Wesleyan Memorial Church

The Wesleyan Memorial Church was soriginally built in 1842 then re built in 1852. The first building was smaller than the Church that we see today, in fact the later Church was built around the exisiting church and then the small church was dismantled from within. The Church was built by a stonemason and there is a lot of evidence in the grounds surrounding the Church that this type of work continued in this area of Mow..

The 1851 Census of Places of Religious Worship shows the Wesleyan church being full to capacity with 177 persons, average attendance 150.

The building itself was not only a Church upstairs but was also the Wesleyan day school downstairs. The church was part of the Tunstall Methodist circuit and did not have a resident preacher, but would have different preachers from the same circuit visiting on a rota basis.

The Wesleyan day school opened in 1874 with just one teacher, a Mrs. Emily Birch with an estimated 29 pupils. Then on June 5th 1882 as part of the new Education Act the school became part of the Wolstanton School Board. Its numbers greatly increased to 224. In 1890 a new school was to be built further down the road. It was built by Mr John Cope and was completed in 1891. The school was appropriately called the board school, then later became known as Castle Primary School.

The Church is now a museum covering many aspects of local history and is worth a visit if you are ever in the area.