Bridge Chapel, Barnoldswick

[rossylass]

Can anyone give me any information about Bridge Chapel, Barnoldswick? Can't find anything on th' interweb. Have looked at the "Baptists in Barnoldswick", but coudn't find a reference there. Maybe I'm just missing something!

[Wendyf]

I had a little Google and found this on the Pendle LHFHS site. It looks as if the Bathesda Baptist Chapel was on Bridge Street.

[PanBiker]

David Crossley House, (sheltered accommodation) now stands on the former site of the Bethesda Baptist Chapel. On what is now Chapel Street which runs between York Street and Manchester Road. I went to Bethesda Sunday School when I was a lad. I can't understand how the Bridge Street reference fits in unless it is the close proximity to the culvert at Manchester Road / Walmsgate junction.

[Wendyf]

If you look on the first edition 6in. OS map on the LCC website there is a watercourse marked that looks to be exactly where the chapel was built.

[rossylass]

Thank you so much Wendy. I would never have found it since I was looking for the wrong thing. Now I have the right moniker I even managed to find a photo on the Town Survey of Barnoldswick undertaken by library staff. (Tried to put the link in, but failed miserably owing to special needs in computer skills )!

[Stanley]

I've come across references to Bridge Chapel before and the nearest I have ever got to it is that it's a reference to the original Baptist Chapel in Walmsgate. There's a transcript of the history of the Baptists in Barlick by Lewis on the site and no mention in that of any Bridge Chapel.
Gillians Beck used to run on the surface across Walmsgate just to the east of the chapel and in 1816 it was culverted with the proceeds of the sale of the village Green (north side of Church Street). When this was done, even though it doesn't look like a bridge, the culvert was described as Barnoldswick Bridge so I think you are safe in regarding the old chapel as Bridge chapel.



The old chapel in 1979.

[rossylass]

Sorry...a senior moment. The report with a photo of the Bridge Chapel is the Historic Towns Assessment undertaken by the County Archaeology Service. It also refers to the "History of the Bethesda Baptiist Church, Barnoldswick, Yorkshire" - Lewis 1893, but I am now confused as Stanley says that Lewis doesn't mention it. Has the confusion arisen because its proper name was Bethesda, but it was known colloqially as Bridge?

Thank you for your photo Stanley. What a pity that the chapel was demolished...it would probably be converted into a des res today!

[Wendyf]

I'm suffering from confusion too, but I think it is becoming clearer! The old chapel building in Stanley's photo is (I think) still there...there is a picture of it on Here. A new chapel was built in 1852 on Chapel Street as Panbiker says, but it was demolished in 1975. I got mixed up with the Methodist Chapel on Walmsgate.

[elise]

I'm at a funny age and my eyesight has been better but just walked past it and it's definitely there. The other chapel is The Independent Methodists aka The New Ship

[rossylass]

Oh goody Elise - can go to take a look at it now.

From the photo it does look as though it may now be a des res.

[Stanley]

It's a health spa actually. The original chapel was in a barn on the same site and that's still there as well.



This pic was done in 2007, the small barn on the right was where the first chapel was.

The history of the Baptists is confused. The chapel in the barn was one of the first nonconformist places of worship to be licensed after the Act of Toleration in 1689 (LINK). Prior to that they had worshipped in secret, in houses but often in the open air with lookouts posted. This is why for many years they didn't use singing and music as part of their worship as it would have given them away. They worshipped peacefully at Walmsgate until in 1845 Thomas Bennett was appointed pastor and under his leadership money was subscribed to build the new Bethesda in 1852. This is the site where David Crosley House is now. From about 1860 Bennett took space at Clough Mill and started in business as a manufacturer to make work for his flock. The Cotton Famine (LINK) ruined his plans and the enterprise failed. From there on things get murky. What we know for certain is that in 1868 there was a schism in the church and two rival factions emerged, one led by Bennett and one by the dissidents. The bone of contention became who should have control of the new Bethesda and while this was in court the building stood empty. Bennett eventually won the case and his faction moved back into Bethesda while the splinter group built North Street chapel. The mystery is what caused the schism in the first place and there is no clear story. In his history Lewis skates over this, saying nothing. Over the years I have become convinced that Bennett was too dictatorial and the failure of the enterprise at Clough caused dissension. However, I suspect there was something else and while nobody has ever come clean there are suggestions that he might have been guilty of other sins. During the interregnum the two sections of the congregation worshipped wherever they could find room, an old barn on the site of the BT Exchange, a warehouse in Orchard Street(?) It looks as though the court case was settled in 1868 and from then on we had two Baptist churches in Barlick. I was in contact for many years with a man who had been pastor at the chapel during the inter war years and he said that one of the Elders told him that Bennett's death in 1886 was after he was attacked in the street and the culprits were suspected to be from the North Street sect. There is no doubt about it that feelings ran high for twenty years and the wonder is that so little was ever documented. This is only a brief overview. The Schism was finally healed when the new United Reform(?) building was built on Manchester Road and both the Bethesda and North Street buildings were demolished and converted to sheltered accommodation.
So go digging in the records and see if you can tease anything out! (If you look at the Minute Books of the Calf Hall Shed Company on the site you'll find that when the CHSC were negotiating over the purchase of The Parrock they were dealing with the Trustees of Bethesda so they still owned the old chapel and the land adjoining at that time)
While you're at it dig into the Bowker Drain, the other big Barlick mystery I have never been able to crack!)

[David Whipp]

The mystery is what caused the schism in the first place

Until my early teens, I was virtually brought up at Bethesda Baptists. Behind the chapel, the sunday school building was a hub of activity, with 'socials' and other events.

Having given up religion, I'm the black sheep of the family. Older brother Keith is very much involved with the Baptist fellowship. Sister Denise married Keith Jones, who was Baptist Minister in Barlick when North Street and Bethesda reunited and the new church was built on North Street land.

Keith Jones says the schism was caused by sheep grazing in the graveyard... maybe brother Keith can fill in details.

Meanwhile, folk will recall that the frontage of the Walmsgate property was going to rack and ruin before the huge investment by Laura to convert it into Elysium. The project was helped by some funding from the Stream and Steam Heritage project which played a part in conserving several of Barlick's historic buildings.

[Stanley]

David, I think that story about sheep-grazing stems from a separate incident at the time, but one that illustrates how short tempers were. In 'A Way of life gone by', Dorothy Carthy and Margaret Lancaster say quite a lot about the Baptists and tell the story of Levi Widdup being allowed to graze his donkey in the churchyard. Clayton Slater happened to see the animal grazing on the Slater family grave and he saw this as an insult. The following day Clayton and his brother attacked Levi 'with a walking stick' causing 'grievous injuries', they were prosecuted and had to pay £5 with costs.
Further to what I wrote earlier this morning, when Bethesda was closed during the court case, Bennett and his flock worshipped in the then disused Old Coates Mill and the dissidents moved into the old chapel on Walmsgate. The Barn on the BT site and the warehouse were another congregation, perhaps the Methodists.

[HeatherG]

All the discussion is about post 1803 but I have an ancestor whose birth is recorded at Bridge Chapel on 19th December 1803. This record is from FamilySearch http://www.familysearch.org - a service provided by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons). It has worldwide genealogical records that predate the UK Civil Registration certificates, which are only available post 1837. Most of their information seems to come from parish records so there is presumably somewhere a record of these christenings.

[Stanley]

Not surprising when you consider that the Baptist church were keeping a register from 1697 onwards. Have a look at Lewis' history of the Baptists in Barnoldswick in Rare Texts.

[Wendyf]

Welcome to the site Heather. A transcription of the Bridge Chapel births & burials is available at Barlick Library. I am just about to put a copy onto the Earby History Website, so as I have it handy I'll attach a pdf file to this topic.
With thanks to Ken Ranson.

Bridge Chapel births.pdf

Bridge Chapel burials.pdf

[Tripps]

Aren't these records interesting? Thank you Wendyf. I have a lady called Nanny at the head of my list ancestors. Often wondered if this was a real name or a sort of familiar / nick name. I note that there are several women also called Nanny in these records. Does anyone know about this?
Interesting to see variations of names too. e.g. Crosdill for Croasdale.

[Wendyf]

It's interesting to see that people were coming to the chapel from quite a wide area.
Isn't Nanny a diminutive of Ann? I have one in my family tree too.

[HeatherG]

Many thanks Wendy for the Birth and Burial indexes. These are fascinating. I had not been able to discover anything further back than Betty King's birth but I now see that her parents are John and Mary and she had 10 siblings - although 2 of them did not survive.

I was also interested to see the Boothmans in the birth register. Betty King married William Silverwood Boothman. He came from Gargrave but I understand he is buried in Barnoldswick - not at the Chapel but at Gill Church. Perhaps he met up with Betty when visiting relatives in Barnoldswick. I wonder what he saw in her - she was ten years older than he was!

[HeatherG]

Apols - I see it should be Ghyll Chucrh.

[HeatherG]

Or better still Ghyll CHURCH !!!

[Wendyf]

Don't worry Heather, Ghyll seems to be spelt both ways.

[Stanley]

Heather, the old spelling of Gill is the most common in the records. 'Ghyll' crept in later and was made worse by the modern spelling being used for Ghyll Brow and the golf club. Problem is that old usages of Ghyll can be found and at one point excited much discussion on the old platform.

[HeatherG]

Thanks for this. Another spelling that threw me is of Jepp Hill - spelt Gep Hill on the 1841 census record for my ancestor.

[elise]

Jepp Hill - on the old site someone had contacted the Society of Place Names about this and they replied it is derived from the name Geoffrey.