Methodism Comes to Bradley 

Methodism has been part of the story of Bradley for more than two centuries.

Long before the building of Hillside Chapel, which later became St Mary’s, Methodist Christians were meeting in the village for prayer, worship and fellowship. In time, Bradley would become home to two Methodist traditions, Wesleyan and Primitive Methodist, each with its own chapel, Sunday School and distinctive place in village life.

Their story eventually led to the building of two substantial chapels and, after generations of separate worship, to the coming together of Bradley’s Methodist congregations.

The beginnings of Methodism

Methodism began during the eighteenth century as a movement of renewal within the Church of England. John Wesley and other early Methodists encouraged people to gather in small groups, or classes, for prayer, Christian teaching and mutual support.

The earliest surviving evidence of an organised Methodist presence in Bradley comes from the Keighley Circuit Register of Societies in 1779.

Bradley already had two Methodist classes.

The surviving list includes names which would continue to appear in the Methodist story of the village, among them members of the Barron, Thornton, Smith, Mawson, Duckworth and Watkinson families.

Methodism had taken root.

The first Wesleyan chapel

For several decades Bradley’s Wesleyan Methodists had no chapel of their own.

That changed in 1815.

Land was purchased for £5, and a Wesleyan chapel was built in the village. The cost was met partly through local people taking shares in the new building, demonstrating how much the chapel depended upon the commitment of ordinary members of the community.

It provided Bradley's Wesleyans with their first permanent place of worship.

But the congregation grew, and within twenty years a larger building was needed.

A new chapel in 1835

The foundation stone of a new Wesleyan chapel was laid on Good Friday 1835.

The occasion included the reading of Scripture and the singing of hymns.

The new building cost £363.

Worship in the nineteenth-century chapel would have sounded rather different from worship today. Before an organ was installed, music was provided by a small group of instrumentalists. At different times these included a violin, bass viol, flute, clarinet and serpent.

The chapel was becoming much more than somewhere to attend a Sunday service. It stood at the centre of a growing Methodist community.

Sunday School and education

Education was an important part of Methodist life.

Bradley’s Wesleyan Sunday School taught children not only about the Christian faith but also reading and writing. In an age before universal education, the Sunday School could provide opportunities which many children might otherwise have lacked.

By 1824, there were 144 quarterly subscribers supporting the school, and its library grew to contain several hundred books.

In 1848, the Sunday School committee agreed to spend money specifically on teaching scholars the alphabet, reading, spelling and Bible study.

Eventually a Wesleyan Day School developed too.

Chapel, school and village life were becoming closely connected.

The Primitive Methodists

The Wesleyans were not the only Methodists in Bradley.

Primitive Methodism emerged as a separate movement during the early nineteenth century. It shared its Wesleyan roots but developed its own distinctive tradition, with a strong emphasis on evangelism, lay preaching and outdoor camp meetings.

Primitive Methodism began in 1811, and by 1821 it had reached Bradley.

The Primitive Methodists established their own chapel in the village in 1835.

Bradley now had two Methodist communities worshipping separately.

Wesleyan and Primitive

For later generations it can seem strange that a relatively small village supported two Methodist congregations.

But the distinction mattered.

Wesleyan and Primitive Methodists belonged to separate denominations. Each developed its own chapel life, Sunday School, leaders, preachers and traditions.

Families could remain associated with one tradition for generations.

The Wesleyans worshipped in the chapel which would eventually be replaced by Hillside, while the Primitive Methodist tradition became associated with the chapel on Skipton Road.

That Skipton Road building would eventually play a particularly important part in Bradley's Christian story.

Preaching, camp meetings and hospitality

Primitive Methodism was particularly associated with taking Christian preaching beyond the walls of the chapel.

Camp meetings brought people together for outdoor worship, preaching and fellowship and were intended to reach those who might never normally attend a church or chapel.

Food and drink could become part of these gatherings too.

Indeed, Bradley's history preserves the wonderfully human detail that refreshments at Methodist gatherings could include beer, plum pudding and tarts.

The story is a reminder that the chapels were social communities as well as places of worship.

At the heart of village life

Throughout the nineteenth century, both Methodist traditions became deeply embedded in Bradley.

There were Sunday Schools and anniversary services, choirs and musical events, lectures, teas and social gatherings. Local people served as trustees, Sunday School teachers, class leaders, musicians and local preachers.

The chapels provided opportunities for education and leadership as well as worship.

Some Bradley Methodists went much further afield. Others spent decades serving the Christian community within the village.

Methodism had become part of the fabric of Bradley life.

A new century and a new chapel

By the end of the nineteenth century, the Wesleyans had outgrown their existing accommodation.

Plans for a substantial new chapel at Hillside began in 1897.

The resulting building opened on 1 October 1904. It was much larger than its predecessor, seating around 270 adults, with a schoolroom beneath and facilities for the many activities which had grown up around the congregation.

The opening was a major village occasion. A procession made its way from the Wesleyan Day School to the new chapel, led by the Superintendent Minister of the Skipton Circuit.

The new Hillside Wesleyan Chapel represented the confidence of a Methodist community which could trace its organised life in Bradley back more than a century.

The building would later become St Mary’s Anglican Church.

Moving towards union

The Wesleyan and Primitive Methodist traditions remained separate for many years.

Nationally, Methodist divisions were gradually being overcome. In 1932, several Methodist denominations united to form the Methodist Church.

In Bradley, bringing two long-established congregations together took rather longer.

Discussions about greater unity were taking place by the 1920s. Further proposals followed, and during the Second World War united services were held as an economy measure.

The two congregations increasingly shared parts of their Christian life, but deciding which chapel should become their permanent home proved difficult.

Eventually, in November 1958, members of both churches met to consider complete union.

The decision was unanimous.

One Methodist congregation

The united Methodist congregation chose to retain the Skipton Road Chapel.

Hillside, built with such confidence by the Wesleyans at the beginning of the century, was therefore no longer required as a Methodist place of worship.

But its Christian story was far from over.

The building would soon become the home of Bradley’s Anglican congregation and would serve for more than sixty years as St Mary’s Church.

Meanwhile, Methodism continued at Skipton Road.

In February 2026, when St Mary’s finally closed for worship, the Anglican congregation moved to join the Methodists there.

More than two centuries of faith

The story of Methodism in Bradley is one of ordinary people creating and sustaining Christian communities.

They met in small groups, raised money for chapels, taught children to read, preached indoors and outdoors, made music, shared food, established schools and served their neighbours.

Wesleyans and Primitive Methodists once worshipped separately. Eventually their two traditions became one.

And the chapel they chose as their shared home in the twentieth century has now become a place where Methodists and Anglicans worship alongside one another in the twenty-first.

More than two centuries after Methodism first took root in Bradley, its story continues at the Bradley Church.