A hand-written memoir has been donated to the museum.

The memoir offers a remarkable insight into the worldview of a Primitive Methodist minister in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Edward Clements’ account of his early days read rather like a Victorian melodrama with the fear of poverty and destitution sometimes far too close to comfort.

As a young man Edward felt called to become a Primitive Methodist local preacher despite being confronted with an examiner who was ‘a terror to the poor candidates.’ From these fearful beginnings sprang a long and colourful ministry, the recollection of which reveals a great deal not only about issues within Primitive Methodism but in the swiftly changing world of the time. As a minster working in Belfast Edward was shocked by the intolerance he saw around him and the violent relationship between Protestants and Catholics. In Gloucester he witnessed a terrible smallpox epidemic that persuaded him of the value of vaccination. In Huddersfield he struggled to maintain order in a church where radical ideas about class were in danger of splintering a congregation. He lived through and commented upon two world wars and this remarkable memoir covers the whole period.

The last few pages read more like a diary than a memoir. In 1946, after more than sixty years of preaching, Edward Clements was no longer included among the list of active preachers. This was clearly a great blow but he accepted it with good grace noting that ‘I expect the Super thought at the age of 82 I deserved relief.’ A few months later he died but he left behind a memoir of a remarkable life that is well worth remembering. We are grateful to Edward’s grand-daughter, Janet Field, for donating the book. Janet has also typed up the memoir and it is available to read at the museum.