Castle Eden Methodist Circuit – Mission Statement 2024
The mission of the Castle Eden Methodist Circuit is: ‘to serve the present age our Calling to fulfil”
Along with the wider Methodist Church, we will respond to the gospel of God’s law in Christ and live out our discipleship in worship and mission in an ever-changing world.
We will do this through evangelism, learning and caring, service and worship and, wherever possible, seek to do this in partnership with others.
From the hymn by Charles Wesley StF658 v2
About the Circuit
The Circuit was formed in 2007 as an amalgamation of three smaller circuits in East Durham. These three circuits were:
- Hartlepool, serving the town and port at the mouth of the River Tees
- Durham Coast and Peterlee, serving the New Town of Peterlee and the large coalfields villages on the Durham Coast
- Thornley, serving ex-mining villages a little inland from the Durham coast.
It was basically an area of industry and commerce. The countryside was dotted with pit villages, connected by railways, and the coast was dominated by the large pits of Blackhall Colliery, Horden, and Easington, all working well out under the North Sea. All these areas were served by the towns of Hartlepool and West Hartlepool, later merged to become Hartlepool and, beginning in the late 1950’s, the New Town of Peterlee, which was built to serve the old inland mining villages as their coal became depleted and the mines began to close.
Today the area is very different. People pass through it and comment on how rural it all looks. This is true; the pits have all closed, the spoil heaps and mining areas have all been cleared up and the scene is again dominated by the rolling landscape of the magnesian limestone escarpment. The seaside areas have been largely cleaned up since the pits closed, with the “Turning the Tide” initiative cleaning the beaches and making good the coastline landscape.
On the downside, the closure of the pits and all the infrastructure which went with it, has led to the villages losing many of their amenities and much of their close-knit social fabric. It has led to widespread unemployment and social problems so that this part of East Durham suffers from social deprivation.
The circuit still has some chapels in the former pit villages and a church in Peterlee. In September 2024 4 congregations merged to form East Durham Methodist Church with worship continuing on the separate sites. The congregation from what was Grange Road Church, now worshipping with St George’s URC in Hartlepool.
The area is bisected by the A19, which is the principal road in the circuit running from north to south. Link roads from the A19 join all the settlements in the circuit, although in recent years public transport has become a problem in many of the more isolated, rural regions. Anyone with their own means of transport will find it very easy to get around all the circuit, others less so (especially on a Sunday!) There is a coastal railway running from Hartlepool north to Sunderland which connects with the main East Coast line. However Hartlepool and Horden are the only stations on the line within our circuit.