The Birth of Upton Methodist Church
"We whose names are hereunto subscribed do certify that the dwelling house of Joseph Elyott situated in Upton in the parish of Badsworth in the County of York is set apart and appropriated as a place of Religious Worship of Almighty God for those of his Majesties Protestants dissenting subjects (commonly called Methodists) and desire the same may be registered in your Court pursuant to Act of Parliament in that can be made and provided - Witness our hands 25 October 1798 - Joseph Elyott, Michael Harrison, Lancelot Harrison, George Nicholson, Benjamin (Matthews?), John Green." So reads what may well be the earliest record of a Methodist church, albeit meeting in a private house, in Upton.
As was not uncommon, the Methodist people continued to meet wherever they could find room and it was not until the 18th of June 1863 that the first chapel, standing on the opposite side of the High Street to the present one, was opened. For the next 71 years the old chapel served the needs of Methodists in Upton and neighbouring North Elmsall and Wrangbrook. These villages were in those days low wage agricultural communities with a combined population of less than 500 and yet when the chapel opened it did so free of debt; so unusual an outcome that when the accounts were first audited in February 1864 the auditor remarked. "this is the only chapel in the Pontefract Circuit built free from debt." The cost of building though now appearing trivial was very substantial then. The total came to £172 8s 6p and at first count the funds fell short of this and seven of the members needed to contribute £1 each and one other 10s to make up the the short-fall.
With the coming of the colliery in the mid 1920s and the resulting huge increase in the size of the community a decision was made to build a new chapel as a centre for the worship, work and witness of the people called Methodists in Upton. Plans were prepared by a Pontefract architect, himself a Methodist, and a stone laying ceremony to mark the start of work was held on 3rd August 1933. Sixteen stones were laid, each representing a gift of £5 or more toward the cost of the building. To better understand what £5 was worth then, the minimum wage for an agricultural labourer in 1933 working a 50 hour week was £1.50. Children of the Sunday School laid 70 bricks each representing a gift of at least 2s 6d. The minister placed a casket in the wall cavity near the main door. It contained coins of the year, a copy of the then current Pontefract Horsefair Circuit Preaching Plan, copies of The Methodist Recorder and the local newspaper and a description of the project written by him on good paper in Indian ink. One could wonder when this will next see daylight. At the time it was opened many people thought it to be one of the loveliest churches in the area. It was built to a then modern design in rustic brick. Inside, the pews for the congregation are of mahogany and the rest of the church furniture is unusually of limed oak although some of this was later stained. Much of the floor is of oak blocks. It would be reasonable to ask why was such wide use made of expensive materials at a time when money was hard to find but those were the days, before our present throw-away age, when things were bought to last.
What about the people called Methodists in Upton today. Well, like many other churches, numbers dwindled until there were not many more than a handful and the much reduced financial resources meant the building could not be kept in proper repair. But those few learned to depend more on what prayer could do and to love and care more about one another. Over the past dozen or so years the church has grown much and is now quite a large and lively family with the aim of keeping Christ Jesus at the centre of its life and worship and being a place where people are welcomed.
Over 70 years ago, at the stone laying ceremony, one of the speakers spoke about getting back to Jesus Christ as the one foundation on which to build, and about more people who would read the Bible and rule their lives according to it, and about the secret of power in the church being prayer. We would like to believe that these are our ambitions now.
Some pictures of the internal of the church and changes.
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Before choir stalls removed |
After stalls removed- musicians' area provided |
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General view before the lights were renewed |
General view after the lights were renewed
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last update: MH 21/10/08