An overview of the information about the Lovefeast from the Woodlands Chapel blog and facebook page
It is the end of June 2020 when normally speaking we would be busy getting the barn ready for the annual Alport Lovefeast on the first Sunday in July. This year gatherings are still not permitted because of the pandemic and there will be no Lovefeast.
Worship in the barn dates back to the seventeenth century and the Lovefeast itself has been happening for over 250 years. I decided that as I wasn’t going to be preparing the barn and making the cake, I would instead use the time to collate the information that we have gathered over the years about the Lovefeast. Maybe instead of attending people may enjoy to read about the history of this extraordinary event and participate through the photos and videos.
We had become conscious over time that fewer and fewer people had long links back to the history of the Lovefeast and Chapel, and that we would need to try and record what was known whilst it was still possible.
The first history by Hannah Mitchell
Hannah Mitchell was asked to write a short history in the 1930’s and she researched what was known at that time and published a little booklet. In the 1990’s it was reprinted by Eric Cocking from Bamford and he added a forward which brought the history up to date at that time. This has been scanned and is available to view on our facebook page : https://www.facebook.com/pg/hopewoodlands/photos/?tab=album&album_id=2362781560604402
Old photos are also available to view at :
Newspaper articles and other accounts
We have been trying to collect information about the history of Chapel and the Lovefeast since Chapel’s 150th anniversary year in 2018 and we have received press cuttings saved by Sue Howe’s family (Eyres) describing various gatherings over the years:
Jennifer Fox also found many interesting articles but the quality was poor, so I have retyped them and they are on our blog at:
https://woodlandschapel.wordpress.com/…/press-cuttings-art…/
As there have been no newspaper articles recording the service of late, I decided to write up last year’s Lovefeast to maintain the history for those interested :
https://woodlandschapel.wordpress.com/…/…/27/lovefeast-2019/
There are photos of last year’s service at :
There have been two articles written in recent times, one by Helen Moat for Derbyshire Life :
Derbyshire Life digital archive, p 42-45
http://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/…/production/de…
and one by Owen Roberts for Methodist Heritage News : http://www.methodistheritage.org.uk/heritage-news-autumn-2018.pdf
also scanned at :
Richard Bradley forwarded two articles that he had which are scanned and can be found at :
Hymns
Hannah Mitchell recorded the format of the Lovefeast, but fewer and fewer people still knew the traditional hymns. Mary Bradwell led the singing for many years and Joanna Mackey took up the mantel and also noted down the hymns that people had chosen over the years. As part of the Chapel’s 150th year celebrations, we had an exhibition at the Anglers Rest in Bamford and Joanna worked with a small group of singers to be able to sing the hymns on the opening night. Fortunately they were recorded (on a phone) and so we were able to put them on our facebook page so that those who are interested can listen and learn the ones that they are not sure of.
Actual recordings :
Jesu Lover of My Soul :
Come and Let us Seetly Join :
God be with you till we meet again :
Recording with words and music :
https://www.facebook.com/watch/hopewoodlands/319848722303679/
Music and words : https://www.facebook.com/pg/hopewoodlands/photos/?tab=album&album_id=2330607517155140
Cake and Spring Water
Another aspect of the Lovefeast is the sharing of cake and spring water. The natural water still flows into the old stone trough, but we now filter it for the house and this is the water that is shared. As for the cake, we suspect that various recipes have been used over time, but we have received one from Madge Marsden who made it for many years (now aged over 100). As I didn’t have a recipe to work from, for the last 15 years or so, I have been using a recipe that my mother used for large groups at church. Various recipes can be found at :
We began to try to collect information about Chapel and the Lovefeast in 2017. In 2018 we had an exhibition at the Anglers Rest which featured the photographs of John Beatty and Althea de Carteret. We tried to tell the story in words and pictures and the exhibition panels can be viewed at : https://www.facebook.com/hopewoodlands/photos/?tab=album&album_id=2079072735641954
Photos
Finally, there are various albums of photos of the Lovefeast over the years which I will link to :
2008
2017
Althea de Carteret : https://www.facebook.com/hopewoodlands/photos/?tab=album&album_id=2079964352219459
2018
2019
Richard Bradley : https://www.facebook.com/hopewoodlands/photos/?tab=album&album_id=2349864285229463
Many thanks to all who have contributed to the story and if anyone has any further contributions, we would be very happy to hear from you.
Woodlands Methodist Church 
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