Nonconformity in Potsgrove
Early Nonconformity
In 1672 Charles II issued a Declaration of Toleration for Protestants dissenting from the Church of England; this had the effect of some dissenting meeting houses registering with the Secretary of State. The Toleration Act of 1689 enshrined the right of protestants to dissent from the Church of England and, once again, encouraged meeting houses to register voluntarily with local quarter sessions| and Anglican church. Registration provided protection against persecution, laying a duty of protection upon magistrates and so was popular with nonconformists. Most registrations were made with quarter sessions until the middle of the 18th century, presumably due to the mutual antagonism of nonconformists and established Church. However, from that point registration with the Church, via the local archdeaconry| began to become the favoured method, because the archdeaconry Registrar would issue a licence at any time rather than during the days each quarter when the quarter sessions met.
Bedfordshire & Luton Archives & Records Service has a reasonable number of registrations of nonconformist meeting houses in both the Quarter Sessions and Archdeaconry of Bedford archives. Registration continued through the 19th century even though persecution faded away - this was because registered buildings were allowed to claim exemption from parish poor rates, were exempt from control by the Charity Commission and were allowed to be licensed to carry out marriages. These things meant that registration became almost compulsory in practice for well established nonconformist meetings. This is fortunate for the local historian because sometimes the only surviving references to a nonconformist meeting occur as registrations.
A meeting house of an unknown strain of nonconformity was registered in Potsgrove by George Hitchcock in 1819, being his own house [ABN1/2 and ABN3/3]. In 1830 John Creamer's house in Sheep Lane was registered by W.D.Harris and William Poole [ABN1/2 and ABN2/245] again the sect is not named. Another house in Sheep Lane, occupied by Thomas Green, was registered by William Wigley of Aylesbury [Buckinghamshire] in 1850 [ABN1/2 and ABN2/423].
The first surviving registration in Potsgrove was for a Baptist meeting house in 1792 [QSR1792/55 and QSM19 page 12] which was at the house occupied by farmer John Farey and was registered by Farey himself (by mark), John Studds, farmer, Henry Clarke (by mark), labourer and William Butterfield, dairyman. A Union chapel is marked in the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1883 in Sheep Lane, about a third of the way from the turn to the village and the junction with Watling Street. Bedfordshire & Luton Archives & Records Service has no records of this chapel.
A Primitive Methodist meeting existed in Sheep Lane from at least 1855 as this is when it first appears on the Stewkley Circuit plan. However, the meeting is not marked on any maps, indicating that it was not a chapel as such; it is possible that one or more of the entries in the section above may refer to this meeting not known when the meeting closed as Bedfordshire & Luton Archives & Records Service has no records from it.
former Wesleyan chapel in Sheep Lane, now a private house, February 2007
Wesleyans are first recorded in Potsgrove in 1822 when they are added to the Leighton Buzzard class book. The meeting was first registered in Potsgrove in 1824 at the house of Elizabeth Sayles in Sheep Lane, it was registered by Elizabeth herself as well as John Furness, the Wesleyan Minister and Richard Eland. The chapel built in Sheep Lane near the junction with Watling Street was first registered in 1863 by local preacher William Richardson of Leighton Buzzard, bookseller. The Sheep Lane chapel still exists, though it is now a private house. In 1932 various strands of Methodism, including the Wesleyan and Primitive Methodists reunited to form the Methodist Church of Great Britain. As the population of Potsgrove, especially Sheep Lane, declined the chapel ceased to become viable and it closed in 1961 and was sold.