The Old Bell Chapel

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The Old Bell Chapel is of great historic importance, because the Reverend Patrick Bronte was the Curate there from 1815 to 1820, before he moved to Haworth….and as they say, the rest is history!

Four of Patrick’s famous children, Charlotte, Emily, Branwell and Ann were all baptised in the Old Bell Chapel during the period he was there, and the original font from the old chapel, used to baptize his children, is now on display in St James’s across the road.

 

An interesting fact is that at one of his first services at the Chapel, on 23rd July 1815, he gave a thanksgiving for the victory at the Battle of Waterloo over Napoleon.

At this time the village of Thornton had deeply divided loyalties over religion because there was a large non-conformist following in the area at the nearby Kipping Chapel in Thornton, which was thought to be the largest of the Independent or Congregational Churches in the area and had an every increasing size of congregation. In contrast Patrick’s poor little chapel was already in a dilapidated condition so he wasted no time in trying to improve things, and one of his first actions was to stop the practice of allowing burials to take place under the chapel floor. This practice had been previously allowed, for the more wealthy locals who could afford the extra charge of a few shillings, but this was causing a putrid smell to permeate the building. Someone described the interior of the chapel at the time as follows: “ The interior is blocked on the ground floor, with high backed unpainted pews. Two Galleries hid the windows almost from view and cast a gloom over the interior of the edifice. The area under the pews, and in the isles is paved with gravestones and a fedit, musty smell floats through the damp and mouldering interior”

Patrick’s plans including building a Cupola [a bell tower] and to take down the south wall to rebuild it with six new large windows. The early photograph below, shows the chapel and cupola after this work had been completed.

The Bell Chapel then fell into disrepair after the new, and much bigger St James Church was opened in 1872, and it was then left to fall down until all that remained was one wall and the original Cupola which was later rebuild at ground-level, at the other end of the chapel remains.

In 2000 an Action Group of Volunteer was set up to save what was left, and raise awareness of the history of this important site. They meet weekly to carry out maintenance of the site.