Geograph - photograph every grid square

Stalybridge : Joseph Rayner Stephens Memorial

Joseph Rayner Stephens was born in Edinburgh in 1805. He had gifted parents: John was a distinguished Wesleyan preacher; and Rebecca a determined worker for charitable causes. He was the sixth of twelve children, four of whom became famous.

Following the family's move to the Manchester area Joseph attended Woodhouse Grove Wesleyan School near Leeds and Manchester Grammar School. In 1819 he witnessed the Peterloo Massacre which had a strong influence upon him and inspired his later work for factory reform.

Stephens' first employment was as a school teacher in the East Riding of Yorkshire. He also became a Wesleyan preacher and in 1826 he became the first Wesleyan missionary in Sweden. He remained there until 1830. Back in England Stephens served as a preacher in Cheltenham and Newcastle upon Tyne before appointment to Ashton under Lyne in 1832. However, he was now openly agitating for the separation of the Church from the state which caused disagreement with the Wesleyan Ministry, resulting in his resignation from the movement in 1834.

Stephens now established his own religious movement, the Stephensite denomination on the understanding that he would preach nothing but factory reform. In 1837 a large chapel on Wellington Road in Ashton under Lyne became the headquarters of his movement. He denounced mill owners as murderers and swindlers and told them that their system was repugnant to the word of God.

Alongside other famous reformers of the day, Stephens argued for the 10 hour bill to shorten the hours of labour in cotton Mills to 10 hours per day. He vehemently opposed the Poor Law, which forced children into factories to avoid the dreaded workhouses calling it the "Law of Devils". His zeal and fervour in his denunciation of the factory system made him many enemies but this did not deter him. He became involved in the Chartist political movement as a means to advocate his factory reform and repeal of the Poor Law, and he travelled nationally attracting audiences of up to 20,000 people.

The unrest aroused by Stephens caused concern and local magistrates in Ashton under Lyne ordered his arrest for attending and speaking at an unlawful meeting at Hyde in November 1838. The trial was crammed with people. Stephens conducted his own defence in an eloquent manner and denied nothing. God was his defence, not any political party. He was found guilty and jailed in Chester Castle for 18 months. On his release in February 1841 he started to focus increasingly on local affairs.

He founded the Ashton Chronicle in 1848 and opened a People's School for the poor in Stalybridge. He re-entered the national picture to fight for further control on factory hours and to assist the poor when the American Civil War caused a cotton famine in Lancashire. In 1857 he opened Christ College in Stalybridge in the People's School for Adult Education.

Stephens died in February 1879. He was buried in St John's Church, Dukinfield where his inscription includes the words, "He hath done what he could".

The Joseph Rayner Stephens Memorial was unveiled in 1888. It was commissioned by local factory workers to commemorate the work Stephens had done promoting fair wages and working conditions.

Link Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council