Centuries Old Custom in a Barn.
Hidden away in the heart of the Pennines is an old grey barn, where for centuries past, on the first Sunday in July, Alport Love Feast is celebrated.
Alport, a hamlet of two houses, stands about two miles off the Snake Pass between Ashopton and the Snake Inn, and may justly claim to be one of the most secret places in England. It is an ideal place in which to hold a religious service, for that is what Alport Love Feast really is. It is the old testimony meeting of Methodists in North Derbyshire.
As you enter the barn, you are invited to take the feast of love – a drink of pure water and a piece of home made cake. New mown hay and clean straw covers the floor, and the pulpit is just a plain deal table at which the minister sits to conduct the service. There is no organ ; instead the barn resounds with the voices of country people, who worship in the way shown to their forefathers.
Everybody is at liberty to speak. There is no prolonged silence. Almost as soon as one has finished speaking another has started, and so throughout the day the service continues.
There is something very appealing about the simplicity of the service which has a significance all its own in the religious life of North Derbyshire.
There were about 200 at the services on Sunday. The Rev. S.F. Pawson, Hathersage, presided, Mr. J. Eyre, Castleton was born at Alport 76 years ago, and on Sunday made his 60th attendance at the feast. Mr Eyre, Sheffield, who is in his 83rd year, was also present. Mr. Tom Dutton, a Staveley man, had walked 30 miles to tell the gathering how he was converted 28 years ago. As in several previous years, a 76 years-old Chapeltown man, Mr. Elijah Wragg, led the singing, and sang several solos. Mr. Wragg has visited Alport for more than 50 years
Woodlands Methodist Church 