John Ackworth was the pen name of the Rev. Frederick R. Smith, a Methodist minister who was born in Snaith, Yorkshire, but spent much of his career as a circuit preacher in Lancashire. Clog Shop Chronicles was the first and most successful of his works. Set in the fictional 19th-century village of Beckside , the book consists of 12 tales of everyday life in a close-knit Methodist community, which continue into Beckside Lights and Doxy Dent . Based on an entertaining group of characters who...