Clowes began the great work of their life. At the beginning of the 19th century Bourne, being much employed at Harriseahead, near Bemersley, was shocked at the general lack of the means of grace, and he endeavoured in 1800 and 1801 to promote a revivalist movement. Daniel Shubotham, a boxer, poacher, and ringleader in wickedness, was brought, through Bourne's influence, to the Saviour, on Christmas day 1800, and with his natural energy of character took up the cause. Matthias Bailey, another of Bourne's old associates was also won over, and cottage prayer meetings were begun among the colliers. A meeting upon Mow Cop was proposed for a day given to prayer. At this time Lorenzo Dow, an American Wesleyan visited the Black Country, as the coal district of Staffordshire was called. He spoke of the American camp meetings, himself preaching at Congleton, when Hugh Bourne, with his brother James, was present; William Clowes being also a hearer. They bought books of Lorenzo Dow, which had a marked effect on the future. On May 31st, 1807, a camp meeting was held on Mow Cop, a hill in the neighbourhood. Bourne and Clowes being present. Stands were erected and addresses given from four points. Bourne organized two companies, who continued by turns praying all the day; others giving accounts of their spiritual experiences, among whom Clowes was prominent, and his words are "The glory that filled my soul on that day exceeds my powers of description." Persons were present on this occasion from Kilham in Yorkshire and other distant places, one, Dr. Paul Johnson, a friend of Lorenzo Dow, coming from Ireland.
The movement had now taken definite form and substance. Another camp meeting followed at the same place on July 19, lasting three days; a third on August 16th, at Brown Edge; a fourth on August 23rd, at Norton-in-the-Moors. At this time was held the Annual Wesleyan Conference, at which handbills were issued denouncing this separate movement. For a brief moment Bourne, Clowes and Shubotham hesitated; but the question was seriously considered at a meeting at the house of a friend, Joseph Pointon, when it was "revealed" to Bourne that the camp meetings "should not die, but live;" and from that moment he "believed himself to be called of God" for the new work; and shortly his brother James, James Nixon, Thomas Cotton, and others, gave themselves to the cause.
For some years the labours of these men and their associates were chiefly devoted to the pottery and colliery districts of Staffordshire, where a remarkable change was brought about in the moral condition of the hitherto almost brutalized people. The area of work was then gradually enlarged, extending throughout the whole country, and even, as we shall presently see, beyond it. The following are a few personal details of Hugh Bourne's subsequent career.
In 1808, on his way to Bemersley from Delamere Forest, an impression forced itself upon him that he would shortly be expelled from the Wesleyan connexion; on reaching home he found that a rumour to this effect was being circulated, and in June of that year the formal sentence of expulsion was carried out. He continued to devote himself to the work of evangelization, urging however all others to join whatever denomination they were themselves most inclined for.
He preached his first sermon at Tunstall, on Nov. 12, 1810, in a kitchen which had been licensed for preaching three years before. It was not plastered or ceiled, so that if not required at any future time, it might be converted into a cottage, which took place in 1821, when a chapel was erected. At the Conference held at Newcastle-on-Tyne, in 1842, he was most regretfully placed
