In 1672 Charles II issued a Declaration of Toleration for Protestants dissenting from the Church of England; this had the effect of some dissenting meeting houses registering with the Secretary of State. The Toleration Act of 1689 enshrined the right of protestants to dissent from the Church of England and, once again, encouraged meeting houses to register voluntarily with local quarter sessions| and Anglican church. Registration provided protection against persecution, laying a duty of protection upon magistrates and so was popular with nonconformists. Most registrations were made with quarter sessions until the middle of the 18th century, presumably due to the mutual antagonism of nonconformists and established Church. However, from that point registration with the Church, via the local archdeaconry| began to become the favoured method, because the archdeaconry Registrar would issue a licence at any time rather than during the days each quarter when the quarter sessions met.

Bedfordshire & Luton Archives & Records Service has a reasonable number of registrations of nonconformist meeting houses in both the Quarter Sessions and Archdeaconry of Bedford archives. Registration continued through the 19th century even though persecution faded away - this was because registered buildings were allowed to claim exemption from parish poor rates, were exempt from control by the Charity Commission and were allowed to be licensed to carry out marriages. These things meant that registration became almost compulsory in practice for well established nonconformist meetings. This is fortunate for the local historian because sometimes the only surviving references to a nonconformist meeting occur as registrations.

Methodism was traditionally the strongest nonconformist persuasion in the parish of Bletsoe. The first registration held by Bedfordshire & Luton Archives & Records Service is for the house occupied by Elizabeth Markham in 1815, the person registering being John Dean, minister of the Bedford Circuit [ABN1/1 and ABN2/170].

Usually it is impossible to tell the denomination meeting at the registered building as the form does not say, in order to find out one needs supporting information or knowledge of the person registering from elsewhere. Thus the next two registrations are of unknown persuasion, though it seems quite possible that they were Methodist. In 1832 the house of Charles Partridge was registered by Partridge himself [ABN1/2, ABN2/274, ABN3/3 and ABN3/123]. The house of Thomas Brown was registered by its occupant in 1843 and the final registration held by Bedfordshire & Luton Archives & Records Service was carried out in 1860 by Henry Brown, again of his own house and it is known that he was a Primitive Methodist|.

Bletsoe never had a chapel of any kind. Worship was undertaken, as the registrations reveal, in people's houses. The last record of any organised Primitive Methodism in the village comes in the Bedford Primitive Methodist Circuit baptism book [MB1854] and dates to 1897