Explore Bradley

The Christian story of Bradley is a story of different traditions, different buildings and, ultimately, Christians coming together.

For more than two centuries, Methodists and Anglicans have worshipped in the village. Wesleyans and Primitive Methodists once maintained separate chapels, while Bradley's Anglican congregation began more modestly, worshipping first in a house and later in a tin tabernacle.

Over the generations, buildings changed hands, congregations united and old denominational boundaries became less important.

Today that story continues at the Bradley Church.

Methodism comes to Bradley

Methodism has deep roots in the village.

The earliest surviving evidence of an organised Methodist presence comes from 1779, when Bradley already had two Methodist classes.

In 1815, the Wesleyans built their first chapel. As the congregation grew, it was replaced by a larger chapel in 1835.

Methodism was about much more than Sunday worship. Sunday Schools provided Christian teaching and education, music flourished, local preachers served their communities, and the chapels became important centres of village life.

Another Methodist tradition also arrived in Bradley. Primitive Methodists were active in the village by 1821 and established their own chapel in 1835.

For generations, Bradley therefore had two Methodist congregations, Wesleyan and Primitive, each with its own worship, Sunday School and traditions.

Read more: Methodism Comes to Bradley

Hillside Chapel

By the end of the nineteenth century, Bradley's Wesleyans needed a larger and better-equipped building.

Plans for a new chapel at Hillside began in 1897.

The new Hillside Wesleyan Chapel opened on 1 October 1904. Seating around 270 adults, with a schoolroom beneath, it represented the confidence of a Methodist community which had already been established in Bradley for more than a century.

The opening was celebrated with a procession from the Wesleyan Day School, special services and other events.

For more than half a century, Hillside was a centre of Methodist worship and community life.

Today, the building is better remembered by another name: St Mary’s.

Read more: Hillside, from Wesleyan Chapel to St Mary’s

The Anglican story

Bradley's Anglican congregation had a different beginning.

Rather than starting with a purpose-built church, Anglican worship began in a house church. The growing congregation subsequently acquired a tin tabernacle, which provided a more permanent home.


Eventually, however, events within Bradley Methodism would provide the Anglican congregation with an unexpected new home.

Two Methodist congregations become one

Although Wesleyan and Primitive Methodists shared a common Christian inheritance, they worshipped separately for generations.

Attempts to bring the congregations closer together took place over many years. Discussions were recorded as early as the 1920s, and during the Second World War united services were held.

In November 1958, members of the two Methodist congregations finally agreed unanimously to unite.

The united congregation chose to make its home in the Methodist chapel on Skipton Road.

Hillside Chapel was no longer required for Methodist worship.

But another Christian congregation in Bradley needed a church.

From Hillside Chapel to St Mary’s

The former Wesleyan chapel was sold to the Anglican community in 1961.

With the help of a £1,000 gift from George Marshall, the building was adapted for Anglican worship.

In March 1963, the Bishop of Bradford reopened the former Hillside Chapel as St Mary’s Church.

It was an extraordinary change in the life of the building.

A chapel constructed by Bradley's Wesleyan Methodists was now home to Bradley's Anglicans.

For more than sixty years, St Mary’s served as the Anglican church in the village.

The closing of St Mary’s

In February 2026, that chapter came to an end.

St Mary’s closed for worship at a special service led by the Rt Revd Toby Howarth, Bishop of Bradford. The Revd Mike Green, Vicar of Kildwick, Cononley and Bradley, assisted alongside two former incumbents of Cononley with Bradley, the Revd John Peet and the Revd Colin Penfold.

The service marked the end of more than 120 years of Christian worship in the Hillside building, first as a Wesleyan Methodist chapel and then as the Anglican church of St Mary’s.

But the closing of the building did not mean the end of the Anglican Christian community in Bradley.

Instead, another remarkable chapter began.

The Bradley Church

The Anglican congregation moved to the Methodist chapel on Skipton Road.

Today, Anglicans and Methodists worship there together.

We call it simply the Bradley Church.

There is something rather wonderful about the journey.

For generations, Wesleyans, Primitive Methodists and Anglicans worshipped separately in Bradley.

In 1958, Bradley's Methodist congregations came together and chose Skipton Road as their home.

The Anglicans then moved into the chapel the Wesleyans had left behind, transforming Hillside into St Mary’s.

More than sixty years later, when St Mary’s closed, the Anglican congregation moved to the very Methodist chapel which had been chosen at the time of that earlier union.

The story had come full circle.

Explore Bradley

The buildings have changed and the denominational boundaries have shifted, but Christian worship has continued in Bradley for generations.

Explore the pages below to discover more of that story:

Methodism Comes to Bradley

Discover the Wesleyan and Primitive Methodist communities which shaped village life for more than two centuries.

Hillside: From Wesleyan Chapel to St Mary’s

The story of a building which served two different Christian traditions over more than 120 years.

From House Church to Tin Tabernacle

The beginnings of Anglican worship in Bradley. (Coming soon as we continue to research this part of the story.)

The Closing of St Mary’s, 2026

The final service at St Mary’s and the end of an important chapter in Bradley's Christian history.

Two Traditions, One Bradley Church

How Anglican and Methodist Christians came to share worship and continue Bradley's Christian story together.

A continuing story

Bradley's Christian history is not simply a collection of buildings which have opened and closed.

It is the story of people.

People gathered in homes. They built chapels. They established Sunday Schools. They preached, prayed, sang and served their neighbours. They formed separate congregations and, eventually, found ways of coming together.

That story continues every time Christians gather for worship at the Bradley Church.

Different traditions. Different buildings. One continuing Christian story.