Here are details of the text on the centenary plate
Top Centre Banner "1807 Primitive Methodist Centenary 1907"
Left portrait Hugh Bourne, Born April 3rd 1772, Died Oct 11th, 1852
Right portrait William Clowes, Born March 12th, 1780, Died March 2nd, 1851
Four oval panels
Panel 1, centre top First Camp Meeting, held at Mow Cop, May 31 - 1807
Panel 2, right hand side Jubilee Chapel, Tunstall
Panel 3, centre bottom Clowes Memorial Chapel, Burslem
Panel 4, left hand side Memorial chapel, Mow Cop
Circumscribed text
"The little cloud increaseth still
Which first arose upon Mow Hill
The centenary Camp Meeting was held at Mow Cop on May 25 - 27, 1907"
Background notes
The Primitive Methodist movement was founded by Hugh Bourne and William Clowes. Bourne was the organisational genius, overseer, master strategist and tactician, and an introvert by nature. Clowes by contrast was an extrovert, and the leading missionary and apostle of the movement. He preached the gospel to tens of thousands, usually in the open-air, and was possibly the greatest preacher in his generation.
On May 31 1807, Hugh Bourne organised the first English "Camp Meeting", an open-air all day service, on Mow Cop in North Staffordshire. As a direct result of involvement in these meetings, both Bourne and Clowes were expelled from the Wesleyan Methodists. Subsequently the new movement took the name "Primitive Methodism". The movement grew rapidly and by 1907 they had established five thousand churches, gathered eight hundred thousand members and adherents, 500,000 Sunday School scholars, and spread to the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Estimates of the attendance at the Centenary services at Mow Cop in 1907 vary from 60,000 to 100,000 people present. Primitive Methodism was a movement amongst working class people during the industrial revolution. The transformation of individuals, families and communities was often dramatic. Known as "The Ranters" they were persecuted by mobs and gangs, they were often brought before magistrates and a number of their early preachers went to jail. The Ranters were well known for their lively singing and shouting. It was quite common for people to experience shaking, or to lie apparently motionless under the power of dynamic preaching inspired by the Holy Spirit.
The inscription on the back of the plates reads as follows:
“What hath God wrought!”
Chapels & Preaching Places…. 4,905
Ministers …. 1,153
Local Preachers … 16,209
Church members … 210,173
Adherents … 607,682
Sunday Schools … 4209
Teachers … 61,275
Scholars …. 477,114
Value of property … £4,958,978
RD. No 491901
Royal semi porcelain
Manufactured by Wood & Sons, Burslem
In summary, by 1907, that's over 800,000 members and adherents, five thousand churches and nearly half a million scholars.
