Description
The celebratory meeting at Goldenhill, near Stoke-on-Trent, on the occasion of the Mayflower Tercentenary was held under the auspices of the Tunstall Free Church Council. The Chairman for the event was Mr W.C. Colclough, who opened proceedings by – as was typical at such gatherings – berating his audience for the lack of piety evident in the present-day as compared with three hundred years ago. Referencing popular celebrities and spectacles of the day, Mr Colclough lamented that “People were apt to worship one thing – a Mary Pickford, a Harry Lauder, or someone who could knock somebody else out in five rounds” – than they were to admire the fortitude of the religious. What was needed was more Puritanism, not less, as some would suggest. His audience evidently agreed with him, or else were very polite, as he was roundly applauded. This was followed by an historical address given by Rev. A. Wilkes, who detailed the conditions under which non-conformists struggled for existence during the seventeenth century. Unusually, he directly acknowledged the split between the established Church of England and the Free Churches. He favourably compared the Church of England of 1920 with that of 1620, noting that modern Church of England ministers were “as evangelical as any of the Methodist ministers”.
The choir for the event was composed jointly of the Primitive Methodist Choir and the Choir of Christ Church, Goldenhill, the neighbouring Anglican church. This explains Wilkes’s openness, but it also suggests that the celebrations at Goldenhill were intended to bring together the community’s different faith groups.