John Wesley's (1703 -1791) visits
to Sheerness from
his journal 
John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, often visited SHEERNESS on his travels as an itinerant preacher, which led him to cover 250,000 miles by foot, horse or carriage throughout the British Isles.
He recorded his ministry in the journal he kept between 1735 and 1790. Concerned more with his followers’ spiritual state rather than their surroundings, he was sufficiently struck by the unusual nature of their situation at SHEERNESS to comment on it. Although the collection of wooden houses, known as ‘Blue Town’ (possibly so called because they were painted that colour with purloined Admiralty paint) was beginning to grow up around the dockyard at Sheerness in the mid- 1700s, there was otherwise no proper town there. Men who came to work in the dockyard were therefore often housed with their families in the old hulks used as breakwaters. Wesley was also impressed at a later visit, by the zeal of the local workforce who had freely given of their skills and precious free time to build a new chapel.
Quotations from Wesley’s visits to SHEERNESS
[Wednesday 16 December 1767]
At half an hour after six, I began reading prayers (the governor of the fort (SHEERNESS) having given me the use of the chapel), and afterward preached, though not without difficulty, to a large and serious congregation. The next evening it was considerably increased, so that the chapel was as hot as an oven. In coming out, the air, being exceedingly sharp, quite took away my voice, so that I knew not how I should be able the next day to read prayers or preach to so large a congregation. But in the afternoon the governor cut the knot, sending word that I must preach in the chapel no more. A room being offered, which held full as many people as I was able to preach to, we had a comfortable hour; and many seemed resolved to ‘seek the Lord while he may be found.’
Such a town (SHEERNESS ) as many of these live in, is scarce to be found again in England. In the dock adjoining to the fort there are six old men-of-war. These are divided into small tenements, forty, fifty, or sixty in a ship, with little chimneys and windows; and each of these contains a family. In one of them, where we called, man
and his wife and six little children lived. And yet all the ship was sweet and tolerably clean; sweeter than most sailing ships I have been in.
Monday, 2 Nov 1777.--I went to Chatham and preached in the evening to a lively, loving congregation. Tuesday, 3. I went by water to SHEERNESS. Our room being far too small for the people that attended, I sent to the Governor to desire (what had been allowed me before) the use of the chapel. He refused me (uncivilly enough), affecting to doubt whether I was in orders! So I preached to as many as it would contain in our own room.
Wednesday, 4.--I took a view of the old church at Minster, once a spacious and elegant building. It stands pleasantly on the top of a hill and commands all the country round. We went from thence to Queensborough, (sic) which contains above fifty houses and sends two members to Parliament. Surely the whole Isle of Sheppey is now but a shadow of what it was once.
[Tuesday 3 October 1786]
We then ran down, with a fair, pleasant wind, to SHEERNESS. The preaching-house (which was built in Bluetown) here is now finished, but by means never heard of. The building was undertaken a few months since, by a little handful of men, without any probable means of finishing it. But God so moved the hearts of the people in the Dock, that even those who did not pretend to any religion, carpenters, shipwrights, labourers, ran up, at all their vacant hours, and worked with all their might, without any pay. By this means a large square House was soon elegantly finished, both within and without; and it is the neatest building, next to the new chapel in London, of any in the south of England NB.
SHEERNESS Methodist Church
Methodist Church Broadway Salem Chapel knocked down in 1935 Originally in Bluetown
John Wesley was born in 1703. He was the son of an Anglican Rector at Epworth. He was educated at Christchurch College, Oxford, and ordained in the Church of England in 1728.
The METHODISTS were a band of Students and Tutors who believed in preaching to all, regardless of class, but particularly to the working class. Because of this, many church people refused to allow John Wesley to preach in their churches, so he held services in the open air and in houses. He travelled all over the country on horseback for fifty years. He came to SHEERNESS on October 3rd 1786 and again on December 3rd in 1788, to the Salem Chapel in Bluetown, which was eventually moved, piece by piece to Hope Street in 1839.
This building (church) was a Methodist Day School, from 1872 – 1901, where pupils were charged 1d weekly. It was then used as a Sunday School until 1925 when it was converted into a church.
The table in the vestry was used by Wesley as a Communion table. The pulpit which he used was made into a table and stands facing the front door.
The Organ. This is a wind instrument, originally hand-pumped, but now has an electric motor. There is only one other like it in the country, in Lincoln Cathedral.
The Altar. This came from the Ebenezer Church in Alexandra Road.
The Sunday School Banner was used in Salem Church (1813) so it is nearly 200 years old and very fragile. It is painted, not embroidered.
The Ethiopian Cross came as a present from a village in Ethiopia. One of our lay preachers brought it back from a visit. The Plaque came from a Catholic Church.
The Flags belong to the Rangers, Guides and Brownies. We also have a Union flag known to most people as the Union Jack, as it represents Great Britain.
Valuable items are the Bibles, and Hymn Books.
NB
Editor's note The Jehovahs' Witnesses on Sheppey built Kingdom Hall,their meeting place in Power Station Rd.,in the same manner in the 20th century. Sheppey Little Theatre in Meyrick Rd. was also built by volunteers over a five year period from 1970 to 1975. The voluntary ethos has always been strong on Sheppey.
