Seahouses (1867)



In 1867, while engaged in religious work on Tyneside, Mr Dunn, accompanied by Andrew Taylor, of Cullercoats, went to North Sunderland for a holiday, during which these ardent souls held meetings in the Mission Room at Seahouses. So great was their success that the soul-saving assumed the dimensions of a revival. Some remarkable conversions took place, and the excitement spread over the locality. Seahouses was a rough place then, and some of the more turbulent of the young fishermen behaved in a riotous fashion, but in the midst of the stone-throwing, window-smashing, personal violence, and insults, souls continued to be saved.

About forty of the converts met in the "Peedge," a hall in a back lane, belonging to Mr Ewing, fish merchant. Among them were William and Bessie Spears, W. Spears, sen., Ralph Spears, Mitchell Walker,

Thomas Pringle and his wife, Matthew Walker, William Darling (Grace Darling s nephew), George S. Eadington, and W. Matthews. George Darling, Grace’s brother, also became a member, and William, the light house-keeper on the Longstone, was a local preacher, and for some years circuit steward. In 1868, at their own request, the converts were formed into a Primitive Methodist society, and Mr French became the first resident minister of the denomination in the village.

Revival fervour continued with them, and soon a larger and better place than the " straight" was required.

A chapel was built in the same quarter in 1871.

. ‘Northern Primitive Methodism’ by W M Patterson, published 1909, page

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