Primitive Methodism originates at Mow Cop camp meeting

Background. The movement began as a revivalist effort within Wesleyan Methodism, inspired in part by American evangelist Lorenzo Dow, whose visits encouraged a return to fervent, open-air preaching. The leaders who originated Primitive Methodism sought to restore the spirit of revivalism they felt was found in John Wesley's ministry, initially with no intent of forming a new church. Separately, Hugh Bourne had begun a religious revival in the colliery district of Harriseahead and Kidsgrove, and William Clowes joined him in 1805.

The Camp Meeting. On 31 May 1807, Bourne and Clowes held a fourteen-hour camp meeting at Mow Cop, located on the Staffordshire and Cheshire border. This event, inspired by reports of American camp meetings, resulted in many converts. Mow Cop is noted as the birthplace of the Primitive Methodist movement, marking the start of this specific revivalist tradition.

Formation of the Society. Following the camp meeting, a society meeting held in a kitchen and then a warehouse became the nucleus of a circuit. A chapel was built at Tunstall in July 1811, and in February 1812, the group took the name The Society of the Primitive Methodists. The name signified that they were conducting themselves like the ancient Church of the early centuries and in the way of John Wesley and the original Methodists, particularly regarding open-air meetings, with an emphasis on personal conversion and holiness of life. Because Bourne and Clowes had already had their memberships revoked from the Wesleyan Church (in 1808 and 1810 respectively) and had not intended to start a distinct denomination, the Society was not a schism from a parent body.