Primitive Methodism in the United Kingdom

Primitive Methodism was a major movement in English Methodism from about 1810 until the Methodist Union in 1932. The denomination emerged from a revival at Mow Cop in Staffordshire. "Primitive" meant "simple" or "relating to an original stage"; the Primitive Methodists saw themselves as practising a purer form of Christianity, closer to the earliest Methodists.

Primitive Methodists were characterised by the relatively plain design of their chapels and their low church worship, compared to the Wesleyan Methodist Church, from which they had split. Its social base was among the poorer members of society, who appreciated both its content (damnation, salvation, sinners and saints) and its style (direct, spontaneous, and passionate). It was democratic and locally controlled and offered an alternative to the more middle-class Wesleyan Methodists and the establishment-controlled Church of England, which were not at all democratic in governance. Even so, it was too formal for some adherents, who moved on to Pentecostalism. Growth was strong in the mid-19th century. Membership declined after 1900 because of growing secularism in society, competition from other Nonconformist denominations such as William Booth's Salvation Army, a resurgence of Anglicanism among the working classes, and competition among various Methodist bodies.

Gradually the differences between the Primitive Methodists and the Wesleyans became smaller, and the two denominations eventually merged (together with the United Methodists) to become the Methodist Church of Great Britain, in 1932. In the United States, the Primitive Methodist Church has continued to this day, and some British Methodist churches also retain their Primitive traditions.

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