Haverfordwest (Hwlffordd), Pembrokeshire

Haverfordwest is a sea port and market town, and the county town of Pembrokeshire, West Wales.

Methodism in Haverfordwest

Calvinistic Methodists: The Calvinistic Methodist society in Haverfordwest was established in 1743. by Howell Davies, (1717-1770), who was known as the Apostle of Pembrokeshire and who had been converted by Howell Harris in 1737. Howell Harris visited regularly and George Whitefield came to the town in 1768. The society met in City Road, and later in Cokey Street. In 1774 they built the Tabernacle chapel. A dispute over governance in 1790 led to the departure of the Calvinistic Methodists. At first they met in Bridge Street, and later in a corn loft in Prendergast until they built Ebenezer chapel in Perrot Road in 1817. The chapel was rebuilt in 1844 and restored in 1967-69.

The Moravian society in Haverfordwest started in 1739. In 1763, a few days before John Wesley's first visit to the town, the Moravian bishop John Gambold established a congregation of 26 members. The Moravians built a chapel in St Thomas' Green and Rosemary Lane.

Wesleyan Methodists: John Wesley made his first of fourteen visits to Haverfordwest on Wednesday 24 August 1763. At the time Wesley knew no one in the town and there is no evidence of any of Wesley’s preachers having visited the town before.

The Wesleyan Methodists built their preaching house in 1772 adjacent to the north side of St Martin’s Parish Church where Wesley occasionally preached. The congregation had to walk through St Martin’s churchyard to get to the ‘new house’. When Wesley visited the town on Tuesday 18 August 1772 he preached at the opening of this preaching place, which Wesley said was 'far the neatest in Wales.' The ‘new house’ was known as the ‘Wesley Room’. By 1781 there were 60 members and it was the largest congregation in the Pembroke Circuit. In 1818 the chapel was rebuilt on the same site in Perrot Road and Chapel Lane.

Primitive Methodists: S. Lewis writing in 1833 suggests that the Primitive Methodists were active at that time in Haverfordwest. William Allen, class leader and boot maker, in the 1851 Religious Census claimed that the Primitive Methodists had had a meeting place in Prendergast, Haverfordwest since 1836. The cause was started in 1823.

Sources
  • David Young, The Origin And History Of Methodism In Wales And The Borders (London: C.H. Kelly,1893).
  • L.J.Meyler, John Wesley and Pembrokeshire (Haverfordwest:The Western Telegraph,1956).
  • A.H. Williams, John Wesley In Wales (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1971).
  • F.F. Bretherton, 'Methodism in Haverfordwest and Neighbourhood', Proceedings of the WHS, vol. 15 (1925), pages 61-67.

Entry written by: DHR
Category: Place
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