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| Horkinstone Chapel....in the bleak mid winter |
This is the story of Horkinstone Baptist Chapel, built on the outskirts of Oxenhope, which has sadly long since been demolished, although the graveyard is still in existence.
I am sure several Bancroft individuals were regularly amongst the congregation here because there are at least six separate Bancroft graves on the site, all of families who lived in the Bradshaw Head and Far Oxenhope area, including Jonas & Betty Bancroft and their family, who lived in the Tancy End and Sykes areas of Far Oxenhope. Jonas occupation was a quarryman, an occupation sometimes also referred to as a ‘stone delver’ Another grave denotes what must have been a sad story of the death of four of the children of John and Harriet Bancroft, which shows their children dying at the ages of 7 months, 15 months, 19 years and then an unnamed stillborn child. John and his family lived in the Leeming area of Far Oxenhope, and carried on the business of a Greengrocer there. Thankfully at least three of their children reached adulthood. My own Great-Grandparents Timmy & Jane Bancroft also have a grave there denoting the death of their firstborn child Fred, who died as an infant in 1871. At the time they were tenant farmers, living at nearby Dole Farm, Bradshaw Head.
On 25th April 1836 it was reported that a Baptist ‘Sabbath School’ had commenced in the hamlet of Horkinstone, Leeming, Oxenhope, with 124 scholars enrolling on the first day. The construction of the new school began a month later, to be completed in 1837, with a small burial ground adjacent. Records show that a ‘church’ was formed in 1849, with the building then able to be used for formal services. In 1863 a new day School was built further down Denholme Road at Leeming with the support of the British and Foreign School Society. The school was let to the Haworth School Board in 1879, sold to them in 1910 and at some stage was taken over by the Keighley Education authority. A local newspaper article from 1890 mentions the new organ at Horkinstone Chapel and who donated to buy it.
Opening of a new Organ – A new organ has been erected in the Horkinstone Baptist Chapel was opened on Saturday by a recital and vocal concert. The new instrument is an outcome of the effort instituted at the beginning of the year, with the object of not only of providing an organ, but also paying off a debt of about £190 for paying off the Sunday School, which was erected in 1863, and renovating the chapel. The entire scheme involved an outlay of £300. The expense connected with the following contributions:- £50; Mr Abel Kershaw £50; Mrs Wm Crabtree £20 and Mr Jos Crabtree £20. The instrument has been built by Messrs Driver & Haigh of Drewton Street, Bradford. The organ which consists of nearly 1200 pipes, is sufficiently powerful in tone for a much larger building, and its arrangement allows for arrangement and combination, the organist has his command a good range of solo stops of brilliancy and beauty. The first public performance on the new organ was given by Mr William Wilson of Warrington [formally of Keighley] whose programme included the choicest works of music for the organ. The programme was shared by Mrs Wilson of Warrington, who sang with much taste and acceptance Cowen's “The better land” and “The lost cord” She was loudly and deservedly applauded for her chaste rendering of the latter. Mr Fred Cockroft also sang two pieces including Gounode's “ Nazareth” Under Mr Crabtree's baton was ranged a fine and balanced chorus of some fifty voices, including over thirty Thornton friends, who rendered gratuitous service. Their contribution's included “ Sing unto God” “Worthy is the lamb” “ Let their celestial Chords”, and the “ Hallelujah Chorus”
The modest Horkinstone Baptist Chapel at Oxenhope could muster this impressive choir, photographed in 1906. Choirmaster Amos Dewhirst sits baton in hand, with organist Victor Sunderland on the left. Amos Dewhirst, being a newsagent and stationer, could order his choir music through his own shop, his records revealing that in 1906 he bought 26 copies of “Shepherd of Souls”, “They Shall Mount Up and Stand Up”, with “On the Banks of Allan Water” and “Ye Mariners of England” for secular relief, the latter, with only 13 copies, being sung by men only. A choir like this occupied a wider sphere than its Sunday services, for chapel formed the centre of its worshippers’ social life. Public teas and Saturday-night concerts were as important as Sunday School anniversaries and missionary Sundays. For some years the Horkinstone Baptist Chapel choir took part in great non-conformist festivals in London, a demanding experience which necessitated leaving Oxenhope on a Friday night and getting back early on a Sunday morning.
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| Horkinstone Choir 1906 |
The Horkinstone chapel building was declared unsafe in 1924 and the last service was held on 15th May 1927. It would be interesting to know what happened to the chapel's organ as it was only thirty odd years old.
A new chapel was opened on 21st May 1927 further down Denholme Road under the name of Oxenhope Baptist Chapel. The cost of the new chapel including furnishings was circa £3,600. The Keighley News report of the chapel centenary on 25th April 1936 says that the old chapel was demolished about ten years previously and that some of the stone was used in building the new chapel and school.
The building closed as a school in 1957 but was bought by the Sawood Methodists to be used as a chapel and Sunday School. The Methodist Society disbanded in 1997 and the building is now a private residence.
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| Oxenhope 'New ' Chapel |
Below is a ceremonial trowel used for the opening of the new chapel.
Horkinstone Baptist Burial Ground remained in use until the early 1950s and is situated on the left of Denholme Road at the junction with Blackmoor Road. The burial ground lies in open countryside near to two farms and three cottages.
For the Centenary of Sunday Schools’ celebrations in 1880 Horkinstone Baptist Sunday School is listed as having 120 scholars and 30 teachers, giving some indication of the population and community that it once served.
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| Horkinstone Graveyard |
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