The final service at Scar Top Chapel

 

Scar Top Chapel - 2024

 A local Chapel long associated with many generations of Bancroft families has recently closed its door for the last time for worship. Scar Top Chapel, near Oakworth, has held its last-ever service. 

 Two hundred people, from as far away as Scarborough, attended. Congregation members included Stanbury Village School pupils. 

The chapel was originally a single-storey building, constructed by farmers and farm labourers for the education of children. It was known as Scar Top Sunday School. A top storey and balcony was added in 1868. 

It was realised over a century later, in 1971, that Scar Top had never been registered as a chapel, but rather than come under the administration of the Methodist circuit, the church retained its independence. 

The original Sunday School Building at Scartop was the first chapel erected in the neighbourhood. 

It was built in 1818 by the local inhabitants, everybody taking part in the work. Farmers led the stone, the outdoor workers got the stone, masons did the building, joiners did their part, and it was erected at little cost as a ‘labour of love’.

 There is no known description of the original building at Scartop, but we know that a  piece of land, measuring 120 square yards, was purchased 4 May 1818 from a Mr Wright, yeoman, of West House, Oldfield, for six pounds, on a 9,000 years lease, with a peppercorn rent. The land was on a steep hillside, with the Haworth-Colne Turnpike road to the north 

The current Scartop Chapel, which is situated alongside Ponden Reservoir, came about when the Trustees agreed to replace the original building with a much larger two storey chapel, including a balcony, in 1868. The laying of the corner stone on February 9th 1869 was celebrated with an open air ceremony which was marred by extremely wet weather and more than 200 people retired to the nearby Ponden Mill for tea. The new school was opened in September 1869 pic new build. We are fortunate to have a photograph of the new building taken soon after its completion. 

Chapel & Ponden Reservoir under constuction

 

The area was extensively photographed during the early phase of the construction of Ponden Reservoir. The fabric of the chapel and adjacent cottages have remained largely unchanged over the past 140 years, which is testimony to the skill of the builders and their choice of good workmen and materials. 

The final service was led by minister Wendy Duckworth. She says: "The congregation, for the very last time, sang carols and hymns lustily – a sound that will never again ring out over those hilltops. "It was a sad day for many, the end of an era. "The final hymn was To God be the Glory, which had become the Scar Top anthem and was sung throughout the years – mostly at the end of services." 

 

As  the lights went out for the last time

The full story about the chapel and the Bancroft connection can be read by clicking HERE.]