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Methodist Circuit History

A Methodist Circuit

This is normally a group of churches served by a team of Ministers. Occasionally there are circuits with only one minister. A minister will have pastoral charge of one or more churches, but will preach and lead worship in different local churches in the Circuit, along with Local Preachers. The arrangements for leading worship in a Circuit are drawn up in a quarterly Plan which shows the movement of preachers around their area.

The circuit is led by the Superintendent Minister who presides over the Circuit staff (both lay and ordained) and the Circuit Meeting, and with lay and ordained colleagues, facilitates and encourages mission throughout the circuit. He or she is also responsible for drawing up the Plan and arranging the gathering of information about activities (e.g. baptisms, weddings, and funerals) and about membership statistics in the circuit.

The Great Horton Circuit

Throughout the years the composition of the Circuits around Great Horton has changed many times. The early churches were known as chapels. This terminology changed in 1908 when a new Model Deed was enacted that re-named it the United Methodist Church. The Shelf Churches were once part of a Halifax Circuit but when this was disbanded, they joined with the Bradford ones. On 20 September 1932 the Primitive Methodist Church and the Wesleyan one merged and Circuit membership again changed. Over the years, Circuits and constituent churches have continued to change to meet changing circumstances.

The five churches included in the record set all had burial grounds, three still exist but the other two were demolished, recently enough for there to be some records of their churchyards. There were other churches that have been part of this Circuit but are now demolished as well as Shelf Bethel, which is now independent of a Circuit.

Change continues and this Circuit is now (late 2009) disbanded with most churches becoming part of a new Bradford South one.

Bradford Family History Society have transcribed five churches within the circuit. These are:

  • Clayton Methodist Church
  • Clayton Heights Methodist Church (Dolphin)
  • Great Horton Methodist Church
  • Shelf Wade House Methodist Church
  • Shelf, Witchfield Methodist Church

Clayton Methodist Church

This Church was originally a Wesleyan Methodist one, opened in 1834. It was re-built in 1888/9. This second church was demolished in 1987 and a new building, opened a year later. Many of the gravestones have been removed from the graveyard and it has been grassed over for ease of maintenance.

The Methodists of Clayton worshipped as far away as Birstal or Shelf until 1807 when the chapel at Old Dolphin (Clayton Heights) was built.

The first Methodist Chapel in Clayton itself was built in Clayton Lane and opened on 3 June 1834. Sunday School work began at the same time but it was not until 1858 that the first Sunday School was built.

A second chapel was built in 1888 after a fire damaged the first one and the opening ceremony took place 22 May 1858. It seated 650 people and Pew rents were paid monthly. Most of the pews were taken and the occupiers cleaned their own pews. A list of Pew rents for 1836–1876 can be consulted at the Bradford Branch of the West Yorkshire Archive Service.

Some concern must have been felt by the Board of Health with regard to the Churchyard, as, 5 Feb 1872, Orders in Council forbade further burials ‘except in vaults & Walled graves openable without exposure of remains & in which coffins shall be embedded in charcoal & separately enclosed by stonework or brickwork properly cemented & Which shall not again be opened’.

In 1970 the Sunday School building was closed for modifications to make it suitable for dual-purpose use as both Sunday School and Church with the intention of demolishing this second church building. The demolition was delayed as at this point it was designated a listed building and planning permissions had to be sought. The church building is now demolished and the dual-purpose use of the old Sunday School began in 1988.

Clayton Heights Methodist Church (Dolphin)

Chapel Lane, off Highgate Road, Clayton Heights, Bradford.

The original church was built in 1805 with a loan of £600 from the Landlord of the Dolphin Inn. It opened in 1806, closed in 1979 and was converted into flats. The Sunday School, built in 1892 is now used as the Chapel as well as Sunday School and Community Hall (2010).

The Wesleyan Methodist Chapel at Dolphin in Shelf was one of the oldest in Bradford. The building was partly funded by a loan from Richard Wharton, Old Dolphin Inn, in 1807, of £600. The First Collection, when the chapel was opened on 5th April 1807 was £10.

‘At the time of its erection, Clayton Heights was a wild, bleak place with only a few cottage-houses and farmhouse in its neighbourhood. … The old chapel is well worth a visit. It is a comfortable little chapel; the Wesleyans in that district keep it in excellent condition, well painted and well looked after. … In connection with it there was built, in 1831, a new school, and it was pulled down in 1898 when new Wesleyan Schools were erected at the bottom of the chapel burial ground, the memorial stone being laid in 1892, by Mr John Tordoff, now of Manorly Hall, Buttershaw, in memory of the late Mr. Squire Tordoff, of Cockroyds Farm, North Bierley, his grandfather.’

— James Parker’s Illustrated Rambles from Hipperholme to Tong, 1904

Great Horton Methodist Church

Great Horton Road, Bradford BD7 3ER

This church was originally a Wesleyan Methodist chapel with roots going back to 1766.

A Wesleyan Sunday School and Preaching House was established at Old Todley, in Great Horton, in 1766. A chapel was built in 1814 near Hunt Yard and opened in 1815. The building was extended in 1862 to a 1000+ seater. The church building was refurbished and redesigned internally in 1924.

This is the current Grade 2 Listed building in which the Great Horton Methodist United Reformed Church now worship (2010). There is a ‘landscaped’ graveyard (recorded by Blackburn in 1929.)

According to Wm. Cudworth Rambles Round Horton, the burials from Old Todley were transferred to the new churchyard of Hunt Yard Chapel — now Great Horton Methodist Church.

An additional burial ground was made at the rear of the church, and memorials there were recorded by the Bradford Family History Society in 2007/8.

Shelf Wade House Methodist Church

This was originally a Primitive Methodist foundation and at one time was part of a Halifax Circuit before becoming part of Bradford Second Circuit.

In 1821, Missionaries from Bradford arrived in Shelf and were welcomed into the home of Moses Bottomley. A chapel was built on his land within a year. Sunday School work began in 1867. On 16 June 1887 the Third Halifax Circuit was formed. By then there were five chapels: Boothtown, Round Hill, Bank Top, New Bank, and Shelf.

The Halifax Third Circuit was disbanded in 1919 and Shelf Chapel became part of Bradford Second Circuit. The name Wade House Methodist Church was first used in 1932 to distinguish it from Witchfield Methodist Church.

Renovations took place post-WWII with a Garden of Remembrance created in 1958.

The church closed in 1973 but the building still exists (2010) and is now a Youth and Community Centre. The graveyard has been cleared but some stones remain.

Shelf, Witchfield Methodist Church

Witchfield Hill at the junction with Shelf Moor Road, next to the Cenotaph.

Formerly called Shelf Wesleyan Chapel, or Witchfield. Built in 1785. A new building in 1887, demolished in 1978.

‘The Old Wesleyan Chapel at Shelf, which was pulled down some years ago, was erected in 1785, and was opened for divine service on the 5th of November, in that year...’

— James Parker: Illustrated Rambles from Hipperholme to Tong, 1904

This burial ground is no longer used for interments. Headstones were removed prior to 1980 and the land repurposed by Calderdale Council. Part became a car park for the local medical centre, the rest developed into residential housing.

Originally part of a Halifax Circuit, it joined the Second Bradford Circuit in 1917 and formed links with Great Horton.