METHODISM IN BRIGHOUSE

The nearest John Wesley came to Brighouse was to the home of Mrs Holmes of Smith House in Lightcliffe—a place he visited several times between 1742 and 1746—and where Methodist meetings were held. However, it has been mentioned that cottage meetings were also held at this time at Rastrick Common, Waring Green and Hove Edge.

It was the year in which John Wesley died—1791—that land was first purchased for the building of a Methodist Chapel. This was in the Park off Brighouse Lane and what is now known as Bethel Street.

By the middle of the nineteenth century there were four main Methodist Chapels which had emerged for various reasons but which from that time have gradually come together to make a united witness in the town. The story of these is briefly as follows.

1. PARK CHAPEL

Park Chapel was the first chapel to be built and was situated on the site purchased in 1791. It was opened in 1795 and known as a Wesleyan Chapel for over fifty years apart from a period at the turn of the century to which reference is made below. During this time there was steady growth and additional premises were built to house a large Sunday School where there were literacy and numeracy classes and religious instruction on Sundays and classes for writing and arithmetic were held on weekdays.

In 1849 there was what is known as the Fly Sheets controversy when pamphlets were distributed which were critical of the authority of the Wesleyan Conference. Because the majority were in favour of reform the Wesleyans left to meet elsewhere and Park became a Wesleyan Reform Chapel. In 1857 the United Methodist Free Churches was formed from Wesleyan Reform Chapels and another group called the Wesleyan Methodist Association and in 1873 the Park property was finally handed over by the Wesleyan Conference to the United Methodist Free Churches.

In 1878 new buildings replaced those previously used and remained in use until 1982 when it united with other Methodist congregations to form Central Methodist Church.

2. BETHEL CHAPEL

The break-up of the original Park congregation in 1849 was not the first. No sooner had the Park Chapel become established than the followers of the Revd Alexander Kilham broke away—again the reason being to do with a desire for a more democratic form of church government—not just a Conference of Ministers. In fact because the majority of the congregation supported change they actually took possession of the chapel in 1797—the Wesleyans meeting at Ivy House Farm in Hove Edge until the High Court ruled that their Conference was the rightful owner in 1810.

No longer feeling able to belong to Park the breakaway group held services in a blacksmith's shop until the Bethel Chapel was built—close by Park Chapel—and opened in 1811. This was the chapel where William Booth ministered and which joined the group of chapels known as the Methodist New Connexion which held its first Conference in 1797.

By the end of the nineteenth century there was a need for new and larger premises. Thus in 1904 the buildings were sold and the new Bethel moved to Rydal Mount—the present site of Central—the schoolroom opened in 1906 and the chapel in 1907. The name was changed to Central Methodist Church in 1982 when it united with other Methodist congregations.

3. LANE HEAD CHAPEL

The Primitive Methodist Connexion began in 1810 very much under the leadership of William Clowes and Hugh Bourne. It mainly gathered people together with no particular church allegiance—though it also attracted those who felt more at home with a greater simplicity and freedom in worship. “Gone to the Ranters” reads a note alongside the name of a former Park Sunday School scholar when the Primitive Methodists had a meeting place in the town for a while in 1825-6.

The opening of Lane Head Chapel in 1864 was in line with the general development of Primitive Methodism and was an outreach chapel of the Greetland Circuit. Again the initial premises proved to be inadequate as the congregation grew and a new chapel was opened in 1889 and was used until 1982 when the congregation moved to join the Central Methodist Church.

4. ST PAUL'S CHAPEL

It will have been observed that the original Wesleyan Methodists came to be a minority as far as Brighouse Methodism was concerned. They suffered the indignity of being illegally ousted from Park for thirteen years and later decided to move out in 1849 when it was obvious the majority of the congregation wanted to be Reformers. After then meeting at Heaton's School they eventually bought the St Paul's in King Street. Originally St Paul's had been an independent chapel but later rebuilt by the Anglicans from whom the Wesleyans bought it. St Paul's closed in 1949.

MISSION AND OUTREACH

All the main chapels were involved in outreach to various areas of Brighouse:

Park established a branch society at Finkil, Hove Edge, which became independent of Park in 1881 as Zion Chapel in Spout House Lane. Zion closed in 1975.

Bethel was instrumental in the development of Ebenezer at Bailiff Bridge where the chapel was opened in 1874 and which continues to be in the Brighouse Circuit.

Trinity was another chapel initiated by Bethel and, situated near Thornhill Briggs, was opened in 1897 and became one of the four chapels involved in the united Central Methodist Church in 1982.

Crowtrees, in Rastrick, was opened by the Elland Circuit as a United Methodist Free Church in 1877. Prior to this development a congregation had met in a room in New Hey Road and from 1864 in a building at Oak's Green. By 1970 the chapel was declared unsafe and had to be demolished. However, subsequently the congregation entered into a shared church scheme with St Matthew's Church of England (established 1872) and continues to serve the Rastrick area of the Brighouse Circuit.

St Paul's was instrumental in the opening of the Bird's Royd Chapel in Mission Street in 1896. This chapel closed in 1969.

MOVEMENT TOWARDS UNITY

On the national level, in 1907 the Methodist New Connexion, the United Methodist Free Churches and the Bible Christians united to form the United Methodist Church. This brought the Park and Bethel Chapels and their outreach chapels into the same denomination and though there continued to be separate circuits it was significant that representatives of the three denominations which formed the United Methodist Church were present at the opening of the new Bethel Chapel.

1932 was the year of Methodist union when the three principal denominations—Wesleyan Methodist, Primitive Methodist and United Methodist Churches—united to form the Methodist Church as we know it today.

Local unity became clearer in 1936 when the Brighouse Circuit was formed and included:

(a) Park, Hove Edge and Clifton (Note: Clifton’s history goes back to 1839 when the Cleckheaton Wesleyan Circuit reported that a service was to be held there every fortnight. Later a United Methodist Free Church Sunday School was in High Moor Lane and known as the Colliers’ Chapel. In 1875 the present chapel was opened as a United Methodist Free Church in the Cleckheaton and Heckmondwike Circuit which had been formed in 1872);

(b) Bethel, Ebenezer and Trinity; and

(c) St Paul’s and Bird’s Royd.

Later, Crowtrees (1957) and Lane Head joined the Circuit.

Thus by 1982:

(a)the following chapels had closed: St Paul’s (1949) Bird’s Royd (1969) Hove Edge Zion (1976);

(b)Park, Bethel, Lane Head and Trinity united to form the Central Methodist Church;

(c) The Brighouse Circuit consisted of Central, Ebenezer, Clifton, and St Matthew's (united Anglican and Methodist).

CONCLUSION

Today we rejoice in our heritage. The disagreements of the nineteenth century which led to various emphases in the different branches of Methodism—though all treasured the hymns and evangelical teaching of the Wesleys—has resulted in a richer and broader church. We celebrate both a rich liturgical tradition and freer alternative styles of worship, a concern for personal salvation and spiritual growth alongside a commitment to social and community needs, sharing in the life and mission of the world church, the quest for justice, peace and compassion in a sustainable world, and a church in which both ministers and lay people share responsibility for its life and witness.

Along with the Methodist Church as a whole

we are called to respond to

the gospel of God’s love in Christ

and to live out our discipleship

in worship, mission, service, learning and caring.

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