17 – Old Wesleyan Chapel

On Tuesday 28 December 2010 the seventeenth Blue Plaque was unveiled by Paul Bourgeois, then owner of Glovers Garage on the old Wesleyan chapel, at the corner of Bolton Bridge Road and Skipton Road (nearby Chapel Lane is named after the building). Pictured are owner Paul Bourgeois with historian Alex Cockshott and Denise Shillitoe from the Ilkley Civic Society.

The first Methodist meetings recorded in Ilkley were held in a room over Mr Bell’s grocers’ shop which was sited on Brook Street, where the Crescent Hotel is today.  For over 50 years meetings were held there and the gatherings became named ‘t’ Ranters Chapel.  Once Mr Bell had to end an enthusiastic meeting by dashing upstairs to announce that the floor was coming away & frequently had to protest about over enthusiasm.  In 1840, although the new Wesleyan Chapel was open Messrs. Walker and others still occupied the Ranters Chapel above Sarah Bell’s house as noted in the Rateable Valuation survey for the Relief of the Poor of the Township of Ilkley conducted that year.  The house and chapel being rented from Nicholas Cunliffe, who lived in what is today The Flying Duck, 16 Church Street.

The Methodists in Ilkley had been growing for several years but it proved difficult to find a suitable site for a chapel.  Around 1833 William Bolling, the occupant of Sedbergh House (see Town Hall Complex Blue Plaque Information) and prominent Ilkley farmer, whose family farmhouse was in Wheatley, having been in dispute with the Vicar of Ilkley over some tithe rent charges, seceded from the Parish Church to become a strong supporter of Wesleyanism.  It is said William personally helped to conduct negotiations for the purchase of ground from Ellis Cunliffe Lister Kaye due to family connections.  William Bolling’s mother Mary was the sister of Nicholas Cunliffe and Ellis Cunliffe Lister Kaye was the son of John Cunliffe, Mary and Nicholas’s brother.  Ellis Cunliffe Lister Kaye (Lister / Kaye added through 2 marriages) was the builder and owner of the first Manningham Mill, living in Manningham House, Bradford.  His son Samuel went on to rebuild the Mill in 1871, after a fire, as the largest Silk factory in the world.

On 28 October 1833 Ellis Cunliffe Lister Kaye did 'bargain & sell' to Richard Margerison of Manningham, wool stapler for one year for 5 shillings & one peppercorn if demanded, ''the piece or  parcel of ground being part of the Parson Croft, situated in Ilkley, containing 186 & ½ square yards, bounded on the north by the Otley & Skipton Turnpike Road, on the south 7 east by the remainder of Parson Croft & on the west by an occupation road called Ewe Croft Lane.  Ellis Cunliffe Lister was paid £50 for the land with an undertaking that when the chapel is built, he be reserved a pew for not less than 5 sittings for his family, tenants & servants.  Richard Margerison was married to Phoebe Bolling, William Bolling’s sister.

Richard Margerison on 29 October immediately conveyed the land to 13 trustees:  Thomas Lister, the elder & Thomas Lister, the younger, both tallow chandlers; Francis Cockshott, cotton manufacturer, James Cockshott, grocer, Thomas Haigh, draper;  Francis Wall, worsted manufacturer; Anthony Bland, worsted manufacturer & Thomas Place, book-keeper, -  all of Addingham;  George Oates Greenwood, Woodhouse, gentleman,  William Bolling, gentleman;  William Whitley, musician;  William Lister, innkeeper & Edward Usher, joiner – all of Ilkley;  John Smith of Burley, grocer; & John Kendall of Middleton, farmer.  At this time Addingham was larger than Ilkley, Ilkley having only just over 100 houses and a population less than 600.  The trust deed was signed by 8 of the trustees – William Bolling, John Lister, Thomas Lister, James Cockshott, Thomas Haigh, Francis Wall, & John Kettlewell and also Ellis Cunliffe Lister.

The New Wesleyan Chapel erected in 1834, could hold 300 people and was opened on Sunday July 13th.  Sermons were preached in the morning by the Rev G Morley and in the afternoon and in the evening by Rev WM Bunting: on the following day sermons were preached by the Rev J Smith & the Rev FA West. The collections amounted to the liberal sum of £50.

The next news found is a short announcement on August 15th 1844 when on Sunday last 2 sermons were preached by E Brooke Esq of Huddersfield in the Wesleyan Chapel on behalf of the trust fund of Langbar Chapel.  The collections amounted to £8.13s.5d.

32 years later, Ilkley having greatly expanded, the chapel was found to be too small.  Eight of the 15 Trustees had died & no-one knew where Thomas Place was; and 4 others wished to be relieved of their duties.  This left only William Bolling & John Kendall.   The Charity commissioners appointed 10 new trustees so now 12 trustees could act, the new trustees being – Wm Cadman, commercial traveller;  Watson Lister, shoemaker; John Wilde, draper; all of Ilkley & Samuel Jackson, of Beamsley, shoemaker; James Lee, county road surveyor; & Wm Thornber, farmer, both of Silsden;   & Wm Simpson & John Simpson drapers; Joseph Gill, clogger & Thomas Spencer, druggist, all of Addingham.

In 1868 a bazaar for the purpose of raising funds towards the cost of erection of a proposed new Wesleyan Chapel was held and by 1869 the Andrews, Son and Pepper’s designed chapel which could seat 560 was erected on Wells Road.  (The Blue Plaque Chapel House picks up this history).

The Methodist Conference at Liverpool in June 1869 gave permission for the sale of the Old Wesleyan Land & Chapel because ''the land & chapel are no longer needed for Wesleyan Trust purposes; a more commodious Wesleyan Chapel is in the course of erection on another site at Ilkley.  In May 1870 the land & building were conveyed for £450 to Edward Holden of Baildon, wool comber, by the then nine Trustees as William Holden, William Cadman & John Simpson had 'severally departed this life.'' The signatures were witnessed by Rev Wm Harley, Wesleyan minster at Addingham.

By May 1871 the premises had been taken over by the Primitive Methodists who later moved to the Working Men’s Hall & then built a chapel on Leeds Rd in 1878.  St Margaret’s Church used it as a mission room Hall until their new hall on Regent Road was opened in 1889 (See Blue Plaque – Grove Square).  It was also used as a navy mission station and a Salvation Army meeting place.

On 1 December 1873 the ownership of the building was sold to William Smith of Skipton, plumber & glazier for £430 at Auction held at The Crescent Hotel by Messrs. Dacre & Son.  When he went into liquidation it was sold for £337 in January 1882, passing eventually by mortgage dated February 1885 to the National Provincial Bank.

The building was bought for £360 through public donations by Ilkley’s Museum Society in 1891 to accommodate the town’s first museum.  Rev.Collyer opened the Museum on one of his visits to England on August 25th 1892.

Rev. Robert Collyer was a blacksmith apprentice in Ilkley in the 1840’s, attended the chapel and became a lay preacher here.  In 1850 he emigrated to America where he became first minister-at-large of the First Unitarian Church of Chicago and later pastor of the Church of the Messiah (now renamed the Community Church) in New York City.  Rev Collyer remembered Ilkley affectionately, visiting to open this building 1892 and the new Library in 1907 (see The Town Hall Complex) where a specially designed room above the Library had been created to house the Museum.

Further information about Rev Robert Collyer’s life can be found in Mike Dixon’s book - From Anvil to Pulpit: the making of Robert Collyer or from an earlier publication The life and letters of Robert Collyer, 1823-1912

https://archive.org/details/lifelettersof01holm/page/n9/mode/2up

In 1896 the Local Board (Ilkley Urban District Council) took the Museum over with a levy rate of ½ penny in the pound.  When the Town Hall complex opened in 1908 the Board then disposed of the former Chapel, the building ceasing to be the museum and for the greater period since then has been a garage.

In 1914 Charles Thackray opened the Central Garage here, servicing automobiles until 1937 when it changed to Glover's Garage and operated as such until 2008.  During WW2 Glover’s Garage was the only garage operating in Ilkley, with the upstairs room housing machine tools to make parts for Churchill tanks.  In 2008 Nidd Vale Motors took the premises on until in 2013 it was redeveloped as Ilkley Cycles and more recently Wheelbase from 2018.

1938

1948

1975

This plaque has been sponsored by Ilkley Civic Society & Paul Bourgeois.

Ilkley Local History Hub would like to hear from people with pictures or information about the Old Wesleyan Chapel - localhistory@civicsociety.ilkley.org

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