Methodists, Superstitions, and the Wesleyan Hammer: Inside 1970s Staithes

David Clark’s book, Between Pulpit and Pew, is a study of how religion actually worked in Staithes during the mid-1970s. Instead of just looking at what ministers preached, Clark looked at the "folk religion"—the local traditions, superstitions, and habits that really mattered to the villagers

Here are the main ideas he discusses:

1. Official Religion vs. Folk Religion

• Official Religion: This is the formal stuff—the rules of the Methodist or Anglican church and what the ministers say from the "pulpit". 

• Folk Religion: This is what happens in the "pews" and homes. It includes things like not saying the word "pig" while baiting lines because it’s bad luck

Clark found that in Staithes, these two things were completely twisted together into a "seamless web." People used both formal religion and local customs to make sense of a dangerous life at sea.

2. Why the Chapel Was So Important

• History of Neglect: For a long time, the main Church of England ignored Staithes, which made the village a perfect place for Methodism (the "Chapel") to grow.

• Loyalty to Buildings: Villagers were (and often still are) fiercely loyal to their specific chapel—either the "Wesleyans" or the "Primitives". This loyalty wasn’t usually about different religious beliefs. Instead, people loved the buildings because their fathers and grandfathers had built them with their own hands

3. Locals vs. "Outsiders"

• The Minister: Ministers were often seen as "foreigners" because they only stayed for a few years. The local people (the laity) often ignored the minister's new ideas and stuck to their own traditional way of doing things.

• The Researcher: When Clark first arrived to study the village, many people didn't understand his work. Some thought he was a geologist, while others were convinced he was a young man training to be a minister.

4. Major Life Events

Birth: Even if they weren't regular churchgoers, new mothers often practiced "churching." This was a quick, perfunctory visit to the chapel after giving birth to symbolically "reset" themselves before entering other people's homes.

Annual Parties: Events like the Sunday School Anniversary and the Harvest Festival were the biggest highlights of the year. They were times for the whole community to gather and show off the "vigour" of their chapel.

Death: Funerals were massive community events where every person in the town was "bidden" (invited). There was a very strong preference for burial over cremation because villagers wanted to stay close to their ancestors.

The Main Conclusion

Clark concludes that even if fewer people go to church every Sunday, religion isn't "dying" in Staithes. Instead, it survives through folk traditions. These shared beliefs and stories are what create the "real Steeas folk" identity and keep the community together.

Why I love it

If you can get past the academic language, you can really enjoy the way Clark moved beyond dry statistics to collect the living, breathing "underlife" of Staithes through a year of deep immersion in the village. He captured stories that show how the villagers’ "folk religion"—a blend of formal chapel rules and local superstitions—was a "seamless web" that defined their identity. Here are some of the many compelling stories Clark collected in his research: 

1. The Humour of Chapel Rivalry

Clark discovered that even though the different Methodist groups had officially joined together, the old rivalries between the "Primitives" and the "Wesleyans" remained a source of legendary local jokes. A story is told of two men in a boat lost in a thick fog. They heard another boat nearby and shouted for help. The voice from the other boat shouted back: "Is thee Prims or sthee Wesleyans?" When they replied, "We’s Wesleyan," the rescuers shouted, "Hang on then, you can have a tow".

Another favourite story describes a young man working for a farmer who was a strict Wesleyan. A fellow worker asked him to "pass us that Wesleyan hammer." When the young man asked which one he meant, the worker replied, "That two-faced ’un over there"

2. The Powerful "Pig" Taboo

One of the most fascinating aspects of Clark's work is his documentation of how deeply traditional taboos survived into the 1970s, particularly regarding the word "pig". Clark met a woman who used the word "grecian" to describe a pig in a painting because she was afraid to say the real word in front of her parents. He recounts an incident where a fisherman’s young daughter saw a pig on a television cartoon and shouted "piggy, piggy!" Her father immediately sighed, "that's it, your dad won't get any lobsters now"

A worker from the local potash mine told Clark he had a bad accident on his boat because his workmates wouldn't stop teasing him about pigs. One man even brought a book of superstitions into work the day before the accident occurred.

3. Sabbatarianism and Shipwrecks

Clark recorded an apocryphal story that illustrates the fierce local commitment to keeping Sunday holy, even in the face of desperate need:

Legend says that a ship once went down off the coast on a Sunday, washing a massive load of coal onto the rocks. Despite the village's need for fuel, no one would go down to collect it because it was the Sabbath. By the time Monday morning arrived, the tide had come in and swept the entire load back out to sea.

4. Outsiders and "The Black Men"

Clark also captured the village's suspicious and often humorous view of "foreigners" (anyone not from Staithes), including the clergy: There was a persistent legend in the old village that the local Catholic priest used to ride around the inside of his church on a donkey during Midnight Mass. Even though many villagers went to the service specifically to see it, they admitted they never actually caught him in the act.  One father was so worried about his son dating a Catholic girl that he warned him, "if tha sticks wi’ ’er much longer lad, they’ll have thee ridin’ t’ donkey!"

5. Holdig on to Tradition

Clark's stories about life-critical events show a community that often prioritised family tradition over the instructions of the minister. He describes a mother who refused to follow a minister’s suggestion for a simpler christening rite. She insisted on the traditional, more elaborate way of carrying the child back from the chapel, stating simply, "we’d done it this way for the other two, so we’d keep it the same."

He also tells of an elderly woman who, while visiting her sister's grave, would regularly stop and look at the specific plot she had already bought for herself, making sure she would be laid to rest exactly where she belonged.

By reading Clark's book, you get an intimate view of a community where religion isn't just about what is said from the pulpit, but about the stories, jokes, and habits that create a shared sense of belonging.