Wainsgate Baptist Church

Old Town, Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire | Listed Grade II*

Transport

If visiting by car, take the Keighley road out of Hebden Bridge. Drive up hill to Pecket Well (approx two miles). When entering the village of Pecket Well, take the sharp right turn signed for “Old Town”. When entering Old Town (approx ½ mile from Peckett Well) turn right at the signed cross road and park cars in Old Town Mill Lane. Walk back and across th cross roads, up the un-made track for approx 300 yards and Wainsgate Baptist Church stands alongside the track in a large burial ground.

The nearest railway station is Hebden Bridge, on the Leeds–Manchester Victoria line (via Halifax and Rochdale).

There are two bus services from Hebden Bridge Station up to Old Town that stop next to the cross roads, by the chapel.
 

History and Architecture

Wainsgate owes its origins to the eighteenth-century Evangelical Revival. Its founding was heavily influenced by the preaching of the Reverend William Grimshaw, incumbent of Haworth Parish Church and a charismatic religious reformer. The first chapel was established about 1750. Dr John Fawcett DD, the revered Baptist preacher, came to Wainsgate in 1764 and is commemorated in the church. It is he who wrote the Baptist hymn, ‘The Tie That Binds’.

The handsome present building of 1859–60, is constructed of hammered stone with ashlar dressings and executed in a robust classical manner. The frontage has a bold pedimented gable end and a doorway which has panelled pilasters, a fanlight and spandrels capped by a moulded cornice. There are two tiers of round-arched windows.

The interior was furnished in the 1860s and later enhanced in the 1890s. From the earlier period remain the curved gallery and pewing, and from the later a magnificent octagonal pulpit in variously coloured marbles and alabaster with shallow reliefs designed by Anthony Welsh. The communion table dates from 1896. Its barley-twist oak communion rails are the work of J W Mitchell of Halifax. The stained glass is by the Powell Brothers of Leeds. The wagon roof and archways of the organ loft retain their original decorative treatment.

Attached to the church are extensive ancillary buildings including a former school, started in 1834, of 1890 which was adapted from the former manse. The leafy hillside burial ground contains Fawcett’s grave, marked by a listed monument of 1771, together with several World War I graves. The chapel stands high above Hebden Bridge, centre of the early Yorkshire Baptist movement, and enjoys incomparable views across Wadsworth Moor.

Repair and Regeneration

A first phase of urgent repairs to the building commenced in October 2011 and are due to be completed by Christmas 2011.  The works include re-pointing, replacement of undersized gutters and down-pipes and repair/replacement of certain first floor level windows that are in poor condition. Funding has been obtained from English Heritage and a number of other local and national charities.