The Story of Wesley House Part One

The story of the founding of Wesley House — a Methodist theological institution in Cambridge for the training of ministers — is very much rooted in the context of the period that it was founded.

The college opened towards the end of a period when there were searching discussions taking place in the national Church about theological training. These debates, over a period of time, had ranged over a number of issues: whether college-based theological training was needed at all, what the curriculum should be, the subjects that should be studied as standard, and the cost of the enterprise. Throughout the late Victorian period, the deep urge to increase educational opportunities at all levels of society increased, and as part of that movement, major changes were taking place at Cambridge University. As Christopher Brooke has described in his comprehensive text on the University’s history:

There was little theology in Cambridge in the mid-nineteenth century and it was one of the supreme centres of the subject in the world from 1870 on. If we enquire into clergy training in the new professional sense, we see a similar advance.¹

Throughout the 19th century, there was also a growing concern that educated congregations could well be dissatisfied with a ministry of modest academic attainment. W.R. Ward argues in Religion and Society in England, 1790-1850 that competitive feelings towards those within other denominations should also not be underestimated.² The standards of the Wesleyan Church should not fall behind the established church.

There was, of course, always the opposite view, argued with great passion that too much education would secularize the students and rob them of their evangelical enthusiasm. This view found an expression both at local and at national denominational level and was frequently voiced.

The journey towards formal training for Wesleyan Methodist clergy continued onwards and in January 1835 the first 14 students selected for training arrived at the first Wesleyan training institution at Hoxton, London. These were followed by Didsbury in Manchester, Richmond in Surrey, Headingley in Leeds and finally Handsworth in Birmingham in 1881. Between 1854-1855, a major step towards the possibilities in Cambridge was made when the M.A. became obtainable for non-conformists at Cambridge and Oxford for the first time.

The journey of training ministers for active work continued, and by the early years of the 20th century, there was a widespread view that something had to change in Wesleyan ministerial education. There was a sense that what the Church looked for and needed in its ministers was changing. Dissatisfaction also grew with the way Wesleyan clergy were being trained: a wish to make changes; a groping after something that had not yet been achieved.

With this as a background it might not be a surprise that, at the Methodist Conference of 1911, a Methodist layman, Michael Gutteridge, got up and promised the funding for the building and foundation of a training college for Methodist preachers in the city of Cambridge. Gutteridge had become wealthy through his business dealings as a draper in Italy. He had returned to England on retirement. He offered to contribute £5,000 towards the cost. Another layman, William Greenhalgh, had also become interested in the project, and on his death in 1920 it was discovered he had bequeathed £20,000 to the project in Cambridge.

Both Gutteridge and Greenhalgh had had the very slenderest of educational resources available to them but Gutteridge in particular was determined that the education that had been denied to him should be available to the ministry of his beloved Methodist Church. Both men made numerous donations over a period of time to make the vision a reality.

It is interesting to note that there had been talk of opening a college in Cambridge previously. Indeed, as early as 1871, during the discussions that led to the founding of The Leys School in Cambridge, Joseph Ryder (of Ryder and Amies) had referred to the possibility of a theological college in the city as well as the school.

After the First World War the project gathered pace. Gutteridge was tireless in his support and passion. In 1920 the Methodist Conference took the unusual step in the circumstances of appointing a Principal of Wesley House to take up his duties in the September of the following year, before the founding trust had been drawn up and before land had been acquired,. The person appointed was Revd. Dr. Maldwyn Hughes. It was he who had put Gutteridge and Greenhalgh in touch with each other.

The early students of Wesley House all bear testimony to the man they affectionately referred to as ‘the Boss’. One of those under him, Revd Rupert Davis, would later tell me:

Maldwyn Hughes was a father figure who we venerated, and I think we picked up, rather than learnt, a conception of the pastoral office as being a kind of father to the flock. But this was not made explicit; this was just what we were expected to pick up from going about the place with him. He was the friend of us all, we all loved him.³

The aim was to provide students with the best University education available, together with instruction in distinctive Methodist doctrine, expressly in order that they should be able to uphold and maintain those emphases within the wider Church.

As the opening of Wesley House drew nearer and no site for a building had been found, it became obvious that the College was going to have to open without buildings of its own. Arrangements had been made with the authorities of Cheshunt (Congregational) College to rent a house at 2 Brookside, which in addition to providing accommodation for the Principal and his family, had space suitable for one lecture room and a common room. It is interesting to note that from its earliest days, ecumenical relationships and potentials were a key part of the story of Wesley House. Relationships between the ministerial training colleges in Cambridge were always good, and this would be seen later in the conversations that led to the foundation of the Federation of Cambridge Theological Colleges. In June 1921 Maldwyn Hughes and his family moved in.

The task Hughes faced was enormous. Externally, in Cambridge it was vital to establish the academic credentials of Wesley House quickly and decisively within the University. Internally, there were those in the Methodist community who were not convinced that the opening of a theological college in Cambridge was a good idea. The old arguments about the need for theological training of the ministry at all, and particularly in the ‘rarified’ atmosphere of Cambridge, still carried weight.

On an evening in early October 1921, Dr and Mrs Hughes welcomed six young men to coffee in their Drawing Room. It was an extraordinary first group of students: Eric W. Baker, H.S. Collins, Harold Roberts, G.E. Grieve, W. Russell Shearer, G. Basil Jackson.

Of that group of six students, three went onto become Presidents of the Methodist Conference (Shearer, Roberts and Baker). Of the others, Stanley Collins had a very significant pastoral ministry. George Grieve spent time working with the SCM (Student Christian Movement), the British Council of Churches, and the Bible Society. Basil Jackson went on to distinguished overseas service in what was then Ceylon. All of them were graduates, and the fact that Baker and Collins had taken undergraduate studies at Cambridge meant that they could help the others to navigate through University etiquette and customs. On October 12th, 1921, Mr. and Mrs. Bisseker of The Leys School gave an ‘At Home’ (a social event organised at the school) where Maldwyn and Helen Hughes were introduced to a number of invited members of the University and the Town. Because Wesley House was not a University College, access to the structures of the University was through students becoming members of Fitzwilliam House (later to become Fitzwilliam College), ably negotiated by the Censor of Fitzwilliam, Henry Reddaway.

Progress was not always easy. At the end of December 1922, Maldwyn Hughes was taken ill and in January of the following year was obliged to leave home for some weeks. In only its second year, Wesley House was without its only member of teaching staff for a complete term. Perhaps the huge amount of extra work that Hughes had had to undertake in the previous three months had proved too much for his constitution.

One of these pieces of work took the form of the purchase of what would become the site of Wesley House as we know it today, as well as the negotiations around it with Jesus College. During the summer vacation of 1922, Maldwyn Hughes was walking along Jesus Lane with his brother, when his attention was drawn to a site where, as Helen Hughes later wrote, ‘tumble-down stables and a row of derelict shops stood.’ The row had bills posted on it advertising it for sale. Enquiries were quickly made and the site proved to be the property of Jesus College. The position was ideal but the plot was far too small for what was needed. Negotiations were entered into (much aided by the Bursar of Jesus College, Bernard Manning – a Congregationalist layman with Methodist ancestors) and a site almost twice the size of the original parcel of land was sold. It was the first land that Jesus College (originally a monastic institution) had ever sold from the estate. The sale included Nos. 31 and 32 Jesus Lane.

Sir Aston Webb (then President of the Royal Academy) was appointed architect. All windows overlooking Jesus College were to have frosted glass in them. The finest materials were to be used throughout. Building continued apace through 1923. In 1924, the A and B staircases (together with the Dining Room and Common Room) were completed, and on return from Easter vacation in 1925, students took up their new rooms and building work continued on the Library and C block. Harold Roberts was appointed Assistant Tutor. In October of 1925 the student numbers rose to a total of 17 and on October 23rd the formal opening of Wesley House took place. The day began with a dedicatory service with the President of the Methodist Conference (Dr. J.H. Ritson) preaching. This was followed by a lunch at The ‘Lion’ Hotel. Present at the lunch were The Vice-Chancellor of the University, the Secretary of the Methodist Conference, the Mayor of Cambridge, and the Masters of Jesus, Selwyn, and Christ’s Colleges. The President of Magdalene, the Master of Trinity Hall, the Principal of Newnham, the Regius Professor of Divinity, and Professors F.C. Burkitt, Bethune Baker, and Sir A. Quiller Couch were also present. At 6 pm, members of the Churches from around the Cambridge Methodist Circuit and other local Methodists were invited for a more informal meeting.

In 1927, with the number of students at Wesley House fast approaching its projected limit of 25, the decision was made to appoint a full Tutor for the College. From the floor of the Pastoral Session of the British Methodist Conference, somebody nominated R. Newton Flew for the post. They contented themselves with listing Flew’s academic achievements and then sitting down. The list was so impressive that, against other favoured applicants, Newton Flew was appointed.

Flew, as Tutor and then Principal, was to have a massive influence over the future and direction of Wesley House for the next 27 years. He came from a long line of preachers and was a brilliant academic — believed by many to be the leading Methodist Ecumenical theologian of his time. He was well known for taking an extraordinary interest in guiding the futures of the students he taught. One of those students, Revd Raymond George put it that:

I felt for some years to come he was kind of guiding my steps from behind the scenes, probably it was he who proposed me for the Hartley Lecture in 1953… And I felt, to that extent, he concerned himself with his pupils as regards what you might call their academic careers.⁴

There was a feeling amongst the student body that Flew felt he was coming to put Wesley House on the academic map and there is no doubt that he was ambitious for the College.

In terms of the buildings of Wesley House the plans for the Principal’s Lodge and the Chapel were drawn up and the Lodge was ready for occupation in October 1929. Another benefactor in the life of the House appeared in the form of Edmund Lamplough who gave the money for the Chapel to be built in memory of his brother. A Cambridge College Chapel layout was selected and on May 17th, 1930, the Chapel was opened.

Early in 1931 Mr. Harold Speed, an artist of some note, was commissioned by Lamplough to decorate the walls of the Chapel. He produced a painting of Christ for the Apse, and this was followed by wall frescoes which were finished in 1933. Opinions about the paintings varied widely almost as soon as they were displayed. Their style and themes dated all too quickly. Gordon Rupp said later that by the late 1960s, tourists being given guided tours of Cambridge were being brought to Wesley House for the amusement value of the artwork. They were papered over in the late 1960s and the Chapel redecorated.

When students first arrived at Wesley House, they were thrown into an experience that was almost monastic in its sense of a shared life and discipline. The day began with the sound of the junior porter bringing round the men’s shaving water. There was breakfast followed by community prayers in the Chapel, with attendance being compulsory. Prayers would finish in time for those who had 9 am lectures to cycle or walk to the Divinity School. It was expected that all students would spend all morning working. After lunch in the College, the afternoon was free until around 4 pm. There would be a cup of tea back at the College, followed by more work, until evening prayers and then the formal Hall dinner. There might be time for a quick game of snooker or table tennis, but fairly quickly it was back up to the studies for more work until around 10 pm when people gathered for ‘pubs’ - a gathering in a selected student room each night for coffee and conversation. The gates of the College were locked at 10 pm and there was a system of fines imposed on those who returned late. The life was strict and highly regulated. Fiancées were allowed to visit at the weekend but not on weekdays and were not allowed to stay.

It was not all work. From the very earliest days the staff at Wesley House and the Ministers of Wesley Church, Cambridge did their best did their best to encourage links between the students of Wesley House and the University Methodist Society (Meth. Soc.). Every student at Wesley House was allocated to a Meth. Soc. House Group, and once a week, the members of the group would congregate in various student’s rooms in Wesley House for breakfast and morning prayer. Wesley House students also preached on Sundays on a regular basis, travelling widely across Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and Norfolk to lead worship. There were other staples of College life in Wesley House: the Sermon Class on Wednesday evenings, the College play, the production of a College magazine, and football matches against other colleges. All of these played their part in bonding the students together.

In 1937 Maldwyn Hughes announced his decision to retire. Newton Flew wrote these words in the Wesley House magazine writing about the unexpected things that had struck him arriving as a Tutor ten years previously:

The second unexpected fact was that Wesley House represented something new in theological education. It was neither seminary nor University College. It retained the intense devotion and corporate life of the seminary, and yet was open to the intellectual breezes that sweep through a great university. This, too, was due to the practical sagacity and foresight of one man. It was to his vision that we owe the choice of our present magnificent site…The third fact was that the College was a family…To Dr. Hughes, a true House-Father, we have all gone for guidance in trouble and perplexity, and have found his uprightness and his downrightness cleaving a straight way through our difficulties.⁵

Flew was a natural choice to succeed Hughes as Principal, and the Methodist Conference of 1937 appointed Revd. William Frederick Flemington as Tutor of Wesley House. Flemington had trained at the House and had been Assistant Tutor at Handsworth. His careful, meticulous style was in direct contrast to Flew.

Beyond this time of change at the end of the ‘30s, the first great watershed within the history of Wesley House was fast approaching in the shape of the Second World War. After it, things were never to be the same again.