Euro Trip - Day eLeVeN!

We started this morning out by the Liverpool port.

Liverpool was England’s chief port and also the port of embarkation through which practically every emigrant from England passed. Over a hundred thousand Saints sailed from Liverpool to gather in Zion.

It was in this building the saints had to fill out their paperwork to leave the country.

The River Mersey

This is a statue at the port. The plaque reads: "given to the people of Liverpool by the Mormon church as a tribute to the many families from all over Europe who embarked on a brave and pioneering voyage from Liverpool to start a new life in America."

Some ships with the Merseyside Maritime Museum in the background - where we spent a few hours that morning. It was a super chilly morning, so we were thankful for the shelter from the rain it provided.

Next up - the REAL good stuff, the little towns of Chatburn & Downham.

The first Mormon missionaries to England arrived in Liverpool in July 1837. These seven men (Heber C. Kimball, Orson Hyde, Willard Richards, Joseph Fielding, Isaac Russell, John Goodson, and John Snyder), quickly moved to Preston where they were successful in receiving converts and organized a branch of the Church in that city. After organizing the Preston Branch, they decided to separate and carry their message to other parts of the surrounding country. Heber C. Kimball, Orson Hyde and Joseph Fielding stayed in the Preston area and continued to proselytize and organize branches. Kimball and Fielding also began to venture into the upper reaches of the river Ribble Valley, teaching in Walkerfood and Ribchester, where they experienced further success and organized additional branches of the Church. Further upstream from these villages lay the small communities of Chatburn and Downham, just south of the river Ribble and north of the towering Pendle Hill. Some of the most spiritual experiences of the missionary effort in the upper Ribble Valley occurred in these two villages. When Heber expressed a desire to visit the villages he noted receiving a negative response from some of his companions: “Having mentioned my determination of going to Chatburn to several of my brethren, they endeavored to dissuade me from going, informing me that there could be no prospect of success whatever, as several ministers of different denominations had endeavored in vain to raise churches in these places, this did not discourage me in the least, I went in the name of Jesus Christ.” The Chatburn villagers showed up in large numbers to hear Elder Kimball preach, which he did standing on a barrel in a large village tithebarn, speaking on the basic principles of the gospel. At the conclusion of his sermon he offered to perform the ordinance of baptism for anyone who desired it. Heber describes the scene that followed his invitation: “When I concluded I felt someone pulling at my coat, exclaiming, “Maister, Maister.’ I turned around and asked what was wanted. Mrs. Elizabeth Partington said, ‘Please sir, will you baptize me?’ ‘And me?’ ‘And me?’ exclaimed more than a dozen voices. Accordingly I went down into the water and baptized twenty-five. I was engaged in the duty, and confirming them and conversing with the people until after midnight. The next morning I returned to Downham, and baptized between 25-30 in the course of the day. The next evening I returned to Chatburn. The congregation was so numerous that I had to preach in the open air, and took my stand on a stone wall, and afterwards baptized several.

A bond of friendship developed between the missionaries and their converts in these two communities and at the conclusion of this first mission to England, before departing for the United States in April 1838, Elders Kimball and Fielding experienced an emotional farewell with their new English friends. Elder Kimball describes the occasion: “On the morning when I left Chatburn many were in tears, thinking they should see my face no more. When I left them, my feelings were such as I cannot describe. As I walked down the street I was followed by numbers; the doors were crowded by the inmates of the homes to bid me farewell, who could only give vent to their grief in sobs and broken accents. While contemplating this scene, I was constrained to take off my hat, for I felt as if the place was holy ground. The Spirit of the Lord rested down upon me and I was constrained to bless the whole region of country. I was followed by a great number to Clitheroe, a considerable distance from the villages, who could hardly then separate from me. My heart was like unto theirs, and I thought my head was a fountain of tears, for I wept for several miles after I bid them adieu. I had to leave the road three times to go to the streams of the water to bathe my eyes.”

Chatburn Chapel

Downham

The Chatburn & Downham Baptismal Site

In recounting this particular experience in Heber’s life, Orson F. Whitney describes how Joseph Smith was able to explain the holy feeling that Heber perceived: “The Prophet Joseph told him [Heber] in after years that the reason he felt as he did in the streets of Chatburn was because the place was indeed ‘holy ground,’ that some of the ancient prophets had traveled in that region and dedicated the land, and that he, Heber, had reaped the benefit of their blessing.”

Can you say WOW? After the second mission to England and setting up the Perpetual Emigration Fund, Downham was left as a ghost town because everyone emigrated to Zion. Someone from the neighboring town came in and bought it - all of it. As in the whole town. Downham is currently still owned by one owner and it has remained relatively the same as it was in 1838, when Elder Kimball preached there. No electricity or any modern day comforts. People come here for weekend getaways in the country.

This. Place. Is. Amazing.

Day 12 we head to Preston - it's also our LAST day in England!! So one more folks and then we can all breathe a sigh of relief!