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The Swedenborgians

The building on Pasture Road, now the Children’s Centre, was formerly the New Jerusalem Church built in 1912 by the followers of Emanuel Swedenborg, a scientist, philosopher and visionary, who died in London in 1772. It replaced a much older church on the site, first built in 1833.

The ‘New Jerusalem Church’ as a separate Christian denomination was founded in 1785 based on Swedenborg’s teachings. It reached Keighley by about 1790 and they built their first chapel on King Street in 1805. From Keighley, Swedenborgianism was initially introduced to at least two Embsay families, Edward Wigglesworth and his wife Ellen of Clark House in the late 1790’s, and John Brown, who had migrated from Bingley, in 1801.

It slowly spread to other families who met for reading and prayer in the kitchens of various village houses, and then in a cottage on West Lane. At a later date they were able to hold meetings at the Union Chapel on East Lane, which they shared with the Independents, the Wesleyan Methodists, and the Primitive Methodists.

Shortly before Edward Wigglesworth’s death in 1824, he converted John Mason, a shoemaker of Embsay, who resolved that they should have their own minister to preach for them at the Union Chapel. The first minister was Rev Thomas Pilkington from Haslingden, assisted by other visiting ministers. Eventually John Mason himself became ‘Leader’ of the Embsay New Jerusalem Church.

In the late 1820’s there was increasing tension with the other groups meeting at the Union Chapel, in particular the Primitive Methodists who locked out the Swedenborgians so that they had to hold services in a barn behind the Elm Tree. This led to a determination to build their own Church.

Among the converts at this time was the family of Richard Shacklock, founder of Crown Spindle Works. Two of his daughters subsequently married two of John Mason’s brothers. From the early church records it is apparent that many of the workers at the Spindle Works were also Swedenborgians.

The first Church, built on the site of the present building, was opened in 1833, and officially registered with the Archbishop of York as a place of worship on 8^th May 1834. Amongst those listed as applying for the registration were Samuel Worrall (step-son of Richard Shacklock), Christopher Wigglesworth (son of Edward Wigglesworth), Thomas Shacklock (son of Richard Shacklock), John Mason (Leader of the Church), and his brothers Benjamin Mason (who married Mary Shacklock), and Joseph Mason (who married Agnes Shacklock), plus Stephen and Thomas Mason. Prior to 1848 the only schools in Embsay had been small, and privately run by individual tutors. The first public elementary schools in Embsay were set up in 1848, the Church of England National School, and a non-denominational school set up by the Swedenborgian’s which received much opposition from the Church of England.

In 1857 Thomas Hirst Shacklock, son of Richard, built a row of terraced houses adjacent to the ‘New Jerusalem Church’ for workers employed at Crown Spindle Works. It was named Centenary Place (now Centenary Row). The Centenary it commemorated was one of the central tenets of Emanuel Swedenborg’s teachings, that the beginning of the Last Judgement, and the second coming of Christ had already happened, which had been revealed to him in a vision in 1757. A plaque on the end cottage reads ‘Centenary Place 1857’.

By this time the New Jerusalem Church had the largest congregation of the four non-conformist groups in Embsay and Eastby: the Wesleyan Methodists, the Primitive Methodists, and the Eastby Methodists.

In 1870, “a neat and commodious school room, with accommodation for Sunday and day-schools” was built behind the old chapel. It was later given the title ‘The Embsay British School’ where the children of non-conformist families could attend, by voluntary contribution. The School House was also used for events and entertainment, and as a Mechanics Institute where talks and education classes were held. The former school still survives and is now a house.

With the growth of steam-driven cotton mills in the second half of the 19th century, there was a corresponding decline in the water-driven mills of Embsay and Eastby, and many inhabitants migrated to the cotton towns of Lancashire where Swedenborgian churches had been founded but failed. Immigrants from Embsay re-established the movement in Burnley in 1885, and built a ‘New Jerusalem Church’ in 1887 which flourished. The Mason family of Embsay also re-invigorated the New Church in Accrington.

Rev Edward Jones outside Primrose Cottage

One of more interesting ministers of the Embsay New Jerusalem Church was the Rev Edward Jones, who was also a geologist, archaeologist, and Chairman of Craven Naturalists. He was minister from 1876 to 1890 when he lived at Rockville. He was also secretary of the British School. He returned to Embsay in 1899, living at Primrose Cottage (now The Garth), where he died in 1915. Several photographs of Rev Jones survive, including one standing in the doorway of Primrose Cottage, and one laying the foundation stone of the new church on 21^st October 1911.

The new church was designed by Bradford Architect, Mr S W Douglas, and had seating for 140 people. It was constructed with the help of several men of the village, and was opened on 29^th June 1912 by Mr N H Morris of Manchester, and dedicated to Rev Edward Jones.       

Attendance declined in the years following WW2, and the last full-time minister was Rev Eustace Mongredien from 1944 to 1956. He lived at 2 Brackenley Avenue, Embsay until his death in 1961 aged 80. After 1956 it was served by minsters from other churches, latterly Rev Lionel Peter Russell-Lacy who died at the New Church Manse, Keighley in 1984. The Church eventually closed in November 1988. However, Swedenborgian Churches still survive at Keighley and Kildwick. Central to Swedenborg’s teachings was that we are all spirits, temporarily clothed in mortal flesh, and return to the spirit world after death. Gravestones of some of the Swedenborgians in St Mary’s Churchyard can be identified by their inscriptions which contain phrases such as ‘Entered the Spiritual World’, or ‘Entered the Higher Life’.

NEXT TIME: PART 4 – EASTBY METHODIST CHAPEL

David Turner, Embsay with Eastby Historical Research Group