Redditch is a town twenty miles north east of Worcester. In the middle ages it became the centre for needle making and by the 1870s Redditch was supplying 90% of the world's hand sewing needles. It was also a major centre for the manufacture of fish hooks.

John Wesley visited Redditch, then a small village, in 1752, 1756 and 1761.

The Wesleyan Methodists began preaching in Redditch in 1807, establishing classes, and then a chapel and a Sunday School in 1808.The chapel was extended in 1817 and replaced in 1842-43; the new chapel was greatly enlarged in 1881. A chapel was opened at Headless Cross in 1857, and replaced in 1873-74 by a new Gothic building, designed by Charles Bell. This building was destroyed by a gale in March 1895 and the chapel which replaced it was demolished in 2016.

A dispute over the preaching of Miss Butler and other women in 1831 led to the creation of an Arminian Methodist society in Redditch and the opening of a chapel in Evesham Street in 1833. This society joined the Wesleyan Methodist Association in 1836 and then the UMFC. Enlargements in 1854 and 1871 were followed by the building of a new chapel, Mount Pleasant, in 1899-1900.

There was a Primitive Methodist presence in Redditch from the 1830s, with chapels opened in 1839, 1849 and 1890-91.

Entry written by: DHR
Category: Place
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