Pilgrims & Prophets Christian Heritage Tours

10/02/2025

NEW MEMORIAL IN THE MAKING!

About ten years ago we set up a community non-profit organisation called Pilgrims & Prophets to help boost awareness of the Mayflower story in our part of England. As well as hosting many American visitors, we have also worked to develop how much is understood locally about some of the key people.

The village of Sturton le Steeple has several people of interest in its history. Best known is probably John Robinson, the 'pastor of the Pilgrims', whose wife was also from Sturton.....and so was her sister, who went to America as Katherine Carver. But it was also the birthplace of John Smyth, arguably the main instigator of the Separatists, who became the first English Baptist. Before that, in 1546, John Lassells of Sturton was burnt at the stake for his advanced Protestant opinions.

So quite a heritage - and a memorial sculpture has been funded by ‘Rural England’ with Bassetlaw District Council and a contribution from us at Pilgrims & Prophets, led by the village community. This will really help to put all these connections on the map. There will be an accompanying notice board to give further information on Robinson, Carver, Lassells and Smyth and their links with Sturton Le Steeple.

The scallop shell is a universal symbol of pilgrimage or travel and also a symbol of birth ie representing new beginnings and journeys.
The tall column represents the mast of The Mayflower as some people from Sturton were part of that journey and Sturton is part of various Pilgrim History Trails. The children from the village Primary School have done the designs for the base plate and have drawn pictures of what the Pilgrims would have found when they arrived. They have worked on their own designs and these have been transferred onto the metal.

The bottom section will be filled with pebbles to represent those who travelled on ‘The Mayflower’ but also to represent those who didn’t go but were part of the larger story.

So those who have come on our tours and walks might be interested to see what you have helped to fund and it will give another reason to visit Sturton when it is installed!

06/02/2025

BOSTON 2030

I spent the morning in a very sunny Boston discussing ideas for 'Boston 2020' - the commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the founding of the 'other' Boston over in Massachusetts....shall we say the 'junior' Boston?

The founding of Boston MA was a result of the 'great migration' which involved many people from Lincolnshire. This is a fantastic opportunity raise awareness of Boston Lincs as a tourist destination an d also to improve community spirit and pride. There are many great stories linked with this which we need to get into public consciousness and into schools including the early Protestants here such as the links with Thomas Cromwell and John Foxe, before we even get to 1630!

One of my points will be that we need to start in July 1629/July 2029 which is when John Cotton met with people like Winthrop and Roger Williams at Sempringham, home of the Arbella who gave her name to ship the first group used.

The story is also about much more than just the town of Boston. There is a powerful focus around Sempringham, Billingborough and Horbling, further north there is Willoughby with its Captain John Smyth links, then another group of interest around Alford, Belleau and Bilsby due to people like Anne Hutchinson and Henry Vane.

In fact there is so much of interest we need to be strategic in telling the story. John Cotton is important but challenging perhaps to get across to children. Anne Bradstreet, with her nest of chicks and her poetry is perhaps an attractive story even though there were some issues with her husband!

A very exciting project I think!

05/02/2025

AMAZING DAY IN SCUNTHORPE

Today I spoke at N Lincs Museum about Salim Wilson, the 'Black Prince' who settled in Scunthorpe in the early 1900s and became a well-known figure around the town. He worked as an evangelist for many years, touring the country dressed up in 'tribal costume' to win a crowd's interest, but alter settled down, married a local widow, and ran a shop.

His story if his origins in Sudan, his capture by Arab slave traders, his rescue by the British and his 'adoption' by a missionary who brought him to England is one of my all-time favourite Lincolnshire stories. He even went back to Africa as a missionary and met the famous General Gordon, whose forces had rescued him.

At the start of my talk two ladies introduced themselves as descendants of his wife...then several other people announced that they were ALSO descendants - though not everyone knew each other beforehand. So the whole event became a sort of family reunion. We all agreed that Scunthorpe needs to do more with this story - and the relatives all produced previously unknown pictures!

All very exciting! If you have missed the story you can watch my YouTube video of it here:

https://youtu.be/C9NyXOuG-sk

Salim, or Hathashil to use his original name, is also featured in one of my books about important people from that part of Lincs and Notts, 'From Here We Changed the World': https://bookwormretford.co.uk/.../from-here-we-changed.../

04/02/2025

THE PRIMITIVE METHODISTS

I am just finishing my new book, which takes the story told in my 'Restless Souls, Pilgrim Roots' book up to the present day. One movement that arrived like a comet and rather faded away were the Primitive Methodists, shown here at a meeting in Donington Lincs.

This is a very interesting picture of a Primitive Methodist event at Donington in the early 1900s. A parade of some form and possibly even some trips behind the traction engine.

The PMs here dated from about 1832 though they were popular in Lincolnshire by the 1820s. It was often said that the squire went to the CofE, the tenant farmers to the Wesleyans and the labourers to the PMs. The early PMs were almost 'Pentecostal' in style but by the 1840s they were trying to be 'respectable' and invested in building large chapels which saddled congregations with debt.

The event might be a trip out or possibly the anniversary service that they held every year. However most likely seems to have been the 1907 'centenary' event which did include people arriving behind traction engines. At 2.30pm a procession of a thousand people set off around the town of Donington to the Market Place with a band. At 5pm every one had a large 'tea' in the drill hall and the Methodist school room, then sports were held on the fields to which admission was free!

Why was it reported as a centenary event? Normally the Methodist tradition celebrated the anniversary of their chapel or congregation, but this seems to have been a celebration of the centenary of the whole movement which began near Stoke on Trent in May 1807.

31/01/2025

WESLEY AT WROOT

John Wesley was curate for his father at Wroot in 1728-9. This was a brief interlude in his development and long before he was at all famous, but it influenced his love for Axholme and Epworth which remained with him for the rest of his life.

I do like this rather idealistic painting of his work during his brief interlude at Wroot, and it certainly has atmosphere. Although it shows Wesley by a d**e, he might just as likely have been found in it - for at this time he developed a love of swimming....what we would call 'wild swimming' now! The d**es also influenced his preaching and he told a story of a woman who was due to go from Axholme to Misterton market and dreamed that she fell in one and drowned. Her friends laughed at her superstitious fears so she went anyway - and duly fell in one and indeed drowned.

Incidentally, did you know that we have d**es in Lincolnshire and not ditches as the Norse settlers here could not pronounce 'ch' and 'sh'? Thus we also have Kirton (or 'Kirkton') as they could not say 'Church'.

After Wroot Wesley went away and began his journey to fame as arguably England's greatest ever preacher. But in the 1740s he returned to Epworth and the land that he loved, and continued to do so regularly for the rest of his life.

28/01/2025

NOT TO BE MISSED!
My next talk at Edwinstowe....

24/01/2025

THE BLACK PRINCE OF SCUNTHORPE

I am delighted to be able to give my talk on the famous Salim Wilson (amongst his various names!) at the North Lincs Museum.

Come listen to the extraordinary story of Salim C. Wilson, born the son of a Dinka chieftain, he was enslaved and emancipated in 1878.

23/01/2025

HAVE YOU BEEN TO WORKSOP CASTLE?

Many people seem unaware there even is (or was) one!

Little seems to be known about Worksop Castle, though it is usually assumed to be late 11th Century and built as part of the Norman takeover of the land. Thus it would have been used by the de Busli and de Lovetot families for a couple of centuries. Its walls were said by some to have been demolished early – according to Leland to help build walls for Worksop Priory, if you believe him. Yet such is the lack of clarity here that others debate whether it ever had anything more than just wooden walls. It even seems debateable that Leland visited the site, since he seemed to think it was difficult to locate it….which is not even true today!

Another debate is over the origins of a fortified site here – which may have pre-dated the Normans. It was, allegedly, a ‘tomb of the Ancient Britons’ according to local folklore. Whatever, it eventually became engulfed by the town and by the 1920s was at risk of being swept away and ‘quarried for sand’. The Thoroton Society joined in the protests. However someone liked it – it was one of only twelve sites in Notts that got ‘scheduled’ as an ancient monument by July 1931. Who can guess what the other eleven were?

Its future was resolved in 1930 when the Duke of Newcastle’s agent offered to lease the site for 999 years. This offer was accepted by Worksop Urban Council in 1931. It was then planned to put up an ‘unclimbable fence’ to keep children out.

At the moment the site might qualify for a ‘least loved ancient monument’ award. There is an opportunity here for something a bit more captivating…

14/01/2025

A COMET IN THE SKY - A STRANGE VIEW FROM LINCOLNSHIRE

In past times people had many ideas about what comets actually were, but perhaps none were stranger than the view of John Rastrick, a 17th Century clergyman from the south of the county.
Rastrick believed that the stars were other worlds, and a comet was a star being destroyed. He thought that Jesus had been sent as a unique saviour for OUR world, and that all these other worlds had been sent their own individual saviours. Some of these had rejected their saviours, and so were doomed to destruction as a comet. As a result, he argued that a comet only ever appeared once...so was in dispute with some of the astronomers of his day!

Rastrick was born at Heckington in about 1649. He became curate of Algarkirk (where he was ‘tolerated to read prayers’) and Wyberton, then moved to Kirton in Holland in 1674 but resigned in November 1687 because he could no longer accept the lack of reform of Church organisation. He had already won some enemies, been fined and excommunicated, his offences including paying fines for Baptists, refusing the surplice and rejecting illegitimate children from christening. He refused communion to the unrepentant and sinful 'lord' of one of his parishes and also refused to baptise two children with ungodly parents. All of this got him in trouble with the bishop.

Finally, in 1686 he got into trouble about the communion table which he kept in the chancel when it was not being used, but moved into the nave when it was. This upset a bishop and also the mercers' Company, patrons of the parish.

His resignation was perhaps encouraged by King James’s declaration of religious freedom since this offered a better prospect for making a living as an independent. Hovering between two ways of doing religion, he felt ‘I was neither fit for Church nor Meeting’.
In his career as a nonconformist, he worked at Spalding from 1688 to 1697, Rotherham and then Lynn. He left his telescopes and books to his son but rather curiously, in 1707, was the only man in 200 years who gave money for books for Lincoln cathedral library - although he had left the Church of England years before!

09/01/2025

Arthur Pink (1886-1952): A Prolific Notts Writer

When I took one of America's best heritage steam railways to the remote Colorado mining town of Silverton, I little knew that I was following in the footsteps of one of the best-known religious writers from Nottinghamshire.

When D H Lawrence attended the Theosophists’ Hall in Nottingham around 1908 he may have bumped shoulders with Arthur Pink (1886-1952), a young man from Nottingham who attended from 1903-08 during which he was involved in ‘clairvoyance, psychometry and magical healing’. He became well-known in theosophical circles and Annie Besant invited him to join her in Madras.

However, his parents were committed Congregationalists and one night his father gave him a Biblical text: ‘There is a way which seems right to man, but its end is the way of death’. (Prov 14, 12). Pink stayed in his room for three days, emerged converted to evangelical Christianity and attended his next scheduled Theosophy lecture to announce his rejection of all its teachings. Then he spoke to a Nottingham church in front of seven hundred on ‘I am not ashamed of the Gospel’.

Pink went into ministry at Silverton, Colorado, as a Congregationalist and then at four other American churches, in the USA, and Australia with mixed success. After leaving Silverton he seems to have decided to become a Baptist. He was more successful as a travelling evangelist and later as a writer but he was a rather complex character and pastoral ministry was not his strength. As a Baptist in Australia, his Calvinism put him out of step with most other Baptist leaders.

Pink resigned from his last church in 1934 and eventually settled almost as a recluse on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland where he gradually became isolated from the local churches which were mainly Presbyterian. He proved to be most successful as a Biblical writer of ‘Studies in the Scriptures’ which issued regularly for decades from 1922 to just after the end of his life and also wrote many other books – he is still widely read today. It might be easy to criticise Pink for some of the obvious weaknesses in his life, but he does seem to have suffered from some form of depression but nonetheless, though his relentless focus on scripture, came to be a benefit for hundreds of thousands across the world.

06/01/2025

A GALLOWS TALE OF REDEMPTION

In 1782 a man named Cooper Hall was convicted at the Nottingham Assize of robbing the Newark post boy and taking a bill of exchange worth £120 on the Great North Road near Scarthing Moor (most likely) and was sentenced to death. He had done this by hitching a lift with the post boy and giving him a drink, which was laced with o***m - rendering the youth senseless.
Two New Connexion Baptist ministers, Pollard of Loughborough and Tarratt of Kegworth, visited Hall in prison and he showed signs of conversion.

At the ex*****on a large crowd gathered. The two ministers accompanied Hall to the scaffold. The condemned man gave out a hymn and joined in the singing of it ‘more cheerfully than anyone’, after which Pollard addressed the crowd. The ex*****on then took place, the body was placed in a coffin on a cask, and, according to some, taken back to a room the Baptists had hired in Halifax Place. Tarratt mounted another cask and preached a second sermon on Psalm 86: 12, 13 ‘For great is thy mercy toward me: and thou hast delivered my soul from lowest hell’. Meanwhile Hall's body was supposed to have been taken away to be hung in chains at the scene of his crime, but according to Throsby this was not done due to his previous good character.

Surely a service unique in local Baptist history! Not everyone approved. It was ‘one of the most appalling incidents of religious development which it is possible to imagine,’ according to one commentator, yet it helped attract many to the Baptists - ‘from this moment the General Baptists in Nottingham dated the prosperity of their cause’ one historian wrote.

As a result, the Nottingham Baptists became well known in a town dominated by Independents and Presbyterians, and grew rapidly in numbers and influence. The Methodists had a similar ex*****on event a few decades later.

It is intriguing that Thoroton/Throsby (the local historians) tell the tale of Hall's crime but make no mention of his redemption, since Baptists were unpopular with some sectors of society!

(Reports say the crime was at 'Jearling Moor' but I have no record of that site...I am guessing this might be a misprint for Scarthing Moor).

03/01/2025

STRANGE EVENTS AT THE RECTORY.....

I now seem to have so many stories of eccentric Lincolnshire vicars and rectors that I have enough to make an entertaining talk out of them. Occasionally I come across someone who I think might be interesting, do a little digging, and end up with a fascinating story. Here is one of those - a man who eventually got forced out of the CofE for being a Spiritualist!

In the early 1900s discussing spiritual healing and other supernatural topics was controversial in Anglican circles and attracted strong interest. After the First War, there was also great interest in spiritualism. In 1924, Rev G Maurice Elliott (1883-1959), rector of Snitterby, spoke in support of supernatural healing to crowded houses in the private theatre at Aisthorpe Hall, Lincoln and elsewhere, and was given the support of Archdeacon Blackie. Elliott believed that healing through Christ was available to all who prayed for it – whatever their personal faith. But there was much more to his interest in the supernatural than that.....

Elliott and his wife were interested in spiritualism and all other forms of the supernatural. They had written 'Angels seen Today' in 1919, which included an account of an angel seen at a man’s death bed by his wife and himself, and he later became the secretary of the Churches’ Fellowship for Psychical Study. He had already astonished 1921 readers of the 'Market Rasen Mail' with his story of how he and his wife had been guided by an angel to find medical help. He knew men like Conan Doyle, who had an interest in Spiritualism.

In 1921 Elliott arranged for 'Princess Karadja' to open the Snitterby Fete. This was very exotic and impressive - but who was she? She was actually the Swedish daughter of a 'Vodka king' who had married a much older Ottoman prince, although living in London, and was was president of the Universal Gnostic Alliance, founded in January 1912 to propagate gnosis (knowledge) of "the Great Spiritual Laws which rule the Universe, and thus promote the spiritual evolution of the human race." In the 1930s she became strongly pro-Nazi and an anti-semite. Not really a typical Christian lady!

By 1923 he was attracting large crowds to his church, who listened to a choir robed in black and purple and then the rector’s stories of how he conversed with dead parishioners – including managing an argument between a dead woman and her relatives as to her place of burial – as well as running a ‘healing circle’ in the rectory. He told them that his wife was a psychic.

Elliott was described as ‘of Reepham’ when appointed vicar of Lutton in Lincs from late 1927, where he was reported as ‘a man with a message’, until moving to Over Wallop in 1930. However in the 1930s when at Cricklewood he found Church authorities less tolerant, and was accused of acting in conjunction with Spiritualists. He resigned his living after the Bishop of London refused permission for him to bring a psychic into church. He continued to write – 'The Psychic Life of Jesus' was published in 1938. However in 1950 he was appointed as vicar of Glynde.

Elliott is an example of how churchmen struggled to come to terms with the supernatural because Protestantism had only a limited structural theology to comprehend it by. Only with the growth of Pentecostalism did this start to emerge. As a result, Elliott's book on Jesus portrayed Him as some form of ‘superlative medium’. His last book was 'The Bible as Psychic History' which was published in 1959. He was also, perhaps surprisingly, a member of the Archbishop’s Commission on Divine Healing from 1953 which reported in 1958 – this heavily rejected spiritualism along with Christian Science and expressed doubts about healing and demons, so Elliott was one of several members who dissociated themselves from its findings.

02/01/2025

ONLINE TALKS ON AMERICAN HISTORY

Speaking especially to our many friends in the USA. I have experimented a couple of times this year with delivering online talks for American groups. Apart from me having to be up in the middle of the night, these have worked well.

You can message me for a list of talks on the Mayflower, the Great Migration, about Rhode Island, and so much more. Or you can download from this OneDrive link:
https://1drv.ms/b/s!AkOhgGlN3N03hsEqDr4nl-UbNrQvtg?e=Z6ohvn

29/12/2024

THE GREAT MIGRATION

The 'Great Migration' of 1630-4 took many people from Lincolnshire to America, most famously on the 'Arbella' and its associated fleet. Here is the window at Lincoln Cathedral that commemorates this.

However the story really began with a famous meeting of puritans at Sempringham in July 1629. This was attended by many famous puritans including Roger Williams, John Cotton, Thomas Ho**er and John Winthrop. Winthrop famously fell into a bog along the way. So as we move towards planning the celebrations, I will be arguing they should start in 2029!

18/12/2024

ORIGINS OF THE MAYFLOWER

Often American visitors assume that the story of the Mayflower Pilgrims begins at Scrooby, but actually the origins of the Scrooby congregation can be more correctly located at Babworth just outside Retford.

This is because the minister at Babworth, Richard Clifton, was a very effective evangelical preacher and attracted the attention of puritans like William Brewster and later William Bradford. But before that, Clifton had been 'headhunted' for the Babworth job from his previous church at Marnham. This was because the puritan congregation at Babworth knew exactly the type of man they wanted and had brought Clifton from Marnham in 1586.

In 1605 Clifton was 'deprived' of his position at Babworth and is likely to have moved to Scrooby where he was for a time the leader of the congregation. However, he does seem to have been looked down on by other 'separatists' of the era including John Robinson, John Smyth and Richard Bernard (whose daughter was a founder of Rhode Island), because he had not been to university.

In the Netherlands, Robinson supplanted Clifton as the spiritual leader. When Brewster, Bradford etc moved to Leiden, Clifton stayed in Amsterdam. He may never have travelled on the Mayflower, but he certainly provided the spiritual impetus that set the whole process going.

Babworth itself remains a lovely English country church - hidden in a forest, but Clifton would be horrified to see how Victorian clergy re-introduced many features which he would have considered horribly Roman Catholic!

Want to know more about where to visit in Mayflower Pilgrim country? You can buy our guide book which tells you about all the places to see.

You can buy the American edition on this link to Amazon USA:
https://www.amazon.com/Here-Changed-World-Nottinghamshire-Lincolnshire/dp/099278574X/ref=sr_1_5?crid=JLRHY35K9ZT8&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.R4HVRsDWwMnyHfIsqGkFUpeKDEfgQvIIusMgSXVl1779jFn65iFkEmzosDtT64CXfetEuFoVOczgdPNoNlr7xmgdv86IiWZPJyor2JHIVR5drvazAnACyahye-RRU4dZ653P3zhygVXClKcgb6EJAeogRfeP65ZDJE81iybLJf9Zko-qLVfvlMNLsNhzAbKAlDvXyyL9eqMCPJ7qelgMZ6MmIyGsE3bBu5P_LqlZN7E.XbV1mRcseIXN-0SvoJY8pDzIG8innIezAOd9-6CpjNU&dib_tag=se&keywords=adrian+gray&qid=1734533834&sprefix=adrian+gray%2Caps%2C193&sr=8-5

UK: https://bookwormretford.co.uk/product/from-here-we-changed-the-world/

15/12/2024

THE DECLINE OF RELIGIOUS ENGAGEMENT

It is often argued that the decline of religious belief and church attendance somehow followed on from Darwin and evolution. However some intriguing evidence has come to light of the religious engagement of people admitted to Nottingham workhouse in 1841-3. The data was collected by William Felkin, a Baptist, who was opposed to the idea that workhouses should have paid Anglican chaplains - he thought all denominations should have access.

Felkin discovered that those admitted included an actual majority who had no religious faith or engagement at all. 54% gave various answers indicating that faith played no real role in their lives. Given that this was Nottingham, there was a lower than typical level for the CoE as well with only 19%, and perhaps a greater than normal level of other Christian groups.

There were also a few unusual ones. One 'Chartist Christian', one Christadelphian, someone who believed in then 'prophet' Joanna Southcott, a Sandemanian, and two New Testament Disciples. One person said 'anything to get a living' and another 'not what I ought to be'. At least they were honest!

The data is helpful in showing us the level of faith amongst the poorest. So the argument that the Victorian churches somehow 'lost' the urban poor does mot hold in Nottingham - it suggests they never really had them in the start of the era.

14/12/2024

THE BLACK PRINCE OF SCUNTHORPE

Adrian is delighted to be giving this talk in Scunthorpe in the new year. Book now - because it is an amazing story!

Come listen to the extraordinary story of Salim C. Wilson, born the son of a Dinka chieftain, he was enslaved and emancipated in 1878.

09/12/2024

HAUGHTON AND BOTHAMSALL, 1837

Scottish Library have added some OS first edition maps, surveyed in 1837. Here is an extract from a very interesting part of Notts near Walesby.

You will notice that we have 'Bottomsall' rather than the more polite name that it has nowadays - though my old Dad used to insist it was 'Bottomsore' which he found endlessly amusing. I am not sure what he would have made of Sh*ttle Lane being nearby.
SE of there we have the remains of the old house of the earls of Clare at Haughton - which had been long replaced by Clumber at this stage. It is connected across the Meden by only a footbridge. Parish boundaries here are also very interesting - the wandering line south of Bothamsall suggesting the alteration of the rivers.
On parish boundaries we might also note that Lound Hall seems to sit in a little parish of its own - though in fact this was a 'detached' part of Elkesley. 'By tradition' this was explained as being due to a problem over a burial, but Lound is now in Bothamsall. The path from Lound to West Drayton is marked, but today there is a branch off this to Milton....not then in existence apparently.

In Haughton Park we have the ruined chapel, still there of course, and also the clear remains of two fish ponds which can also still be traced. What shows up very nicely is Haughton's duck decoy, supposedly created form the moat of an old castle....but I would love to see a proper study of that! A third fish pond is shown in an area that is now fields.