
 masons were agaiii at work, the click of the trowel and chisel 
 was once more heard in the yard after a silence of three years, 
 and the large and beautiful church of St. Alban's slowly grew 
 into being on the hill which it now crowns. The entire cost of 
 the church, and all things connected with it, was 12,000/. At 
 the close of 1861 the report shows a nimiber of communicants 
 reaching to 157; 200 baptisms of children and adults; an offer- 
 tory of 204/. lis. lOJf/., of which 32/. 7s. 9Jc/. was in copper ; a 
 fellow curate secured, the room at Cheetwood in use for divine 
 service at a cost of 3/. 18s. Zcl., with its two services every 
 Sunday. For upwards of three years the Mission had five 
 services every Sunday in the two tempora^ry churches. 
 
 At length, on Christmas Eve, 1864, ten years after the first 
 step towards its erection, St. Alban's was opened for service 
 under a licence from the Bishop, and the two rooms, used so 
 long as temporary churches, were restricted to school purposes. 
 Mr. Sedgwick writes : " I have now 400 communicants on the 
 register ; I have sixteen services every week ; the offertory is 
 going on at the rate of nearly 1,000/. a-year ; a thousand persons 
 personally known to me attend church at some of the services 
 during the week ; of course it is to be expected that there 
 would be some stragglers from a distance, but I have no hesita- 
 tion in saying that nine-tenths of the regular congregation are 
 comprehended within a radius of three-quarters of a mile round 
 the church." 
 
 The Ojffertory during the eleven years of work has been as 
 foUows : — 
 
 £ s. d. 
 
 1857 (4 months) 82 14 5| 
 
 1858 167 14 5 
 
 1859 169 10 11
 
 30 
 
 £. s. d. 
 
 1860 224 13 11| 
 
 1861 204 11 10^ 
 
 1862 268 1 9 
 
 1863 316 15 9J 
 
 1864 444 5 2i 
 
 1865 1,138 18 10^* 
 
 1866 915 16 11| 
 
 1867 850 
 
 Though these figures appear like a falling off, in reality the 
 unstimulated weekly offerings are more now than ever they 
 have been; the average iveekly offertory in 1865 was not more 
 than 11. 10s. or 8/., it is now about 9Z. In 1865 four notes of 
 100/. each were an extraordinary gift; and in 1866 there were 
 two large collections for a new organ, when several 50/. notes 
 were put in. 
 
 INTERNAL AREANGEMENT OF ROOMS USED AS BOTH 
 SCHOOLS AND CHAPELS. 
 
 The desiderata in these are, a sufficient protection for the 
 " holy table," so that it shall be secure from any contact except 
 when in use ; and such an arrangement of seats as may be very 
 speedily and conveniently adapted to both Sunday school and 
 Church purposes. The former of these objects is of course best 
 attained by a fixed close screen, locked ; but too much of the 
 room is occupied by this. Folding doors which shall reach 
 across the room are too heavy for ordinary hinges, and require a 
 large vacant space for their sweep when opened back to the 
 walls. Perpendicular jointed or revolving shutters form a very 
 effectual screen, but the cost, 2s. the foot, renders them unattain- 
 able, and it is difticult to fix the rail or groove into which they 
 shall ride at the top across the room. I have seen so many acts 
 of irreverence towards the "holy table" in school-chapels, that 
 I have attempted to contribute towards the remedy of the evil 
 by inventing an " altar " which consists of footpace, table, and 
 reredos. The footpace falls back on hinges against the table at 
 the ends and front, the reredos folds down, and all are securely 
 held together by two strong hooks. When not in use it occupies 
 a space at the end of the room three feet wide, and eleven feet 
 long ; the table is completely inclosed as in a box. When re- 
 quired for use, beams which slide under the table are drawn out 
 at the ends, two which are in front are opened out to form sup- 
 ports for the footpace. The reredos opens back against the wall, 
 where it is secured by a catch, and a very churchlike piece of 
 ecclesiastical furniture is produced. The carpenter who con- 
 
 * Including four notes of 100^. each.
 
 31 
 
 stmcted my model tells me it can be made in inch deal for about 
 M. 15s. OcL 
 
 With regard to arrangement of seats for Sunday school and 
 Church x^urposes, a very ingenious arrangement is in use at a 
 school-chapel, St. Andrew's, Livesey, near Blackburn. The seats 
 have reversible backs, and are placed alternately with forms ; for 
 Sunday school these forms fold up on hinges against the wall, 
 where they are held by a catch ; a stool which serves for the 
 teachers is under the form at the wall end, and thus the space 
 for a class is made, the seats with the backs in opposite direc- 
 tions forming two sides ; a few chairs and the teacher's stool 
 would form the other side. When used for a church the backs 
 are all, of course, placed in the same direction, the forms let 
 down from the wall, and in two minutes what was a conve- 
 niently arranged Sunday school becomes an equally well arranged 
 church. 
 
 The cost of furnishing a Mission-chapel for 120 persons, in- 
 cluding holy table, prayer-desk, lectern, chairs, and seats with 
 reversible backs, kneeling cushions and chalice, would be 
 about 40^. 
 
 IRON AND WOODEN CHURCHES. 
 
 Iron churches can be hired for a term of five years and up- 
 wards, furnished complete, and ready for occupation. The cost 
 if purchased varies, according to style and finish, from 11. to 5Z. a 
 sitting. Messrs. Hemming & Co., 21, Moorgate-street, City, 
 Morton & Co., Limited, Liverpool, and E. T. Bellhouse, Man- 
 chester, are the firms with whose iron churches I most frequently 
 meet. Mr. G. T. Eobinson, of Manchester, formerly of LeamiDgton, 
 has designed and built several wooden churches at 11. the sitting ; 
 the effect of these buildings is very good, and the internal 
 arrangements convenient. They are especially useful for mining 
 districts, where the ground is insecure. They are also con- 
 structed with brick filling, in timber framing, for town and 
 suburban districts, where the material is easily obtainable, and 
 are thus suited for town and country use. 
 
 COST OF BUILDING. 
 
 Some clergymen who are more desirous of building school- 
 chapels often wish to form an approximate idea of the cost. 
 This must of course vary very much with the price of mate- 
 rials, labour, &c. ; but one or two instances which seem to me 
 good examples of moderate cost may afford some help to those 
 who wish to know what amount of funds must be provided 
 for the purpose. The new school at Bedford Leigh, Lancashire, 
 built in 1866 and 1867, is a plain neat building of red and white
 
 32 
 
 bricks ; the length of the room is 70 feet, the width 29 feet, 
 height to wall plate 16 feet. There are two class-rooms, about 
 14 feet by 17, 9 feet high; over the class rooms a library, or 
 reading-room, 28 feet by 17, and 6^ feet high. The cost of the 
 building alone was about 6001. ; with gas-fittings and out-build- 
 ings, about 750/. 
 
 A Mission-chapel is about to be built in Dewsbury, Yorkshire : 
 I was much struck with the small cost at which it was proposed 
 to build,, and asked the architect and builder for still further 
 information on the subject. I insert their reply. 
 
 " Dear Sir, 
 
 " In reply to yours of the 7th instant, we inclose you 
 tracings of the plans for two Mission-houses. Design A, 42 ft. 
 by 21 ft. inside, plastered to the spars, built of pressed brick, 
 stone sills, mullions, and steps ; Welsh slate ; timber, red deal ; 
 open roof; seats, with back rails on iron standards; oak com- 
 munion table, reading-desk, pulpit ; wall boundary, three feet 
 high all round ; curtains to screen the east end and vestry ; lead 
 lights to windows ; style, plain Grothic, about 190 sittings'; cost, 
 220/. There would be railing around the communion, and also 
 an inner porch to entrance door. 
 
 " Design B is for a building larger than Design A ; it will be 
 44 ft. 6 in. by 25 ft. Gin. inside, and will have a schoolroom 
 under, 25 ft. by 21 ; built of similar materials, and finished in a 
 similar manner to Design A. 240 sittings ; estimated cost with 
 school, 320/. We have also designed a building the same size 
 as Design A, having less work in it, and to cost 190/. There 
 would be about 190 sittings. 
 
 " We are, dear Sir, yours respectfully, 
 
 " Kirk and Sons." 
 rural chapels. 
 
 These afford much scope for the taste and skill of the archi- 
 tect in compassing both economy and beauty. I am indebted 
 to Mr. Withers, Doughty Street, London, for the use, in lectures, 
 of designs of some very effective small churches built by him. 
 Cawthorpe St. Helen's, near Louth, is a very interesting example. 
 I would recommend any one in the north who is about to build 
 a rural chapel to pay a visit to Coatham Maundeville in the 
 parish of Houghton-le-Skerne. A very good chapel has been 
 built there by the present rector, Eev. E. Cheese. The nave is 
 44 feet by 18 ; the chancel 21 feet by 18. The nave will seat 
 from 110 to 120 persons on chairs, and the chancel 11 adults. 
 The materials used are conmion building bricks, externally 
 banded with blue Staffordshire bricks; roof, Welsh slate; inside,
 
 33 
 
 yellow bricks with red bands and arches ; timber, Memel ; floors, 
 all tiled ; fittings of deal ; spire, wood, covered with slate. The 
 chancel is separated from the nave by an open screen ; the east 
 end well elevated on three steps, the whole chancel on steps 
 above the nave. I give the full account of the entire cost of 
 this chapel, as kindly furnished me by the Eector ; it may be 
 of interest to any one about to build a small chapel in a village 
 or hamlet. 
 
 " Expenses connected with the erection of the Chapel of St. 
 Mary Magdalene at Coatham Maundeville in -the parish of 
 Houghton-le-Skerne, in the county and diocese of Durham. 
 E. Cheese, rector ; E. J. Withers, Esq., 51, Doughty Street, 
 London, architect : — 
 
 £ s. d. £ s. d. 
 Site. — Given by Rector on Glebe. 
 Legal Expenses. — Investigation of title, licence, &c. 11 10 4 
 
 Builder, — to Contractor 426 5 
 
 Materials, — to procured by Rector 40 15 
 
 Architect,— R. J. Withers, Esq 34 3 3 
 
 General Account : — 
 
 Payne, for chairs, with carriage 11 14 10 
 
 Jones and Willis, kneeling mats 2 16 
 
 Workmen 10 6 
 
 Lavers and Barraud, 3 stained-glass windows . 21 17 6 
 
 J. Keith, Communion plate 6 
 
 Harmonium 21 8 • 
 
 Levelling Chapel garth 3120 
 
 Gate for do. 9 9 
 
 Fencing do. 4 5 
 
 Stoves, &c 7 16 
 
 Font 13 10 
 
 Kneeling cushions, 8s. per dozen 4 16 107 14 10 
 
 Total £620 3 10 
 
 Books. — A special offertory. 
 Chalice. — Do. do." 
 
 SPECIAL SHORT MISSION SERVICES. 
 
 From Eeport of Committee of the House of Lords, on Spiritual 
 Destitution, &c. (p. xiv.) : — 
 
 " The desirableness of short services in the church, especially 
 where the people consist of working men, has been stated by 
 more than one witness (QQ. 473, 725). As the lawfulness 
 of the Bishop's power to authorize such services is sometimes 
 questioned, it may be deemed proper to pass a declaratory Act, 
 that the Bishop may, by licence under his hand, permit the 
 Incumbent to use any short service to be approved by himself 
 at any time in church, provided that it consist entirely of prayers 
 and thanksgivings taken without alteration from the Book of 
 Common Prayer, and lessons from the Holy Scriptures ; and 
 
 C
 
 33 
 
 provided also that all the services required to be used, be used 
 at some appointed time on every Sunday, 
 
 ''The Eev. J. Colborne, of St. Matthew's, Bethnal Green, is 
 under examination, and has said that he has certain short 
 services, consisting of selections from the liturgy, in his church 
 on one day in the week, the Bishop being aware of it. 
 
 " The Bishop of Exeter asks (Query 473) : 
 
 " ' With reference to those short services, what is your opinion, 
 founded on your experience as a minister in one of those crowded 
 districts ? Do you conceive that it would lie desirable, if you can- 
 not do this lawfully at present, for an Act of Parliament to pass 
 that would enable you to have abridged services, that abridgment 
 being with the consent of the Bishop ? ' 
 
 " A. ' Most desirable ; I have had experience both in Birming- 
 ham and London, and I have found that working-men, after 
 working hard during the day, are not able to sustain their atten- 
 tion during a protracted service.' 
 
 " Q. 474 ' You think it would be very desirable if there were 
 a provision made for the purpose of enabling the Bishop to give 
 his sanction to such services out of the Common Prayer-book in 
 the Church?' 
 
 "A. 'I do most decidedly.' 
 
 " Q. 475. ' You are perhaps rather surprised at the intimation 
 of -a doubt whether it was lawful or not ? ' 
 
 " A. ' It presents itself to me, as so very desirable.' 
 
 " Q. 476. ' Have you always had the concurrence of the 
 Bishop r 
 
 "A. 'Yes.'"
 
 LONDON : 
 
 R. CLAY, SON, AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS, 
 
 BREAD STREET HILL.
 
 *