Heckmondwike Upper Independent Church
The following source list was originally available only on paper in one of the West Yorkshire Archive Service offices. It may have been compiled many years ago and could be out of date. It was designed to act as a signpost to records of interest on a particular historical subject, but may relate only to one West Yorkshire district, or be an incomplete list of sources available. Please feel free to add or update with any additional information. |
The Rev Josiah Holdsworth received a licence to preach at Izabell Rayner's house in Heckmondwike in 1672 (he had been elected as the minister of Sutton, near Hull in 1662. He gathered together a congregation in Heckmondwike using another house called the Swash for Services.
A congregation was formally established in 1674 and moved first to Joe Naylor's house in Stanningley Lane and then to a barn near Chapel Fold in the 1670s-1680s.
A meeting house was built on part of the present site (corner of High Street and Chapel Lane) c1700-1701 and opened in 1701.
A new chapel was built near to the old one in 1761 and subsequently rebuilt in 1844-1845.
Day and Sunday Schools were built next to the chapel in 1858 and between 1888-1890 a huge classical-style chapel was built on the same site as the old one.
By the 1970s the chapel was too large for the congregation and by 1977 part of the Sunday School was being used for worship and the chapel was disused; it was converted into 'loft apartments' in 2002.
From 1978 the church was known as Heckmondwike United Church when George Street Church amalgamated with it.
The church is still in existence in 2009 and is called Heckmondwike United Reformed Church.